Santorum: Romneycare a 'Real Scarlet Letter'

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said Sunday that Mitt Romney's backing for "Romneycare," the Masschusetts healthcare plan that was a model for Obamacare, should disqualify him from being the GOP nominee for president.

Santorum, who like other conservatives is chasing Romney heading into Saturday's primary in South Carolina, said Romney instituted a health plan in his state that has been "a disaster."

By nominating Romney, Republicans would be forfeiting the issue of Obama's healthcare plan during the campaign, Santorum said, and that would constitute political "malpractice."

Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Santorum said the vote of support from a group of evangelical leaders Saturday proves his ability to stand up to front-runner Mitt Romney once the field narrows.

“We need to get this eventually down to a conservative alternative to Mitt Romney when we finally get matched up,” he said. “We match up very well and are ahead of Gov. Romney in almost every one of those state polls. We feel like once this field narrows, and we get it down to a two-person race, we have an excellent opportunity to win this race.”

Santorum said Romney’s economic and healthcare plans disqualify him as a conservative candidate.

“Romneycare is a real scarlet letter here,” he said. “We can’t have a nominee that takes away the most important issue in this election, which is an explosion of the federal government and robbing of people’s freedom on the federal level with Obamacare.”