SAN DIEGO -- At a Republican gathering in San Diego Thursday, a Republican governor bashed President Barack Obama's healthcare proposal.

Kicking off a three-day summer meeting of the Republican National Committee, Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn., who is considered a GOP presidential prospect in 2012, said the president's healthcare plan won't work because you can't control costs by spending more money.

He said Obama's proposal to create a "government option" to compete with private insurance companies would set a bad precedent, although Medicaid and Medicare are already government-funded programs that compete with private insurance.

"We need to fight that," Pawlenty said.

Instead, he said the GOP needs to support healthcare reform that limits lawsuits, toughens standards for medical malpractice claims, allows for the portability of insurance from one job to another, changes the focus from the numbers of procedures to better outcomes, and improves treatment of chronic illnesses.

Americans are beginning to realize the president is "wrong, wrong, wrong" on the issues, Pawlenty said.

He also said the party needs to return to their traditional values if they want to rebound from recent electoral losses and avoid becoming the "critics-in-chief."

The party has dropped in popularity, but Pawlenty said it's time to "move forward with confidence" because Republicans have the right ideas.

The governor listed those ideas as limited and effective government, growing private enterprise, freedom and liberty, and finding "real community" in families, neighborhoods and places of worship.

"We need to know what we believe and why we believe it, and then communicate, educate and motivate," Pawlenty said.

Pawlenty is in his second term as governor and has announced he will not seek re-election next year. He was recently made vice chair of the Republican Governors Association, where he will direct funding to 39 gubernatorial candidates this year and next.

National Republican Chairman Michael Steele said GOP governors are "our laboratory," and that Pawlenty is reform-minded and innovative.