Rick Santorum targeted black people at a campaign stop in Iowa on Sunday, saying he doesn't want to make their lives better by giving them welfare. According to CBS News, Santorum told a mostly white audience in Sioux City:
"It just keeps expanding - I was in Indianola a few months ago and I was talking to someone who works in the department of public welfare here, and she told me that the state of Iowa is going to get fined if they don't sign up more people under the Medicaid program," Santorum said. "They're just pushing harder and harder to get more and more of you dependent upon them so they can get your vote. That's what the bottom line is."While his reasoning about entitlement spending is normal by conservative standards, the fact that he singled out black people as the recipients of welfare is sure to raise eyebrows. According to CBS News, only 9 percent of food stamp recipients in Iowa are black.
He added: "I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money."
"Right," responded one audience member, as another woman can be seen nodding.
"And provide for themselves and their families," Santorum added, to applause. "The best way to do that is to get the manufacturing sector of the economy rolling again."
This was not the first time racial remarks have rocked Santorum's campaign. Over the weekend a 2011 video surfaced showing Santorum criticizing Obama's abortion record on the basis of his race.
"I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say 'now we are going to decide who are people and who are not people,'" Santorum said.
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Source: Huff
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