Republican presidential candidates pressed on social issues on campaign trail

{mosads}At Santorum’s campaign stop, he was first asked by a student Ryan Walters, “”If not for our social programs, how can we as a society care for our poor?”

Santorum then turned to the audience and prompted them to say that it was up to each individual to provide for the poor, according to CNN, who reported the incident.

But Walters said, “I don’t think God appreciates the fact that we have 50-100 thousand uninsured Americans dying due to a lack of healthcare every year.”

Santorum disputed the statistic with Walters, who was unable to cite his source – a 2009 Harvard study that found that 45,000 people die each year because of lack of health insurance – on the fly.

“I reject that number completely, that people die in America because of lack of health insurance. People die in America because people die in America,” Santorum said. “And people make poor decisions with respect to their health and their healthcare. And they don’t go to the emergency room or they don’t go to the doctor when they need to. And it’s not the fault of the government for not providing some sort of universal benefit.”

Later at the same event, Santorum argued with a student who said that there would not be any concrete consequences to faith and family if gay marriage were legalized.

“Let’s look at what’s going to be taught in our schools because now we have same sex couples being the same and their sexual activity being seen as equal and affirmed by society as heterosexual couples and their activity…. So, you are going to have in our curriculum … a worldview that is fundamentally different than what is taught in schools today. Is that not a consequence of gay marriage?” Santorum said.

The student responded that he did not believe it would be a radical departure from what was happening now.

“Really? I think you’re wrong. Okay, in fact you have to know you’re wrong because if we say legally is this type of relationship is licit and identical to other types of relationships than of course more of it will be taught because it is what the law says. Right now the law doesn’t recognize this type of activity,” Santorum said.

Bachmann was pressed on a similar issue by an eight-year old boy named Elijah at a book signing in South Carolina.

“My mom’s gay, but she doesn’t need any fixing,” the boy said in a video that was later uploaded to YouTube.

The candidate, who had drawn close to the boy to hear, backed away and said nothing.

Both Bachmann and Santorum hope that their conservative credentials and efforts at retail politicking – which can create these types of awkward moments, but have traditionally proven popular in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses – might help them to surprise success in the contest early next month.