Pawlenty rips Romney's health plan; other GOP candidates get ready to rumble

In advance of Monday night's GOP presidential contenders' debate, news outlets covered candidates ramping up the rhetoric on health care.

Politico: "Tim Pawlenty on Sunday foreshadowed a sharpening of his attack on his top rival for the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney ... 'President Obama said that he designed Obamacare after Romneycare and basically made it Obamneycare,' Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor, said during an interview on 'Fox News Sunday.'  ... The health care overhaul is deeply unpopular with the Republican base, which has embraced claims that the law's mandate that individuals maintain health insurance is unconstitutional, making Romney's enactment of a measure in Massachusetts that also mandates health insurance a major political liability (Vogel, 6/12).

The Associated Press: "Mitt Romney's political backyard is the most promising terrain in his second bid for the Republican presidential nomination. It's also the most perilous. ... Voters know a lot about Romney's health care program for Massachusetts, which included mandatory insurance coverage similar to President Barack Obama's federal requirement that many conservatives detest. ... Romney's work in Massachusetts 'helped lay the foundation' for last year's health overhaul 'and we will strongly defend both plans from attack,' said Eddie Vale, a spokesman for Democrats' campaign to promote the law (Elliott, 6/12).

National Journal: "[Rick] Santorum, the newest official entrant into the Republican race for president, wasn't making it up when he touted his conservative credentials Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press. ... Santorum said Sunday that the government does a poor job of controlling the costs of the massive health care program. (He echoes Health and Human Services officials during the Bush administration, who were fond of saying that Medicare is 'a big dumb payer.') The private sector, not the government, should be controlling those costs, he said" (Johnson, 6/12).

The Hill: "Former Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman said President Obama has 'failed on the economic front,' in some of his most direct criticism of his former boss since he began exploring a bid for the Republican presidential nomination. ... He avoided direct criticism of his potential GOP rivals beyond noting, as he has before, that the healthcare bill he signed in Utah contained no mandates, unlike the one Mitt Romney, the current Republican front-runner, signed as governor in Massachusetts." He spoke on CNN's "State of the Union" (Berman, 6/12).

Meanwhile, The Boston Globe report that "many observers see no action on Medicare until after the 2012 elections.  Afterward, the most likely fix is some sort of hard-fought compromise that includes benefit cuts, such as increasing the age for eligibility, now 65; some private insurance options; and payroll tax increases. Any compromise would likely involve spending cuts, which would lower reimbursements for health care providers. Even if Congress fashions such a compromise, fundamental changes in how health care is delivered and how providers are paid will be needed to bring Medicare spending under control, economists said" (Fitzgerald, 6/12).