Just four days after his razor-thin loss in the Iowa caucuses, Rick Santorum on Saturday promoted his plan for addressing inequality and denounced the "hubris" and "snobbery" of President Obama for what he said was the suggestion that all Americans should go to college.
Whether Obama said that is ambiguous. The president has said that America should be "graduating students who are ready for college and a career" which is a bold statement suggesting they should be qualified to attend college but not that they should necessarily go.
The statement is one of many that Santorum made about inequality, an issue that has gotten relatively little attention during the Republican presidential campaign. "We need to look at more than growth," Santorum said in Manchester, N.H., noting that he wanted to create an economy that helps those left behind.
He touted deregulation and tax credits for certain manufacturers and chided the Obama administration for doing nothing to promote marriage although the Obama administration has continued many of the fatherhood and family promotion initiatives begun under President George W. Bush. For instance, the Department of Health and Human Services is authorized to issue $150 million in Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood grants in FY 2012
Santorum took a shot at Mitt Romney, saying his background as a management consultant was inadequate for the White House. "We don't need a manager...We don't need someone -- I don't want to say push paper...We need someone is going to take on the big things.
The former Pennsylvania senator made his remarks at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College at a forum, "The Economy and the Electorate: A New Hampshire Primary Primary Heartland Briefing", sponsored by National Journal and The Atlantic. The forum reviewed the findings of the Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll which found deep distrust of institutions, public and private, among Americans. National Journal Editorial Director Ron Brownstein describes the feeling as "paddling alone" in National Journal.
"We create private-sector jobs by helping the private sector be successful …putting something directly in someone’s pocket is not going to create manufacturing jobs. That isn’t going to make the local steel manufacturer or fabricator more competitive," Santorum said in response to a question from National Journal Editor-in-Chief Ron Fournier.
Santorum echoed other Republican candidates condemning the National Labor Relations Board for its decisions against Boeing Co. over locating manufacturing jobs. He came out against so-called domestic content legislation requiring that a certain percentage of parts be produced in America -- the kind of "domestic content" proposals that were popular in the 1980s and which the Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll shows are back in fashion. He also denounced the auto bailout, saying "all it did was pay off a special interest" -- unions -- "because they're big buddies with Barack Obama."
Santorum tried to strike a middle ground on trade noting that he had opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement but was not a Pat Buchanan-style protectionist and said he did not think dealing with China's "currency manipulation" was "worth a trade war." He avoided taking a position on net neutrality, but said that government should be a "referee" that "doesn't disrupt the marketplace."
Naureen Khan contributed
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