Santorum Singles Out Black People as Dependent on Government

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Rick Santorum added a twist to the Republican argument that President Obama wants to make people more dependent on the federal government. He singled out blacks as people whose lives he would improve without using "somebody else's money."

The comment came Sunday in response to a man’s question about foreign influence on the U.S. economy. "How do we get off this crazy train? We've got so much foreign influence in this country now," the man said. "Where do we go from here?"

In a lengthy answer, Santorum talked about reviving U.S. manufacturing and then pivoted to the government-dependency theme.

"What President Obama wants to do, his economic plan is to make more people dependent upon government. To grow the government, to make sure we have more food stamps, and more SSI, and more Medicaid. Four in 10 children are now on government-provided health care. It just keeps expanding," Santorum said.

He talked about how Iowa is going to get fined if more people don’t sign up for Medicaid and then said, "They're pushing harder and harder to get more and more of you dependent upon them so they can get your vote. That's what the bottom line is. So I don't want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else's money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money and provide for themselves and their families."