Santorum press secretary 'misspeaks' about Obama's policies

>> more on in, i'm joined by alice stewart , national press secretary for the santorum campaign. alice, great to see you, thanks for coming on. i know the candidate is talking about the economy and he is in michigan and you had a big debate with mitt romney about the auto bailout and the like. you have to acknowledge that the media is looking at santorum as he is now the front-runner. let's me play more of robert gibbs and the obama campaign 's response yesterday.

>> it's just time to get rid of the mind set in our poll particulars that if we disagree, we have to question character and faith.

>> the question is, when rick santorum disagrees with the president profound approximately, why make it an issue of values and an issue of theology, why not just say we disagree with economics and taxes?

>> certainly, rick has said it and we all said it before. robert gibbs took it out of context. he was not questioning the president peace character or religion. as he has clarified, he is talking about the global warmists of the country, he was referring to the president's policies in terms of the radical islamic policies that the president has specifically in terms of energy skplorgz explore explorati explorations. keystone pipeline is case in point. it is key to helping with gas prices and job creation , he will see as the prices begin to rise, his popularity will go down with it. the keystone pipeline is a case in point that is directly attributed to that statement. and the president's policies are outlined as not working in rick santorum 's op-ed. he presented the plan about jobs and economy. it's about bottom up, free markets , and it will turn around the economy.

>> when rick santorum , instead of talking about the keystone pipeline and environmental policy , when he talks about theology and values, and the president's theology, it does seem that he is going after the president on religious grounds.

>> he was talking about the environmental extremists, is a type of theology. that is what he was referring to in the broader context of energy exploration, it's a bigger picture that he was trying paint and specifically that message is resonating in michigan. as i said and you said, he is doing well in the polls and well in ohio, he is closing the gap in georgia and arizona, he is leading in the national poll approximats, because he is talking about what the american people want to talk b creating jobs and turning around the economy. and creating an environment that will --

>> another issue is public schools . public education . we know that he has chosen to home school his kids. but listen to what he had to say about public schools .

>> where did they come up with public education was the rule in america? the idea that the federal government should be running schools frankly much less that the state government should be running schools, is anachronist anachronistic.

>> now the state government and state and local governments have, you know, long had the role, the chief roll in educating most kids. public education is a long standing tradition in the united states . is it -- why would he reopen that debate?

>> well, he personally has views of how to educate his children but in terms of the government's role in education, he believes it should be done at a local level. does he not believe the state or federal government should have a role in educating the children. that was his point. he believes in less federal government intervention in our lives and that is why he will governor as president of the united states . we have too much big government and he is trying reduce the size of federal government , and that in turn will help reduce spending. and that will go a long way to help reducing the debt and deficit that we have in this country, according to cbo, obama's policies will have us reaching a trillion in debt and deficit by the end of the year. and not only that, with the increased debt and deficit, it's terrible for the economy, it creates no certainty to create jobs and the cbo said unemployment at 9% at the end of the year. santorum wants to reduce the size of government and education is a big part of that.

>> another issue that he is brought up is prenatal testing . this is what he had to say about insurance coverage for prenatal testing .

>> they require free prenatal testing in every insurance policy in america. why? because it saves money. why? because free prenate hal testing ends up in more abortions and therefore less care that has to be done because we cull the ranks of the disabled in our society. the bottom line is that a lot of prenatal tests are done to identify deformities and the procedure is to encourage abortions. prenatal testing results more often than not in this country in abortion.

>> there were a lot of reasons for prenatal testing . it's a given, a major advance in women's health care . does rick santorum believe that because it does lead to abortions in some cases and we do not know what the data are, because it's hard to come up with those numbers, does he believe that that should not be provided in insurance?

>> he has been out spoken on this issue. he made it clear. andrea, as you know, he had a personal story in connection with that with a daughter that was born and died shortly birth. sew has a personal connection. he does not believe in it. he believes it leads to doctors encouraging someone to abort a child and he is pro life . he is pro life from conception to natural death ands in a very important point that he feels is important for him to put his foot down on. he is life, pro life and this is an important point.

>> there are many anti-abortion candidates in both political parties that still believe that prenatal testing is an important advance. often to save the life of the mother of the woman.

>> well, as i said, he feels strongly about this based on his personal connection. he is pro life today and has always been pro life as opposed to mitt romney who is pro abortion in the past and now pro life . that is something that he will always do. stand on the side of plief no matter what.

>> if elected president, would he try to remove that coverage from government financed health care plans? what he has done. he has a personal view based on his faith and experience. he will not let the government get in the way of what a woman chooses to do. while he has a personal view on it. he would not let that get in the way of what the government does.

>> thank you for clarifying. good to see you alice. thank you for coming on today.