Former Minnesota governor and presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty believes that if the debt ceiling is not raised, the United States should give top priority to paying its "outside creditors," which he appears to believe would prevent the nation from actually going into default. Second to paying the central banks of China and Japan, he would place funding for the military, with payments and services for ordinary Americans at the very end of the line.
"You have to to take away the the false choice between a default to outside creditors and raising the debt ceiling or doing it incorrectly or unwisely," Pawlenty stated during an interview to be aired this weekend on Bloomberg Television.
Pawlenty has recently been attempting to turn the possibility of not raising the debt ceiling into his signature issue. He told CNBC's Larry Kudlow that he's been saying to other Republicans, "Don’t do it unless you get something really good for it."
Pawlenty spoke to Iowa voters earlier this month in even stronger terms, saying, “I hope and pray and believe they should not raise the debt ceiling. These historic, dramatic moments where you can draw a line in the sand and force politicians to actually do something bold and courageous are important moments.”
The New York Times, in reporting on these remarks by Pawlenty and other GOP presidential candidates, notes that this kind of criticism of Congressional Republicans could be complicating their attempts to reach an agreement with the White House on raising the debt limit.
