Dems, media chalk Pawlenty HCR order up to prez ambitions

Reactions are coming in about the executive order Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed today directing state agencies to refuse “discretionary participation” in the federal health care reform law signed by President Obama this spring. While the press release on the order (which used the term “Obamacare” four times) came not from Pawlenty’s PAC or campaign but the governor’s office, early reactions — from local and national Democrats, plus TIME magazine — chalk the move up to Pawlenty’s presidential ambitions.

On Twitter, state Rep. Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, said Pawlenty is “flirting with the extreme right” by signing the order, which she says hampers “needed reforms” and will be “costing MN jobs.”

Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee issued a statement with a serious point — followed by its own jokey translation of the order. DNC National Press Secretary Hari Sevugan:

“After rejecting $7.8 billion dollars for his cash-strapped state where taxpayers are struggling to make ends meet and denying health care to a quarter million of his fellow Minnesotans, Tim Pawlenty’s executive order to state employees might as well have read ‘You will henceforth work for my Presidential ambitions instead of the people of Minnesota.’”

The DNC’s version of the order:

A Translated Version of what the Pawlenty executive order actually means:

EXECUTIVE ORDER 10-12

DIRECTING STATE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES REGARDING DISCRETIONARY PARTICIPATION  IN THE FEDERAL HEALTH CARE LAW

I, TIM PAWLENTY, GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and applicable laws do hereby issue this executive order:

WHEREAS, my Presidential ambitions are of paramount importance,

WHEREAS, I am polling at 1% in Iowa despite spending more time there than most Minnesota counties this year,

WHEREAS, the Republican party has been taken over by the Tea Party and only those politicians who position themselves as ideologically pure servants of the far right can emerge from Republican-Tea Party primaries,

NOW, THEREFORE, I hereby order that:

All state employees will work for my Presidential campaign and not the people of Minnesota including by

• Rejecting $7.8 billion despite the looming deficits facing the state
• Denying 250,000 of the most vulnerable Minnesotans health care when they need it most

IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have set my hand this 31st day of August, 2010.

/s Governor Tim Pawlenty (R-Iowa)

TIME Magazine also casts the move as a political maneuver. Kate Pickert writes, “I might be a little less skeptical of Pawlenty’s motives if not for one glaring fact. He’s not running for re-election and will be out of office in January, meaning his successor could overturn this executive order with the stroke of a pen.”

She also looks at a possible unintended result of Pawlenty’s gesture — more government oversight:

Broadly, it means that federal government could have more power over them than without the executive order. See, despite how vehemently health reform opponents insist the new law in unconstitutional and will be “defunded” if and when Republicans gain control of Congress, the law is the law. And pieces of the law that the states decide not to implement will still be implemented – just by the federal government.