Fund Your Utopia Without Me.™

27 January 2012

The Inner Santorum



"One of the criticisms I make is to what I refer to as more of a Libertarianish right.  They have this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do, government should keep our taxes down and keep our regulations low, that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom, we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues.
That is not how traditional conservatives view the world. There is no such society that I’m aware of, where we’ve had radical individualism and that it succeeds as a culture.”
- Rick Santorum, 2012



"I suspect some will dismiss my ideas as just an extended version of ‘compassionate conservatism.’ Some will reject what I have said as a kind of ‘Big Government Conservatism.’ Some will say that what I’ve tried to argue isn’t conservatism at all. But I believe what I’ve been presenting is the genuine conservatism our Founders envisioned. One that fosters the opportunity for all Americans to live as we are called to live, in selfless families that contribute to the general welfare, the common good."

- Rick Santorum, It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good, Conclusion, p. 421


 "What was my vision? I came to the uncomfortable realization that conservatives were not only reluctant to spend government dollars on the poor, they hadn’t even thought much about what might work better. I often describe my conservative colleagues during this time as simply ‘cheap liberals.’ My own economically modest personal background and my faith had taught me to care for those who are less fortunate, but I too had not yet given much thought to the proper role of government in this mission."

- Rick Santorum, It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good, Preface, p. IX


 "This whole idea of personal autonomy, well I don’t think most conservatives hold that point of view. Some do. They have this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do, government should keep our taxes down and keep our regulations low, that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom, we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues. You know, people should do whatever they want. Well, that is not how traditional conservatives view the world and I think most conservatives understand that individuals can’t go it alone."

- Rick Santorum, 2008



 A FEDERAL HEALTH INSURANCE MANDATE




Wofford Declines To Give Info To Voter's Guide

 
April 07, 1994|by PETE LEFFLER, The Morning Call

(SNIP)
U.S. Rep. Rick Santorum, R-Pittsburgh area, and Joe Watkins, a Philadelphia businessman who worked in the Bush White House, are seeking the Republican Senate nomination, creating the only true Senate primary race.

Both candidates responded to the League queries, which centered on health care, welfare reform and crime.
Santorum and Watkins both called for a "comprehensive restructuring" of health care. But they differed sharply on what elements should comprise a basic benefits package.

Watkins would include mental health services, long-term care, prescription drug coverage, dental services and preventive care such as immunizations. Santorum would not. Both reject abortion services.

Santorum and Watkins both oppose having businesses provide health care for their employees. Instead, they would require individuals to purchase insurance. Both oppose higher taxes on alcohol or tobacco to help pay for care.


 

 

Candidates Diverge On Health Care Remedies


May 02, 1994|by ANN WLAZELEK, The Morning Call

Santorum and Watkins would require individuals to buy health insurance rather than forcing employers to pay for employee benefits. Both oppose abortion services and support limits on malpractice awards. Santorum says non-economic damages should not exceed $250,000, adjusted annually for inflation, and lawyers' contingency fees should be capped at 25 percent.

The Republicans are split, however, on the issues of raising "sin" taxes to pay for expanded coverage and on allowing a national board to set spending limits.






In Congress, Santorum voted to expand health-care entitlements


I’ve strongly criticized Newt Gingrich for his role in dramatically expanding the role of Medicaid for children through the S-CHIP program, and also for botching the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate, which has created a huge fiscal headache for the Medicare program. Rick Santorum was there for all of those votes, and bears comparable responsibility for the growth of health-care entitlements in the 1990s.

 As we all know, it’s one thing to say you’re in favor of entitlement reform. But is Rick Santorum willing to do the hard work, take the political risks, and make entitlement reform his top priority? There’s reason to worry.

 In Santorum’s Iowa Caucus victory speech, he pooh-poohed the “Republican vision, which is, let’s just cut taxes, let’s just reduce spending and everyone will be fine.” He rightly pointed out the country has other problems that need to be addressed: “I believe in cutting taxes. I believe in balancing budgets…but I also believe we as Republicans have to look at those who are not doing well in our society by just cutting taxes and balancing budgets.”




“You’ll know — unlike Ronald Reagan who maybe was a better politician than me — you’ll know that it was Rick Santorum that worked together and got the American public to gather together to fix this problem. Why? Because it is our problem.”

Santorum was walking the audience through what he called the “ancient days of yesteryear” in a interminable and incredibly detailed response to a questioner. He explained that in the 1983 deal Reagan brokered with Democratic Speaker of the House Tip O’Neil to fix Social Security, the retirement age was moved back to 67, but that change wasn’t slated to be enacted until the politicians responsible were out of office.

“This was the brilliance of the politicians that did this,” Santorum said sarcastically.

“They were absolutely brilliant. They passed a bill that didn’t take effect for 20 years so nobody blames them. It was brilliant. They increased the Social Security age by two years back in 1983 and it didn’t start phasing in, it doesn’t fully phase in for almost 40 years. And so Ronald Reagan did that. Most people have no idea — no one associates Ronald Reagan with raising the retirement age. Why? Because all of the people it affected were nowhere near retirement and they didn’t know about it.”

[…]

“You know, I love Ronald Reagan, but if I would point to one thing during his administration that he did a serious wrong, it was this bill — it was this Social Security fix,” Santorum said.

“He bought the idea of increasing taxes now — that’s always what the left wants to do — increase taxes now, reduce benefits later. And that’s exactly what the bill did.”

But....

What he neglects to mention is that Santorum voted for the unfunded prescription drug benefit that made Medicare that much more unsustainable. Santorum is partly responsible for increasing the federal government’s unfunded liabilities by trillions of dollars. Bruce Bartlett summed up the damage back in 2010:
According to the latest actuaries’ report, Medicare Part D will cost taxpayers — beneficiaries pay virtually nothing — $62 billion this year. This figure is expected to rise sharply in coming years to $150 billion in 2019. By 2030, Part D alone will cost taxpayers 1 percent of GDP. In present value terms, Medicare Part D adds almost $16 trillion to our national indebtedness….That is why former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker has called the unfunded prescription drug benefit “the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s.”

His record is plagued by the big-spending habits that Republicans adopted during the Bush years of 2001-2006.  Some of those high profile votes include his support for No Child Left Behind in 2001, which greatly expanded the federal government’s role in education.   He supported the massive new Medicare drug entitlement in 2003  that now costs taxpayers over $60 billion a year and has almost $16 trillion in unfunded liabilities.   He voted for the 2005 highway bill that included thousands of wasteful earmarks, including the Bridge to Nowhere.   In fact, in a separate vote, Santorum had the audacity to vote to continue funding the Bridge to Nowhere rather than send the money to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Indeed, Santorum was a prolific supporter of earmarks, having requested billions of dollars for pork projects in Pennsylvania while he was in Congress.    Perhaps recognizing the sign of the times, Santorum finally reversed his position in 2010, saying that he was opposed to them , but one must remain skeptical about his sincerity.  As recently as 2009, he said, “I’m not saying necessarily earmarks are bad. I have had a lot of earmarks. In fact, I’m very proud of all the earmarks I’ve put in bills. I’ll defend earmarks.”

[…]

An examination of his scores in the NTU rating of Congress shows that Santorum compiled a very strong record on taxes and spending in the first four years of each of his two Senate terms, then a sharp swing to below the Senate Republican average in the Congress before his reelection campaign.  In the 2003-2004 session of Congress, Santorum sponsored or cosponsored 51 bills to increase spending, and failed to sponsor or co-sponsor even one spending cut proposal.  In his last Congress (2005-2006), he had one of the biggest spending agendas of any Republican — sponsoring more spending increases than Republicans Lisa Murkowski, Lincoln Chafee and Thad Cochran or Democrats Herb Kohl, Evan Bayh and Ron Wyden.



 “We appropriate funds,” Santorum said about Congress’s role in an interview Wednesday with CNN’s John King. “And as Ron Paul did, as Jim DeMint did, as just about, I think, every single member of Congress did, when you go to Congress, you make sure that when taxes go from your state to Washington, D.C., you fight to make sure you get your fair share back.”

 In just one piece of legislation, the defense appropriations bill for the 2006 fiscal year, Mr. Santorum helped secure $124 million in federal financing for 54 earmarks, according to a tally by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group. In that year’s election cycle, Mr. Santorum’s Senate campaign committee and his “leadership PAC” took in more than $200,000 in contributions from people associated with the companies that benefited or their lobbyists, an analysis of campaign finance records by The New York Times shows.

“This is the thing about earmarks,” said Ryan Alexander, the president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. “It’s not that every project is horrible. It’s not that it’s inappropriate for lawmakers to garner resources for their constituents. 

“The problem is it looks like it is pay-to-play. It looks like: ‘You want to get an earmark? You make a contribution.’ ”

“People say that I voted for ‘The Bridge to Nowhere."  I did. I went with the federalist argument, which is, ‘Who am I in Pennsylvania to tell Alaska what their highway priorities should be?’ You had a city that was separated from its airport, and of course in Alaska you have to travel by air, and you had to have a ferry. There were times when they couldn’t get across.”
 
-  Santorum said in Iowa last week, according to the Des Moines Register



“As we look back in history, the Founding Fathers would be cringing to hear people talking about eliminating earmarks."  

- Senator Harry Reid, 12 March 2008 


 1.  Authored the "Social Security Guarantee Act," which guaranteed by law that Seniors' social security benefits can bever be cut.  It also guaranteed an annual cost of living increase.  S. 1750 (109th)

2.  Helped to secure $100 million in funding to build America's first ever coal to ultra-clean fuel plant. H.R. (109th); H.R. 3550 (108th); Page 11097, 10.25.01.

3.  Authored legislation that required Medicare to cover colon cancer screenings.  S. 1010 (109th).

4.  Sponsored legislation in the Senate to provide funding for and worked with Bono to fight AIDS.  S. 1320 (109th); SA 1260 (109th); SA 3052 (109th).

5.  Wrote legislation to secure funding to clean and preserve the Chesapeake Bay and worked to increase funding for its preservation.  S. 1491 (109th)

6.  Authored the "Telework Tax Incentive Act," which promoted work-from-home programmes so that parents could balance career with family.  S. 1292 (109th).

7.  Joined with John McCain to write lobbying reform laws.  S. 2349 (109th); SA 2942 (109th).

8.  Voted for record levels of funded for Pennsylvania's public schools.  Vote #215, 108th Congress, 2nd Session.

9.  Sponsored legislation called "Fair Care," which would have helped laid-off workers continue to receive their healthcare benefits.  S. 1570 (108th).

10.  Teamed with Senator Joe Lieberman to write the "Savings for Working Families Act of 2005," which would expand a matching savings account programme for low-income families, which can be used to help their children afford college.  S. 922 (109th).

11.  "Fought to make sure Pennsylvania Seniors have a prescription drug plan under Medicare that not only dramatically lowers costs, but also prevents any Senior from ever being financially devastated due to the cost of their prescription drugs."  H.R. 1 (108th) Vote #459, 108th Congress 1st Session.

12.  Helped pass a tax cut for all Americans, successfully fought to eliminate the marriage penalty tax, and to increase the per child tax credit.  H.R. 1836 (107th) Vote #170, 107th; 1st Session; S. 6 (109th).

13.  He introduced the "Neighbourhood Children's Internet Protection Act." S. 1545 (106th).

14.  Authored the "CARE Act," which strenthened non-profit organisations that work on issues such as homelessness and drug addiction.  S. 1780 (109th).

15.  Authored the "Pet Animal Welfare Statute (PAWS)," which cracked down on puppy mills that harm animals at the expense of unknowning pet owners.  S. 1139 (109th).

16.  Santorum was the architect of "landmark" legislation that created the "Farmland Preservation Programm" which has become one of the most "successful" conservation programmes in history.  S. AMDT. 3455 to S. 1541 (104th).

17.  Introduced the "Gasoline Affordability and Security Act" of 2005 which regulated price gouging and unfair pricing by the "big oil companies."  S. 1868. (109th).

18.  Wrote legislation to increase the national minimum wage.  SA 128 to S. 256 (109th).

19.  Led Senate efforts to protect funding for the "Low-Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)," which sent millions of dollars to Pennsylvania to help low-income families pay their heating bills.  S. 2273, S. 2320 (109th).

20.  Co-sponsored the "Association Health Plan" legislation, which helped Pennsylvania's small businesses provide healthcare insurance for their employees.  S. 406 (109th).

21. 
Still working on this.


His 2010 financial disclosure form shows that the self-described "grandson of a coal miner" earned at least $900,000 that year.
* Fox News paid him $239,153 to appear as an occasional contributor;
* Radio Salem paid him $83,999 to serve as a guest host on "Bill Bennett's Morning in America" radio show;
* The Philadelphia Inquirer paid him $23,000 as a freelance columnist.
* The Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative advocacy group, paid him $217,385 as a senior fellow.
Santorum also collected a total of $332,500 in consulting fees from three corporations:
* $65,000 from the American Continental Group lobbying firm
* $142,500 from Consol Energy
* $125,000 from the Clapham Group, a Virginia-based corporation started by longtime Santorum staffer Mark Rodgers. On its website, Clapham says its mission is to "influence culture upstream of the political arena."

http://mediacdn.reuters.com/media/us/editorial/pdf/50Things.pdf



No comments: