Pawlenty squirms, finally concedes Dem plan won’t create ‘death panels’

Gov. Tim Pawlenty continues to position himself as a Republican spokesman on health care issues. Yesterday he was on Fox News with Neil Cavuto; today it was MSNBC’s Morning Joe. But this morning’s session proved a bit uncomfortable for Pawlenty.

When host Joe Scarborough attempted to pin down T-Paw on whether the bills being considered by Congress contain any provisions for so-called death panels, he initially equivocated and suggested that the federal government would begin rationing health care within a decade.

“What if it becomes so expensive, and the trajectory of it is even close to what’s being predicted 10 years out, that they can no longer afford what they promised, and somebody has to scale back care, and the federal government is now empowered to do that,” Pawlenty said. “You look at examples around the world where that takes place, there are concerns about care being cut back by a federal government institution.”

In fact, the Republican squirmed so awkwardly that The Hill’s takeaway from the interview was that Pawlenty failed to disavow the bogus death panel rumors. But when further pressed by Scarborough (and then Mike Barnicle), Pawlenty finally conceded that such panels are pure fiction.

“Does the bill say there’s death panels? No,” Pawlenty said. “Does the bill say that somebody’s actually going to say you have to live or die? No. But the indirect concerns that I’m raising and others have raised are not irrational.”

Here’s the clip: