Former Sen. Rick Santorum appeared on “Boston Herald Live” today, where he blamed the social safety net on the rise of single parenthood, which he somehow managed to link to gay-inclusive books in schools, and the supposed blackout of books about families led by opposite-sex couples.

“I know in the schools in Massachusetts, in the grade school, they teach — there are books in place that say ‘Suzy has two moms,’ it’s okay to put a book that says ‘Suzy has two moms’ but you can’t put a book in there saying that moms and dads and marriage is important and tell people how important it is to be married before you have children, then you’re moralizing,” Santorum said. “It’s okay to say, ‘Suzy has two moms’ or ‘Johnny has two dads,” but you can’t say that marriage is an important part of having a stable and healthy economy.”

When the host asked if he would focus on rolling back abortion rights and same-sex marriage if elected president, Santorum said that he would indeed do so because “strengthening the American family” is “important not just for a culture but it’s important for education.”

He added that government policies discourage women from marriage and instead boost cohabitation: “That’s the most dangerous place for children in America, it’s a mother and a child living with a man who is not the father of that child. We’re creating dangerous homes, we’re creating barriers to marriage and family formation all because of our welfare policies.”