Posted by aburke on 01/09/2012

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GOP hopeful Rick Santorum has been getting a lot of press recently for his appeal to working-class voters and his focus on manufacturing issues. However, in a recent interview with National Journal, Santorum showed little support for either Buy America policy or efforts to crack down on China’s currency manipulation:

He came out against so-called domestic content legislation requiring that a certain percentage of parts be produced in America -- the kind of "domestic content" proposals that were popular in the 1980s and which the Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll shows are back in fashion. He also denounced the auto bailout, saying "all it did was pay off a special interest" -- unions -- "because they're big buddies with Barack Obama."

Santorum tried to strike a middle ground on trade noting that he had opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement but was not a Pat Buchanan-style protectionist and said he did not think dealing with China's "currency manipulation" was "worth a trade war." 

Read the full story here.

Read more about what Santorum's stance on manufacturing on Job Search.