Posted on 02/10/2012 11:15:29 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Rick Santorum’s is a familiar face at CPAC. He’s been here in years when he was little more than a sidenote in the programming, and he’s been here in years, like this one, when his is the face attendees crowd to see. But, year in and year out, what he has stood for has not changed. That consistency was especially evident in his speech today, in which he expounded on his — and, indeed, Americans’ — long-held conviction that men are endowed with rights by their Creator — not given those rights by the government.
“We know there’s a lot of excitement here because this election is about big, big things,” Santorum said. “We know it’s about big things; it’s about foundational principles. Every speech I’ve given from the 381 townhall meetings I did in Iowa, I talked about founding principles. This campaign is gonna be about a vision, about who we are as Americans.”
That vision? No more and no less than the one outlined in the Declaration of Independence, the document that Santorum said explains the “why” of America. “Are we going to believe, as our Founders did, that our rights don’t come from the government, that they come from a much higher authority?” Santorum asked today. “There are those in the Oval Office who believe that’s not the case, that rights do, in fact, come from the government, and they have gone around convincing the American people that they can give you rights. We see what happens when government gives you rights. When government gives you rights, government can take away those rights. When government gives you rights, they can coerce you in doing things in exercising the rights that they gave you.”
Santorum cited Obamacare as a perfect example of a government trumped-up right and predicted a dire outcome of government-defined rights.
“As a result, government will own because you will have to pay tribute to Washington in order to get the care you need for your children,” he said.
The major reason Santorum entered the presidential race, he said, was because he saw Obamacare as a “gamechanger.” As a longstanding supporter of bottom-up solutions to out-of-control health care costs and lack of access, Santorum is in an enviable position — at least from the perspective of his competitors — to make Obamacare a central issue of the race in 2012.
But it won’t be Santorum’s only issue. Among other topics, he touched today on jobs (his economic plan, he said, harnesses “supply-side economics for the working man,”) and energy (which he said is an issue we must not allow to be demagogued), drawing clear contrasts between his positions and the past positions of his competitors.
He left his audience with a question and a challenge: “Why would an undecided voter vote for a candidate the party is not excited about? We need conservatives now to rally for a conservative to go into November, to excite the conservative base, to pull with that excitement moderate voters and to defeat Barack Obama in the fall. … Please walk out of this gathering and choose the candidate that you believe is the right person to lead this country, so you can say, ‘I have done my duty. I have kept my honor.’”
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO
Wer’nt the Occuetards supposed to creating violence today? Or is the weather too cold for them today?
Santorum regrugitates Newt. He doesn’t have an ounce of practice. Look at his voting record. He says one thing and does another.
Santorum was Senator for 12 years. Newt never had any state wide experience and was only Speaker for 4.
Besides Mittens and Newt and Rick S., who’s left in the race?
Correct. Like it or not, we better come together somehow and get behind one of them. Obama MUST be defeated!
Im starting to like Santorum
That’s why Rick is rising in the polls. He just explained Conservatism clearly and directly in 13 words.
RE: Besides Mittens and Newt and Rick S., who’s left in the race?
I didn’t read any news that says Ron Paul has dropped out...
I’m starting to like Santorum
Not me. Please check his voting record in the Senate.
I ask because there’s already talk of the possibility of a brokered convention. If Rick and Newt split the majority of the conservative vote all the way to Tampa Bay, what happens next? Would the two be willing/able to negotiate some sort of coalition and combine their delegates?
I think you need to do more research on Rick, hun. This will get you started:
“Full-spectrum conservative: While perhaps best-known as a social conservative, Santorum has bona fides in all areas of conservative philosophy — economics, foreign policy, etc. Put simply, he’s versatile.
And in a field that will likely have no other senators and correspondingly limited foreign policy experience, Santorum can point to his eight years on the Senate Armed Services committee as proof that he will be prepared to handle an uncertain situation in the Middle East from day one.”
With all due respect, Hon, I think you need to do your homework. Santorum doesn’t know to drop out. He’s winging it without any backbone or conservative thoughts... but let’s not babble on that. Let’s look at the facts:
Santorum is a tool of the soverignty sloughers:
NEA
Voted for taxpayer funding of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Voted against a 10% cut in the budget for National Endowment for the Arts.
Bankruptcy
Voted for a Schumer amendment to make the debts of pro-life demonstrators not dischargeable in bankruptcy.
Defense and Foreign Policy
Voted for the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
Voted against requiring the President to certify that the CWC is effectively verifiable.
Voted against requiring the President to certify that that Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, North Korea, China, and all other countries determined to be state sponsors of terror have joined CWC prior to submitting the instrument of ratification.
Voted for the START II Treaty.
Voted to allow the sale of supercomputers to China.
Voted to ban anti-personnel landmines.
Voted against increasing defense spending offset by equivalent cuts in non-defense spending.
Voted to require that Federal bureaucrats get the same pay raises as uniformed military.
Voted to allow food and medicine sales to state sponsors of terror and tyrannical regimes such as Libya and Cuba.
Voted to limit the President’s authority to impose sanctions on nations for reasons of national security unless the sanctions were approved by a multilateral regime.
Voted against requiring Congressional authorization for military action in Bosnia.
Voted to give $25 million in foreign aid to North Korea.
Voted to weaken alien terrorist deportation provisions. If the Court determines that the evidence must be withheld for national security reasons, the Justice Department must still provide a summary of the evidence sufficient for the alien terrorist to mount a defense against deportation.
Voted against delaying the India Nuclear until the President certified that India had agreed to suspend military-to-military exchanges with Iran.
Voted against the Conventional Trident Missile Program.
Nominations
Voted for Richard Paez to the 9th Curcuit (cloture).
Voted for Sonia Sotomayor, Circuit Judge.
Voted for Richard Holbrooke to be Ambassador to the UN.
Voted for Margaret Morrow to be District Judge.
Voted twice for Marsha Berzon to the 9thg Circuit.
Voted for Mary McLaughlin to be District Judge.
Voted for Tim Dyk to be District Judge.
Voted for James Brady to be District Judge.
Labor
Voted against National Right to Work Act.
Voted against repeal of Davis-Bacon Prevailing union wages.
Voted for Alexis Herman to be Secretary of Labor.
Voted for mandatory Federal child care funding.
Voted for Trade Adjustment Assistance.
Voted for Job Corps funding.
Voted twice in support of Fedex Unionization.
Voted against allowing a waiver of Davis-Bacon in emergency situations.
Voted for minimum wage increases six times here here here here here and here.
Voted to require a union representative on an IRS oversight board.
Voted to exempt IRS union representatives from criminal ethics laws.
Voted against creating independent Board of Governors to investigate IRS abuses.
Guns
Voted to require pawn shops to do background checks on people who pawn a gun.
Voted twice to make it illegal to sell a gun without a secure storage or safety device.
Voted for a Federal ban on possession of “assault weapons” by those under 18.
Voted for Federal funding for anti-gun education programs in schools.
Voted for anti-gun juvenile justice bill.
Reform
Voted for funding for the legal services corporation.
Voted twice for a Congressional pay raise.
Voted to impose a uniform Federal mandate on states to force them to allow convicted rapists, arsonists, drug kingpins, and all other ex-convicts to vote in Federal elections.
Voted for the Specter “backup plan” to allow campaign finance reform to survive if portions of the bill were found unconstitutional.
Voted to mandate discounted broadcast times for politicians.
Voted for a McCain amendment to require state and local campaign committees to report all campaign contributions to the FEC and to require all campaign contributions to be reported to the FEC within 24 hours within 90 days of an election.
Immigration
Voted against increasing the number of immigration investigators.
Voted to allow illegal immigrants to receive the earned income credit before becoming citizens.
Voted to give SSI benefits to legal aliens.
Voted to give welfare benefits to naturalized citizens without regard to the earnings of their sponsors.
Voted against hiring an additional 1,000 border patrol agents, paid for by reductions in state grants.
Taxes
Voted against a flat tax.
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to pay for Medicare prescription drugs.
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to fund health insurance subsidies for small businesses.
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to pay for an $8 billion increase in child healh insurance.
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to pay for an increase in NIH funding.
Voted twice for internet taxes.
Voted to allow gas tax revenues to be used to subsidize Amtrak.
Voted to strike marriage penalty tax relief and instead provide fines on tobacco companies.
Voted against repealing the Clinton 4.3 cent gas tax increase.
Voted to increase taxes by $2.3 billion to pay for an Amtrak trust fund.
Voted to allow welfare to a minor who had a child out of wedlock and who resided with an adult who was on welfare within the previous two years.
Voted to increase taxes by $9.4 billion to pay for a $9.4 billion increase in student loans.
Voted to say that AMT patch is more important than capital gains and dividend relief.
Welfare
Voted against food stamp reform.
Voted against Medicaid reform.
Voted against TANF reform.
Voted to increase the Social Services Block Grant from $1 billion to $2 billion.
Voted to increase the FHA loan from $170,000 to $197,000. Also opposed increasing GNMA guaranty from 6 basis points to 12.
Voted for $2 billion for low income heating assistance.
Waste
Sponsored an amendment to increase Amtrak funds by $550 million.
Voted to use HUD funds for the Joslyn Art Museum (NE), the Stand Up for Animals project (RI) and the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Project (WA).
Voted to increase spending on social programs by $7 billion.
Voted to increase NIH funding by $1.6 billion.
Voted to increase NIHnding by $700 million.
Voted to for a $2 million earmark to renovate the Vulcan Monument (AL).
Voted for a $1 billion bailout for the steel industry.
Voted against requiring that highway earmarks would come out of a state’s highway allocation.
Voted to allow Market Access Program funds to go to foreign companies.
Voted to allow OPIC to increase its administrative costs by 50%.
Voted against transferring $20 million from AmeriCorps to veterans.
Voted for the $140 billion asbestos compensation bill.
Voted against requiring a uniform medical criteria to ensure asbestos claims were legitimate.
Voted to increase community development programs by $2 billion.
Spending and Entitlements
Voted to make Medicare part B premium subsidies a new entitlement.
Voted against paying off the debt ($5.6 trillion at the time) within 30 years.
Voted to give $18 billion to the IMF.
Voted to raid Social Security instead of using surpluses to pay down the debt.
Health Care
Voted to allow states to impose health care mandates that are stricter than proposed new Federal mandates, but not weaker.
Voted twice for Federal mental health parity mandates in health insurance.
Voted against allowing consumers the option to purchase a plan outside the parity mandate.
Education
Voted to increase Federal funding for teacher testing.
Voted to increase spending for the Department of Education by $3.1 billion.
Voted against requiring courts to consider the impact of IDEA awards on a local school district.
Energy
Voted to allow the President to designate certain sites as interim nuclear waste storage sites in the event that he determines that Yucca Mountain is not a suitable site for a permanent waste repository. Those sites are as follows: the nuclear waste site in Hanford, Washington; the Savannah River Site in South Carolina; Barnwell County, South Carolina; and the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee.
Voted to make fuel price gouging a Federal crime.
I’d like the right not to be forced to join a union and pay dues against my will in order to work, but Mr. Individual Rights and Freedom Santorum voted against that.
I think you need just a little more help rather than copy and paste rotten cheeries from anti-Rick websites. Is this from Erickson again?
Not all of Red State is duped, so here’s another blogger from Red State, and it is FAIR:
“Democrats created the last $5 TRILLION in new debt since 2006 (after Santorum left office, btw)
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If we want to vet Santorum for real and not just throw talking points … let’s go to the record. The record will show that Santorum was and is a solid, mainstream conservative Congressman and Senator. In the 1990s, Santorum was a part of the Gingrich-led Congress that balanced the budget. And in 2002 to 2006 the budget deficit went to $250 billion – high but nothing like the level under Obama, Reid and Pelosi. Claims that Santorum is a big-government conservative are simply contrary to his full record and his conservative agenda as a candidate for President, where he wants to repeal Obamacare, cap spending at 18% and follow the Ryan roadmap and pass the BBA.
snip
Club for Growth notes he deviations and issues on big-spending ticket items under Bush, including No Child Left Behind and Medicare Part D, which Bush got most Congressional Republicans to support. They note his solid support for school choice, for Social Security entitlement reform, and some ‘mixed bag’ items in regulations: He voted NO on the oppressive McCain-Feingold bill in 2002. They also note with interest this:
One of those exceptions came in 2009, in the special election for Congress in New York’s 23rd district. Santorum was the second high profile potential presidential candidate (Sarah Palin was the first) to endorse Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman over liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava. This showed leadership for the limited government cause because of the timing of the endorsement, coming before establishment Republicans had figured out that Scozzafava was a losing candidate.
This is interesting because Newt Gingrich went a different way and endorsed the non-conservative Scozzafava. Club for Growth summarizes thusly
snip
On the whole, Rick Santorum’s record on economic issues in the U.S. Senate was above average. More precisely, it was quite strong in some areas and quite weak in others. He has a strong record on taxes, and his leadership on welfare reform and Social Security was exemplary.
snip
Another source is VoteSmart. It shows a 100% prolife position. His National Taxpayer rating is 76%. ACU ratings in the 80-90% range.Some other positions:
2006 FreedomWorks – Positions 83%
2005 Americans for Tax Reform – Positions 95%
2005 FreedomWorks – Positions 63%
2005 National Taxpayers Union – Positions 69%
2004 Americans for Tax Reform – Positions 95%
2004 American Shareholders Association – Positions 90%
2004 National Taxpayers Union – Positions 83%
Here are his ratings from when he was in Congress:
American Conservative Union — 88%
National Right to Life Committee — 100%
Americans for Tax Reform — 95%
National Tax Limitation Committee — 92%
U.S. Chamber of Commerce — 88%
League of Private Property Voters — 94%
Now remember, this is Santorum’s House ratings, in a DEMOCRAT district. How many Republicans in Democrat areas vote this conservative?
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Where Santorum deviated from the conservative line, like his vote on NAFTA and his support for earmarks, he was doing the exceptional thing, and those deviations were in most cases catering to his constituents. But UNLIKE most Northeast Republicans, that ‘catering’ did not extend to abandoning conservative principles again and again. They’ve been the exception to the rule that Congressman and Senator Rick Santorum held. With his support for lower taxes, prolife and profamily policies, conservative Judges, for balanced budgets and entitlement reform, against McCain-Feingold, for school choice, against TARP and Frank-Dodd. Rick Santorum has had a solid and mostly consistent conservative voting record.
Santorum further has a solid and conservative agenda for President. Romney timidly talks of getting spending maybe down to 20% of GDP. Rick Santorum fully supports the Republican balanced budget amendment that caps spending at 18% of GDP. He wants lower tax rates for all, going to a 10%/28% two tier tax rate and lowering corporate tax rates.
While Gingrich criticized the Ryan roadmap, Santorum embraced it. Newt supported Medicare Part D, supported at one time healthcare mandates, and supported all the Bush programs that conservatives object to in Santorum’s voting record. Romney has gone further of course, embracing not just TARP, but healthcare mandates and failing to even fully criticize the Obama stimulus spending. Only Gingrich or Santorum will wage a campaign that fully challenges Obama’s whole agenda and actually works to repeal it. Newt has pegged Mitt Romney rightly as a Massachusetts moderate, but Newt is not without flys in his ointment either, from global warming to embracing Hillary, Pelosi and Al Sharpton (!) at various times in attempts to ‘reach across’ bipartisanly.
The bottom line is that between Newt, Santorum, and Romney .. Santorum is the one who is most fiscally conservative and who will have the most fiscally conservative administration as President.
Both Newt and Santorum are conservative. Just not perfect conservatives. For those who say that Santorum is not a ‘true conservative’, I would argue simply that if an 85% ACU rating and leadership on conservative issues in Congress for almost 2 decades is not enough, you will NEVER find a ‘true conservative’ in the Presidential field.
For the rest of us without that fine a filter, yes, Rick Santorum is a ‘true conservative’. Conservatives will be happy with his SCOTUS picks, his support of our military, his support for life, his tax reform and entitlement reforms, his pro-energy policies, his economic growth agenda, his fiscally responsible budgets, and his appeal to get America working again
http://www.redstate.com/wosg/2012/01/06/rick-santorum-yes-he-is-a-true-conservative/
Rick Santorum is running as he voted as a Senator. Consistent and conservative.
Wow! If Rick did all that anti-gun stuff, Newt must really suck on this issue since both the NRA and GOA rate Santorum higher than Gingrich on 2nd Amendment issues.
IS it true or untrue that he not even on the ballot in several states including TN, IL, and has no delegates on many others? I mean it’s impossible for him to win. All he can do is be part of a brokered convention.
No one doubts that hes a good and decent man. He’s not strong enough to lead this country. Good senator. Sorry.
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