The Hill News

Likely GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty on Wednesday urged lawmakers to reject the budget deal designed to avert a government shutdown. 

Pawlenty, who presided over a state shutdown as governor of Minnesota, said that the bipartisan deal that would cut $39.9 billion in spending from this year's budget does not make enough reductions.

{mosads}"President Obama's lack of seriousness on deficit reduction is crystal clear when you look at the budget deal he insisted on to avoid a government shutdown," he said in a statement. "It's no surprise that President Obama and [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid [D-Nev.] forced this budget, but it should be rejected. America deserves better."

Pawlenty is one of the few candidates in the field of GOP candidates to outright reject the spending agreement, brokered last week by Obama, Reid and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). 

"The more we learn about the budget deal the worse it looks. Whe! n you consider that the federal deficit in February alone was over $222 billion, to have actual cuts less than the $38 billion originally advertised is just not serious," he said.

Boehner has defended the deal, saying that it was "as good a deal as we could get."

The House is expected to take up the budget deal on Thursday, one day before the government is set to run out of funds. Conservative and liberal lawmakers in both chambers have said they will vote against the deal, but House GOP leaders have predicted it will pass. 

Pawlenty's position puts him at odds with Boehner, who became Speaker earlier this year after the GOP rode a wave of Tea Party support into the majority in the 2010 elections.

His stance aligns him with conservative Tea Party activists, many of whom have expressed reservations about the deal. 

Pawlenty also alluded to reports that the legislation actually cuts less than the stated amount.

"The fact that billions of dollars advertised as cuts were not sche! duled to be spent in any case makes this budget wholly unacceptable," he said.