On February 18, 2012 we heard that Romney was instrumental in getting $600 million earmarked for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Utah; I’m okay with this – we should be hosting games and it is a national event. Santorum got the endorsement of a former Ohio Senator who was backing Romney. On February 18 Santorum said Obama’s religion is based on false theology not the bible – he still doesn’t get it. On February 19 we heard that Romney’s top Arizona campaign co-chair is Gay and he resigns; now Santorum is 10 points higher than Romney in the polls. Now let’s get some Santorum background. Rick Santorum after receiving degrees in Pennsylvania entered the legal profession working for Kirkpatrick & Lockhart. He spent sixteen years in Congress – four years in the House (1991 – 1994) followed by 12 years (1995 – 2006) in the Senate before losing re-election in 2006 to a Democrat. In the 5 years following the Senate Santorum worked as a consultant lobbying Congress, was a private practice lawyer and news contributor before becoming a Republican candidate for the presidency.
Per the Club for Growth (CG) which is committed to lower taxes as is the Tea Party and very Republican, some of Santorum’s high profile votes regarding taxes include:
1993 - NO on the Clinton tax hike* 1997 - YES on the capital gains tax cut
1998 - NO on a cigarette tax hike* 1999 - YES on repeal of Alternative Minimum Tax
2001 - YES on the Bush tax cuts 2002 - YES to repeal the Death Tax
2003 - YES to the Bush tax cuts 2006 - YES to extend the Bush tax cuts
*These are ones I’m okay with, as far as the death tax I think there should be limits not total repeal.
CG considers Santorum blemishes to be: support of various proposals that increased the complexity of the tax code, his sponsoring of a bill in 2005 that would provide a general business tax credit for building or rehabilitating homes for low- and middle-income individuals in certain areas, support of a bill in 2006 that would provide a $100 “gas-tax holiday” in the form of a rebate check to every family in the country as a way of alleviating the pain caused by high gas prices and sponsoring of a bill that would give telecommuters a tax credit of $500.
CG is also committed to reducing government spending. They say on spending, Santorum has a mixed record and showed clear signs of varying his votes based on the election calendar. In 1995 he voted for a balanced budget amendment and a line-item veto, in 1996 he was a leading author on the bill that completely overhauled the country’s welfare system and voted for the Freedom to Farm Act that started the process of ending direct farm subsidies; when Congress decided that it couldn’t live up to that promise, in 2002 he opposed the bill to re-establish the subsidies but in 2005 he sponsored a bill to extend milk subsidies which he claimed he did to “save countless Pennsylvania dairy farmers.”
CG says there is a troubling part of Santorum’s record on spending, which is found in the years sandwiched between these periods of fiscal restraint. 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 a separate vote, Santorum voted 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. 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.”
CG says Santorum, although strong on taxes and spending in the first four years of his Senate terms, took a sharp swing, he supported raising congressional pay at least three times (2001, 2002, and 2003), in the 2003-2004 session of Congress, he 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 or Democrat. Perhaps recognizing the sign of the times, Santorum reversed his position in 2010, saying that he was opposed to earmarks, but one must remain skeptical about his sincerity. More recently, when he was out of Congress, Santorum opposed TARP, the stimulus that bailed out the auto industry and lending institutions.
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