Politics

Santorum: Not Sure GOP Cares About Poor People [VIDEO]

Rachel Stoltzfoos Staff Reporter
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Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said Monday he’s not convinced the GOP cares about poor people as much as Democrats do.

“People ask me, ‘Do Republicans care as much about the poor as Democrats do?'” Santorum said at a New York meeting of conservatives. “I’m not sure we do. I’m not sure we do. And the reason I’m not sure we do, is because I don’t hear us talking about them very often.”

The remarks came during the Q-and-A portion of the event, where Santorum was promoting his new book, “Blue Collar Conservatives.” He was asked whether he supports the earned income tax credit, a wage subsidy for low-income Americans, which some conservatives proposed as an alternative to raising the minimum wage.

He said it’s a good idea, and that more should be done to reward work. “We need to talk about the importance of work,” he said. “We need to contrast it with all of the programs, not just Obamacare, but a whole bunch of other programs [that disincentivize work]. … Every single means tested entitlement program works that way. Every one of them.”

The government’s responsible for trapping people in welfare, but conservatives don’t talk about it, he added. “If you really cared, you’d talk about the problems they have.”

Santorum won the Iowa caucuses in the 2012 presidential race, and may run again in 2016.

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