Santorum 'with Ted Cruz' on govt. shutdown: 'You have to make people uncomfortable'

Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Monday declared that he "would be with Ted Cruz" when it came to shutting down the government in order to defund President Barack Obama's health care reform law because "you have to make people uncomfortable."

In an interview on CNN's New Day, host Kate Bolduan asked Santorum if he supported the Texas Republican's efforts to defund Obamacare at all costs when the country was just six days away from a government shutdown.

"I would be with Ted Cruz," Santorum explained. "What happens in Washington, D.C. is that everybody just muddles together and tries to work things out, and when you have a president and a Senate controlled by one party that means, generally speaking, if you want more-limited government, it's going to be a bad deal."

Bolduan pointed out that many fellow Republicans had publicly expressed concern that Cruz' tactics were hurting the party.

"I guess, I can say I've been accused of putting my party in a bad spot repeatedly when I was in the Senate, and sometimes you have to do that," Santorum insisted. "You have to make people uncomfortable because people do get too comfortable in sort of cutting the deal."

"When you've got the two options, though, people effected by a government shutdown or giving funding for Obamacare, how do you choose this?" the CNN host wondered.

"Nothing happens in Washington without brinkmanship," Santorum smiled. "I mean, that's just the way it works. I mean, it's not a pretty thing but that's how policy is made."

Watch this video from CNN's New Day, broadcast Sept. 24, 2013.