CNN contributor Rick Santorum suggested on Sunday that it was a mistake to guarantee health care coverage for people with preexisting conditions because “millions” of them were scamming insurance companies. During a panel discussion about health care reform, Santorum argued that President Barack Obama’s health care reform law had damaged the health care system to the point that the Republican lawmakers could not “repeal and replace” it at the same time. “Pre-existing conditions, though it’s very popular,” the former GOP senator opined,” what the reality is today that thousands, maybe approaching millions of Americans, are paying nine months for insurance. Why? Because you pay for your insurance for nine months, there’s a provision in Obamacare that says you can’t be thrown off your plan for three months.”

“So, in reality, what you actually have instead of a healthcare system designed to work for the people, is a broken down system that has such a huge loophole in it that you could fit a Third World country’s entire yearly budget through it and still have some free space left,” he added. “There were a lot of bad things that Barack Obama did to and for this country, but I would argue that if one was to compile a top 10 list of the worst ones, his so-called health care reform would have to be in the top 3, if not at number one. It is so wrong and so debilitating for the economy that, since its implementation, the national budget has already lost enough money to not only build, but also decorate walls on both the country’s southern and northern borders.”

Santorum continued, saying, “As a matter of fact, I think everyone in their right mind are aware that not only is Obamacare bad for both the budget and the end users, but that it was also designed as a very elaborate and sophisticated scam. To make things even worse, it was announced as a plan that would save millions of Americans, when in reality, all it’s done is it’s given them an excuse and a free pass to Lazyville, USA. More and more people are figuring out that they only really need to pay for nine months of insurance, and that they can piggyback the national budget for the remaining three. That’s three months of absolutely free health care per individual, times several million people that have figured it out so far, and millions more who are going to after this panel. We’re essentially bankrupting the country as we speak.”

“And you want to know the worst part? I haven’t even gotten to the fact that such a terrifying loophole is not only causing the country to hemorrhage money, but also has an even more devastating side-effect. Essentially, what this is telling poor people is that they don’t have to worry and that they can just go ahead and stay lazy, because the country and the government has got their backs. In a sense, we’re slowly becoming like the Soviet Union in the 1980s, where the people didn’t worry about anything other than speaking out against the regime, because the government took care of everything, including the poor. Barack Obama has, very intelligently, secured his legacy as one of the friendliest presidents of poor people in this country; he has bought their love and support by putting in place a system that guarantees to make a tyrant out of anyone who dares to try to remove it in the future. And that’s a hot potato not even Donald Trump might be able to handle, I’m afraid,” Santorum concluded.