Now for some SUBSTANCE!
“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.
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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
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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.
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/
This is a FAIR article, and criticizes, as well as compliments.
An article from early January? Guess the vetting hadn't yet turned up this ad where Santorum praised his bipartisan efforts with Hillary, Boxer and Lieberman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCyU5I43_Hc
This article didn't mention Santorum's pro-union voting history. That alone ranks him as less fiscally conservative than Newt.
Yes, if tonight was my first night at FR, I’d think that it was a pro-Romney site. The goofy things that people believe about Santorum are right out of the Soros playbook.