The Hill News

Former Obama White House adviser David Axelrod this week slammed GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty's economic plan, saying it echoes failed Bush administration policies. 

Axelrod, who is expected to serve in a senior role on Obama's 2012 reelection campaign, riffed off Pawlenty's claim that if private enterprise provides a service that's searchable on Google, than the government should not offer it as well.

{mosads}"What he should Google is 'job growth for the last decade,'" Axelrod said in an interview with the Huffington Post. "What he should Google is 'what happened to income for the last decade,' when in many ways the policies that he prescribed were the governing theory."

Even though Democrats have made similar attacks against the former Minnesota governor's plan, Axelrod's jab is one of the most direct from a member of Obama's team.

A Pawlenty spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Obama's allies are looking to push back on Republicans who have hammered the president on the economy, an issue expected to dominate the 2012 campaign. A slew of polling data was released this week that show Obama's numbers suffering when it comes to his handling of economic issues, indicating that he could be vulnerable to attacks.

Axelrod's comments also suggest that Democrats are treating Pawlenty seriously as a contender for the Republican nomination, since he singled him out for criticis! m.

Axelrod ripped Pawlenty's handling of budgetar! y issues during his two terms as governor, saying he used budget gimmicks that left the state in the red. Pawlenty's advisers have previously rejected that claim as false.

"He should also Google 'budget deficits in the state of Minnesota.' And what he’ll find is, when he left, he left a projected deficit of $6.2 billion, which doesn’t exactly qualify him as an expert on fiscal responsibility," Axelrod said.