Former Pennsylvania Sen. and presidential candidate Rick Santorum is banking that his message of hope, and a plan to help working-class Americans return to a stable existence, is what will resonate with voters, he said Friday on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe."
"There is no one fighting for working men and women in the country," Santorum said.
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"The people you had on today talk about small business. I think small business is the engine to drive things. But just saying a rising tide lifts all boats, everybody is going to be fine — everybody isn't fine because millions of Americans have holes in their boats. We have to make sure we have an economy working for everybody."
He cited his "20-20 perfect vision for America" that promotes a "fair flat tax" of 20 percent, something Santorum said would lay the foundation to "create opportunities for people to rise," particularly for the "74 percent of Americans who don't have a college degree who are not doing well in the economy, are seeing wages flat line."
He cited the decline in American manufacturing jobs as the key to reinvigorating the economy.
"Ask the people in Ohio and Pennsylvania and across the industrial belt of this country if we have an economy that is generating jobs, that are going to provide for families in manufacturing," Santorum said. "We are not. We are not competitive.
"I put forth a comprehensive plan on how to get manufacturing back to this country and that is the message we can take to working men and women, and saying we are going to grow the economy but we are going to grow the economy so you can do well. No other Republican is talking about it."
The dearth of discussion on the impact of immigration, as opposed to border control and the like, is troubling, according to Santorum,
"Donald Trump saying we are going to be tough at the border," he said. "Every Republican is going to be tough at the border. Even Jeb Bush will be tough at the border. The question is, will you be tough here at home to take care of American workers?
'There is nobody calling for reduction in the amount of immigrants. We have had 35 million immigrants come in the country. More than any 20-year period in history. Almost all are unskilled workers coming in and holding wages down. No one has called for a reduction except me, and I have done it in a targeted way."
A strict social conservative, Santorum also said that stripping Planned Parenthood of the $500 million it receives annually from the federal government is an issue Republicans need to take stand on.
"Should Republicans say we are not going to allow our taxpayer dollars to go to an organization who does such callous and barbaric things to little children? You absolutely should."
Santorum was unhappy, he said, about the decision to relegate to a "happy hour debate" the candidates polling toward the bottom so early in the race, but that he was pleased with the performance of all who participated in it on Thursday.
"I think if you saw anything from last night, the 'happy hour debate' was a substantive debate, really good people, and there should have been room for everybody," he said. "The idea that the party would see that as a problem, and try to limit certain people and separate people out, and try to create two tiers I think is a mistake."
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