One-time GOP presidential contender and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said Sunday that he was concerned Ron Paul supporters were "looking for a platform fight" at the party convention in Tampa, Fla.
"I like the platform that we have right now. I'm concerned that Ron Paul and some of his supporters out there are looking for a platform fight. And I want to make sure that we have strong, principled conservatives there who stood with me in our primary fight to go there and counterbalance the effect of the Paul folks," said Santorum on ABC’s This Week.
Santorum, who has had a contentious relationship with the presumptive GOP nominee before endorsing Mitt Romney, said he wanted to help get the former Massachusetts governor elected and that his new PAC, Patriot Voices, which he launched this week, would back conservative contenders for office.
Santorum said he had not been vetted by the Romney campaign for a possible vice presidential spot on the ticket, but said that "if he calls me, I'll answer the phone."
Santorum added, however, that his primary concern was his new PAC and ensuring that the GOP platform was true to conservative principles.
"We're focused on trying to do what we can to help Gov. Romney, help candidates all across this country by rallying conservatives, getting them excited about this race and the importance of it," he said. "And that's really all I'm focused on right now. And I wish Gov. Romney the best, and I'll do whatever I can to be helpful to him."
Santorum also hit at President Obama's economic record, saying that the administration had "done more than to crush business than anyone in history."
"Obama is a whole new scale of regulation that we have never seen that is just crushing the free enterprise system in this country," said Santorum, who said he was hopeful Romney's plan to "lower regulation, reduce taxes, get this private sector ginned up" would provide a "great contrast" with Obama's record.
Santorum said Obama was focused on boosting the fortunes of public workers over the private sector.
"Obama's plan for going forward is to ramp up the public sector," he said.
"Teachers are great, we love teachers, but if anybody believes that hiring more teachers as we did over the many, many years in this country, under President Clinton, even President Bush and under the early part of President Obama's administration -- if that's dramatically improved the quality of education, you got to show me the numbers because it's not."
On Saturday, the Obama campaign attacked Romney, saying his economic policies would result in fewer teachers, firefighters and police officers on the job after the GOP hopeful voiced opposition to legislation which would give cash-strapped states more funds for educators and emergency response workers.
"That money that you're paying teachers, this money that you're paying public sector employees comes from somewhere, and it comes out of the private sector, and it tends to hurt job creation there, and actually the net effect is less jobs," Santorum said Sunday.
