Santorum gunning for health-care law

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum appeared at the Supreme Court on Monday afternoon to declare as president he would seek to repeal President Obama’s health-care law, arguing that only the “creator” can grant rights, not the government.

Santorum said that if he is elected president, he will have a clear mandate to repeal the health-care legislation passed in 2010, and he added that he believes the changes are unconstitutional.

“If we’re successful it will be very clear where the American public is,” Santorum said.

Santorum’s remarks were at times almost drowned out by supporters of the healthcare law, who have been holding rallies since early Monday outside the court. They chanted that health care is a human right, but Santorum argued that no rights should come from the government.

“Rights come from our creator, they are protected by the Constitution of this country. Rights should not and cannot be created by a government because anytime a government creates a right, they can take that right away,” Santorum said.

The rights included in the U.S. Constitution were put there by men, all of whom were delegates to the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia in 1787.

Santorum, a devout Catholic and former Pennsylvania senator, also took aim at GOP front-runner Mitt Romney, arguing that the former Massachusetts governor’s support for overhaul in that state hurt his credibility when taking on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

“There’s only one candidate who has a chance of winning the Republican nomination who can make this the central issue, a winning issue for winning the presidency back and that’s Rick Santorum,” he said. “Unfortunately, the worst person to make that case is Mitt Romney.”

“All he says was, I’ll repeal Obamacare and in the same breath he defends Obamacare at the state level. It just doesn’t wash and it won’t wash in the general election,” Santorum said.

Santorum spoke in front of signs emblazoned with the slogan “Better Health, More Freedom,” which aides dutifully turned so he would appear in front of the court’s columns, but he stopped short of outlining a comprehensive plan of his own.

He did say, however, “I’ve always been for free-market health care.”

Romney dismissed Santorum’s comments as coming from a desperate candidate.

“I’m not going to worry too much about what Rick is saying these days,” Romney said on CNN. “I know that when you fall further and further behind you get a little more animated.”

Meanwhile, Romney trumpeted a flurry of conservative endorsements along with backing Monday from a delegate who belonged to campaign dropout Jon Huntsman.

Campaigning in California, Romney made an appeal to primary voters in a contest still two months away on June 5.

“I need you guys to get ready, to organize your effort, to get your friends to vote, to collect some money, to get campaign contributions,” Romney told employees at medical device maker NuVasive in southern California. “We’ve got a ways to go.”

Romney announced support from Utah Sen. Mike Lee, an early Tea Party supporter who ousted a longtime incumbent Republican.Romney also earned backing from California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the third highest ranking House Republican, and from Al Cardenas, head of the American Conservative Union.

Huntsman delegate Paul Collins, who ran the former Utah governor’s campaign in New Hampshire, also signed on with Romney.

While in California, Romney planned five separate fundraisers with deep-pocketed donors over the next two days.

Information for this article was contributed by Ian Duncan of the Tribune Washington Bureau and by Steve Peoples and Kasie Hunt of The Associated Press.