CLEVELAND — Republican presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty says President Barack Obama is afraid to address the nation’s spending problem and that voters need to “kick him out of office.”

Pawlenty told a group of Republicans on Wednesday at a dinner in northeast Ohio that the country needs to “restore American prosperity” and that the notion of an “all-you-can-eat buffet” in government spending must end.

The conservative former Minnesota governor announced last week that he was forming an exploratory committee for a 2012 White House bid. The announcement almost certainly will lead to a full-blown candidacy for the GOP nomination in a field that has been slow to form.

Pawlenty also criticized Obama’s health care overhaul, calling it “one of the worst pieces of legislation in the modern history of America.”