Santorum blames 2008 mortgage crisis on $4-per-gallon gas

Rick Santorum on Monday blamed the housing crisis on high gas prices. 

During a campaign appearance in Michigan, Santorum said the housing bubble burst in 2008 because people could no longer afford to pay their mortgages because of high gas prices. 

"We went into a recession in 2008 because of gasoline prices," Santorum said in Michigan according to Buzzfeed. "The bubble burst in housing because people couldn’t pay their mortgages because of $4 a gallon gasoline."

Santorum then said President Obama actually wants higher gas prices.

"He actually believes this is a good thing for America, I don't," the former Pennsylvania senator added. "We are not here to serve the Earth, but to be stewards of the Earth."

The official government take on the collapse, authored by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, blamed Wall Street banks for taking on excessive risk via subprime mortgages, and government regulators for failing to sniff out the start of the crisis before it threatened the global financial system. 

Republican members of that panel dissented from the official report, blaming a global credit bubble and lax government housing policy. But they didn't put the blame on high gas prices, either.

—Pete Schroeder contributed reporting.

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