RICK SANTORUM
http://fosterfriess.com/campfire-blog/2012/01/26/santorum-could-unite-those-tired-of-rule-by-the-elites/
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Punta Gorda Tea Party Candidate Research
Research & Presentation by Winnie Steil
Richard John "Rick" Santorum (born May 10, 1958) is a lawyer and a former United States Senator from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Santorum is a member of the Republican Party and was the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. Santorum is considered both a social and fiscal conservative.
Santorum was born in Winchester, Virginia, and raised in Berkeley County, West Virginia, and Butler County, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Aldo Santorum (born 1923) and Catherine Keane (née Dughi; born 1918). His father was an Italian immigrant, and his mother was of half Italian and half Irish descent. Both of Santorum's parents worked at the Veterans’ Administration (VA) Hospital in Butler, and the family lived on the VA hospital post. His father became licensed as a psychologist in August 1974.
Santorum earned a B.A. in political science from The Pennsylvania State University in 1980 and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh in 1981; during his time at Penn State. Five years later, Santorum received a law degree from the Dickinson School of Law, was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar, and began practicing in Pittsburgh.
Santorum first became actively involved in politics through volunteering for the late Senator John Heinz. Santorum became an administrative assistant to Republican State Senator Doyle Corman. He was director of the Pennsylvanian Senate's local government committee from 1981 to 1984, then director of the Pennsylvanian Senate's Transportation Committee until 1986.
In 1990, at age 32, Santorum was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 18th District, located in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. In Congress, as a member of the Gang of Seven, Santorum worked to expose congressional corruption by naming the guilty parties in the House banking scandal.
In 1994, at the age of 36, Santorum was elected to the U.S. Senate, defeating the incumbent Democrat, Harris Wofford, who was 32 years older. Santorum was re-elected in 2000 defeating Congressman Ron Klink . Santorum was defeated 59% to 41% in the 2006 U.S. Senate election by Democratic candidate Bob Casey, Jr.
Abortion
Santorum: Favors constitutional abortion ban and opposes abortion even in cases of rape because “I would absolutely stand and say that one violence is enough.” Previously supported right to abortion in cases of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother. Said he did so and would continue to do so to move it in the right direction.
Debt
Santorum: Opposed the financial-industry bailout and stimulus programs of the Bush and Obama administrations. Supports constitutional balanced budget amendment.
Economy
Santorum: Spur jobs by eliminating corporate taxes for manufacturers, drill for more oil and gas, and slash regulations. “Repeal every regulation the Obama administration has put in place that’s over $100 million. Repeal them all. You may have to replace a few, but let’s repeal them all because they are all antagonistic to businesses, particularly in the manufacturing sector.”
Economy
Santorum: Voted for No Child Left Behind law. Wants “significantly” smaller Education Department but not its elimination. Criticized early childhood education programs as an attempt by government to “indoctrinate your children.”
Energy
Santorum: Favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and scaling back “oppressive regulation” hindering drilling elsewhere.
Environment
Santorum: The science establishing human activity as a likely contributor to global warming is “patently absurd” and “junk science.”
Gay Marriage
Santorum: Supports constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, not leaving decision to states. “We can’t have 50 marriage laws.“ ”Abraham Lincoln said the states do not have the right to do wrong. I respect the 10th Amendment, but we are a nation that has values. We are a nation that was built on a moral enterprise, and states don’t have the right to tramp over those because of the 10th Amendment.”
Health Care
Santorum: Would seek to starve Obama’s health care law of money needed to implement it. Supported Bush administration’s prescription drug program for the elderly.
Immigration
Santorum: Supports complete border fence, opposes letting children of illegal immigrants qualify for cheaper in-state tuition and says federal government should not require states to offer any social services to illegal immigrants. Favors making English the official language.
Social Security
Santorum: Supports option of private retirement accounts instead of Social Security taxes and benefits for younger workers.
Taxes
Santorum: Proposes zero corporate tax. “If you manufacture in America, you aren’t going to pay any taxes.” Opposes any national sales tax.
Terrorism
Santorum: Defends creation of Homeland Security Department as an attempt to fix a “complete mess” in the domestic security apparatus. Voted to reauthorize Patriot Act.
War
Santorum: Said in September 2011 that 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. troops should remain in Iraq. Says U.S. troops should withdraw from Afghanistan “a little slower” than Obama is planning. “When we engage in Iraq and Afghanistan, we engage because we want to be successful. We want victory.” In May, accused Obama of “dithering” in Libya and creating a “morass” because he let the international community take the lead in aiding Gadhafi’s opponents. Opposes closure of U.S. bases abroad. “We have to have the ability to confront those threats from around the world, which means we need basing around the world.” “Would bomb nuclear plants in Iran if they would not allow inspections.”
Gun Control
Santorum: As a Senator, Rick Santorum opposed frivolous lawsuits against the gun industry by supporting legislation (The Protection of Lawful Commerce Act) that would protect law abiding firearms manufacturers and dealers from frivolous lawsuits attempting to hold them liable for criminal acts of third parties.
Rick Santorum vehemently opposed the Assault Weapons Ban because he believes that there are more effective ways to stop gun violence, such as stricter enforcement of existing laws, than taking away the rights of law abiding gun owners.
Senator Santorum was also the author of legislation to eliminate the requirement that all hunters and fishermen furnish their social security numbers when getting a license. It was estimated that this legislation would help save 16 million hunters and another 24 million fishermen who buy their licenses every year from falling victim to identity theft.
For his work on behalf of gun owners and sportsmen across the country, Senator Santorum consistently received the highest possible ratings from the National Rifle Association and gun owners groups from around the country.
Issues
Earmarking: He said that the job of the senate is to allocate the funds and he did his best to get the funds back to the state that elected him. However, when he found it was being abused, he spoke out against the process.
Supporting Romney as a conservative
He said he supported him against McCain when it was down to two possible candidates and his remarks we in comparison were in comparison to McCain. He felt Romney was a better choice than McCain for the Republican candidate for president.
AccuWeather
Santorum sponsored a bill in 2005 which would have allowed the weather service to offer particular types of services only if the private sector did not offer them, a provision similar to rules the agency was guided by for 14 years. Santorum's failed legislation would have left the weather service intact, although with significantly reduced ability to distribute its information directly to the public.
The fact that his campaign received a $2000 campaign contribution from some executives at AccuWeather. His 2006 campaign was to raise $25 million for his senate run.
At the time, Santorum said the bill was needed to prevent the weather service from driving competitors out of business.
“It is not an easy prospect for a business to attract advertisers, subscribers or investors when the government is providing similar products and services for free,” Santorum said in a statement when he introduced the bill. He said the bill would also force the weather service to focus on its “core missions,” such as improving its forecasts of hurricanes and other severe weather.
Extracted from a speech by Rick Santorum to the National Press Corp
In too many places, we have let allies across the world down, and we have given enemies cause to doubt our resolve. Much of this stems from a political leadership that has serious and systemic doubts about America’s role in the world and the purpose of our moral authority in it. “Leading from behind” is the phrase one of the president’s own advisers recently used to describe the president’s foreign-policy approach. It couldn’t be more apt. It’s an approach that views America not as an exceptional leader but, rather, as just one more country in the sea of nations, not intrinsically better or worse than any other nation, not intrinsically better prepared to lead than any other nation. It is an abdication.
The tragedy and danger of this is that we are abdicating our role and authority at exactly the wrong time, just when the need for it has never been more important.
Just now we need to be reminded of what has made us a role model to others and what has made us so great in the past. There are essentially four fundamentally American contributions to the world that define not only how we have organized our government but how we have organized our lives:
First, free markets that are rooted in excellence, hard work, and innovation.
Second, religious pluralism where people of faith have the right to pursue their beliefs and not be abused by either their government or a majority. This is the only ground upon which we can truly live in peace with our differences and also advance the moral teachings which are essential for freedom to thrive.
Third, generosity and humanitarianism. America has a uniquely robust civil society, as observed almost 200 years ago by Alexis de Toqueville. This is how we primarily “love our neighbor.” We are generous with our time and our treasure.
And finally, a system of governance that promotes human flourishing, seeks the common good and maximizes personal liberty. Rule of law, checks and balances, separation of church and state, subsidiarity, and federalism. Our founders understood that man’s nature is inclined toward self and sin, and that no one person or institution should have the opportunity to consolidate power, lest the freedom of others be taken away.
Bynot promoting these uniquely American virtues, we have let down not only ourselves, but our allies and would-be allies.
Last year, visiting the United States, Lech Walesa put it this way:
The United States is the only superpower. Today they lead the world. Nobody has doubts about it militarily. They also lead economically but they’re getting weak. But they don’t lead morally and politically anymore. The world has no leadership. The United States was always the last resort and hope for all other nations. There was the hope, whenever something was going wrong, one could count on the United States. Today, we have lost that hope.
This is a terrible but, I fear, terribly true indictment of what was once known as “the last best hope of earth.”
I, however, am an optimist about America’s potential to again lead the world. By reclaiming our legacy of liberty I know we can make ourselves more secure and help the rest of the world become more stable and free. Let me suggest a ten-point plan to reverse our course, restore our greatness, and reestablish America’s standing in the world.
First, we need to begin by seeing the world the way it truly is. We need to see evil for what it is, and confront it; and we need to see decency for what it is and nurture it.
Nowis the time not only to be increasing our military preparedness but to finish the task of a comprehensive missile-defense system. While we are at it, we should restore our missile-defense commitments to Poland and the Czech Republic.
Second, we need to understand we are in a war, a hot war as well as a war of ideas. Failing to define our foes lest we be politically incorrect does not dissuade them from seeking our destruction. They know who they are and tell us, and they construe our efforts to obscure reality as signs of weakness and irresolution. Such behavior causes despair among our allies and confusion here at home.
Third, we need a reinvigorated human-intelligence apparatus in the Middle East so we can better understand who and where are enemies are and then identify opportunities to counteract them and support allies and would-be allies.
Fourth, we need to change our information operations abroad to promote our core values of freedom, equality, and democracy — just as we did with the Soviet Empire in the 1980s.
Fifth, we must cease our verbal, moral, and diplomatic equivalence as between good and evil. Syria does not deserve an ambassador; its protesters deserve support; Israeli housing starts should not be put on the same moral plane as Hamas terror attacks; and China should be challenged on religious liberty rather than be given a veto on the human-rights activists we wish support.
Sixth, having supported popular sovereignty abroad, we have erred in failing to sufficiently support the conditions of liberty and the institutions necessary for a successful democracy. Too often we have acted as if liberty’s first order of business is a vote. Elections should be a consummation and not a commencement to democratic processes.
Seventh, we need to keep and expand our commitment to humanitarian aid, especially in Africa. China and Islam are competing for the hearts and minds of much of Africa, and we cannot turn our back from the investment and commitments we have made. I helped lead many of our efforts to address third-world debt and the global AIDS crisis, and our investments have paid off.
Eighth, we must stand by Israel, especially at a time when it appears increasingly to be standing alone. The recent dislocation of the old order in the Middle East will usher in a new one, and anti-Israeli elements are working overtime to take advantage of the opportunity.
Ninth, the tradition of speaking up and out about prisoners of conscience and dissidents in prison, never mind American hostages, from the Middle East to Asia, needs to be restored. When President Reagan instituted the policy of reminding the world and America that there were others in jails because of their beliefs it not only reminded us of our blessings, it gave dissidents a sense of hope, and the knowledge that someone cared about them, that a great country was on their side.
Finally, we need to have a national effort to restore the teaching of American history in our nation’s schools. It is our children’s worst subject — they simply do not know their own story and thus when they are told ours is a history of aggression and immorality, they have no counter-narrative to refute it. It is worth remembering that Ronald Reagan’s final wish in his farewell address was to ask America to instill in our youth a renewed “informed patriotism.” Unfortunately, we ignored this lesson, and we are reaping the consequences.
I truly do believe we are “the last best hope of earth,” but the “hope” — and, for that matter, the “change” — we have seen over the last two and a half years has been illusory. From the Middle East to Asia to right in our backyard of Latin America, we have been weak where we should have been strong and we have been appeasing of evil where we should have been confronting and challenging it.
If we do not reverse course soon, we truly will have something to apologize for.
The above is adapted from a speech delivered by Rick Santorum, Americans and the World: Resetting the Course, at the National Press Club on April 28, 2011 and an op-ed posted on the NRO website.
