President Barack Obama is on a power grab in his refusal to negotiate with Republicans on the federal budget and debt ceiling, and he doesn't care if Americans get hurt by it, former Sen. Rick Santorum says.
"This is not about shutting down the government . . . this is about one thing, and it's always about one thing with this president, it's about power," Santorum told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"The president believes he can increase his power by taking this tack, and he is willing to hurt innumerable people along the way, including anybody . . . in need of any government services, including our military.
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"The president is willing to [shut the government down] if, in the end, he believes that he will diminish Republicans, increase his chances of solidifying more power, and be able to get the radical things that he wants to do to Congress," he said Tuesday.
Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican who is thought to be mulling a run for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, says Obama is heavily supported by the media in that goal.
"It's a president who understands that the media is in the tank with him, that they are going to support him no matter what he says," Santorum said.
"I mean here is a president that is basically saying, 'I will not negotiate.' I don't know what governmental entity that you can govern and say . . . 'I'm going to govern and not negotiate with anybody who disagrees with me' . . . Yet, the way that it's being spun out there, the president's a reasonable guy."
The only way Obama will back down, Santorum says, is if the shutdown becomes a political negative for him.
"But as long as that doesn't turn, as long as he is gaining ground and, to date, he's gaining ground, as long as that is occurring, he's not going to back away, and he'll inflict whatever pain is necessary," Santorum said.
He added that one reason Obama has been winning the public-relations war is that Republicans have been "all over the map" in their demands.
"They were not united as a party, they were undercutting each other, including undercutting the folks who were out there trying to make the case that Obamacare was the focal point — which would have been a great thing had all Republicans lined up and made Obamacare the focal point," he said.
"Obviously, everyone knew that defunding Obamacare was not going to happen, but making the point about how bad Obamacare [is] should've been the issue.
"They got there divided . . . Now you see even Republicans on the left splitting off and potentially joining Democrats to try to pass a bill that would undermine everybody."
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