At the Minnesota State Fair Tuesday, Gov. Tim Pawlenty made a plea for "a standard consistent approach" when dealing with federal health care money.

But in a Fox News interview Wednesday the Republican governor struck a more aggressive tone to describe his executive order limiting Minnesota's take from the federal health overhaul act.

"(The) federal government's acting increasingly like a financial drug dealer, handing out tastes or free samples, trying to get people addicted, further addicted. And we've just had it and we're not taking the bait anymore. We're not taking the free samples anymore. This is an executive order that says we're sending them a strong message," the governor said in an interview with Fox's Greta Van Susteren.

In the Fox interview, he also suggested direct hand-outs to the "disadvantaged."

"If disadvantaged people need a little assistance, Greta, to the extent we can afford it, we should give it to them. But it should go to them directly. We shouldn't have it flow through big bureaucracies," Pawlenty said. He did not explain how that would work for health care cash but has been a backer of health savings accounts and tax credits for health care in the past.

As he has before, the governor, who is eyeing a 2012 run for president, said his executive order had little to do with his potential political ambitions. Further, he said, he didn't know his national fundraising committee would work to raise money off of his executive order.

Pawlenty on Fox News Wednesday

"I wasn't aware that they had done that, but we didn't decide this for any political purposes. We decided it in my official office for policy reasons, and it's consistent with the kinds of beliefs I've had for 20 years," he said.

He also shrugged off criticism his national travel, which a new poll says isn't popular with Minnesota voters, "I don't expect people would like the fact that I'm trying to get around the country and influence the elections in 2010, but I think it's important work."

Here's the clip of the interview: