Pawlenty echoes Bachmann on debt ceiling

WASHINGTON - Echoing Minnesota's other Republican presidential candidate, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty questioned whether a failure to raise the national borrowing limit would lead to a default.

Pawlenty made his remarks at a Friday luncheon hosted by Bloomberg View. MPR News has requested audio or video from the event but multiple attendees have written about the candidate's remarks.

According to Josh Marshall, publisher of the web site Talking Points Memo, when asked whether a default would have negative economic repercussions, Pawlenty reportedly said, "Maybe not ... We don't know."

His remarks echo those Bachmann made Wednesday at a Capitol Hill press conference. She said then, "it is simply not true," that failing to raise the debt ceiling would lead to a default.

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As federal budget expert Stan Collender explained to MPR News yesterday, the consequences of missing the Aug. 2 deadline to raise the debt limit would make the 2008 financial crisis, "look like child's play."

Pawlenty even went a step further than Bachmann's comments in his talk at the Bloomberg View event. When pressed by participants, the former governor reportedly said he would prefer a default to any increase in government revenue.

He was also quoted by Bloomberg News as saying that in the event of a default, outside creditors, including foreigners, should be repaid first, followed by the military.

Pawlenty condemned a compromise put forward by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, that would allow a debt ceiling increase, calling it a "Band-Aid on a broken bone," according to Bloomberg.