Former U.S. senator and Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is urging his former colleagues in Congress to stand firm in budget and debt ceiling negotiations.
"They've suffered all the hits they're going to suffer for 'shutting down the government' or 'creating the default,'" Santorum said Tuesday
on Fox News Channel's "Your World."
"The polls are as bad as they're going to get," Santorum said. "I think capitulation at this point would actually show to the American public that they were on the wrong side of this argument. I don't think they're on the wrong side of this argument."
Republicans are not asking for anything radical or extreme, Santorum said.
"What they're asking for here is fairly minimal compared to what was on the table just a couple of months ago," he said.
Republicans should stop being cowed by the rhetoric of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who have been calling tea party Republicans extremists, Santorum said.
"We should stand up and fight them," he said.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.