Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Thursday he would sign Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan into law if he were president, a question he had previously sidestepped in the opening days of his campaign.
Pawlenty told reporters in New Hampshire he'd still prefer his own Medicare plan — which he says will differ from Ryan's — but that he would ultimately sign the Ryan plan.
"If I can't have my own plan — as president, I'll have my own plan – if I can't have that, and the bill came to my desk and I had to choose between signing or not Congressman Ryan's plan, of course I would sign it," Pawlenty said.
Ryan's budget plan has come under fire from Democrats in recent weeks for its Medicare provisions, and the issue helped Democrat Kathy Hochul's win an upstate New York House special election on Tuesday.
Newt Gingrich alluded to the Ryan plan as "right-wing social engineering" in the opening days of his presidential campaign, though he has since backpedaled from those remarks.
Pawlenty said in Washington Wednesday that the Ryan plan moved Medicare in a positive direction, but Pawlenty stopped short of saying he'd sign the bill.
Democrats were quick to attack Pawlenty Thursday, as the Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz put out a statement saying Pawlenty embraced "far-right Republican policies."
