The Conservative Rick Santorum

Now that Rick Santorum has swept three states in this inexorably long Republican primary race——or does it seem so long because it is so boring——his record must be examined more closely. One thought that immediately comes to mind is that he is yet another of the “not Mitt” candidates. But he may be the most extreme of the right-wing alternative to Romney. Of his twelve years in Congress, his record of high profile votes includes:

• Voted NO on the Clinton tax hike in 1993
• Voted YES on the capital gains tax cut in 1997
• Voted NO on a cigarette tax hike in 1998
• Voted YES on repeal of the Alternative Minimum Tax in 1999
• Voted YES on the 2001 Bush tax cuts
• Voted YES to repeal the Death Tax in 2002
• Voted YES to the 2003 Bush tax cuts
• Voted YES to extend the Bush tax cuts in 2006

Obviously he loves to cut taxes, and yet he never saw an earmark he didn’t like. Not a good combination when you add up the accounting. He is an avid Tea Party devotee and would certainly descry any tax increase, but at the same time, he doesn’t know how to stop spending. The question then becomes: what is he spending? Obviously more debt. Ironically, he backs a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. Does he believe a piece of paper will do for him what he cannot do for himself?

His social agenda is about as conservative as you can get. Santorum added a provision to the 2001 No Child Left Behind bill that would have promoted questioning the theory of evolution in public school science classes, and requiring the teaching of intelligent design along with evolution. The bill with the Santorum Amendment included passed the Senate 91-8 and was hailed as a victory by intelligent design theory promoters. But before the bill became law, scientific and educational groups convinced the committee to strike the Santorum Amendment from the final bill. Since then, Santorum incredibly has shifted position slightly but decisively several times when faced with a difficult reelection campaign.

The liberal advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington listed Rick Santorum as one of its "most corrupt politicians," citing a bill which would have prohibited the National Weather Service from publishing weather data for free to the public when the private sector performed the same function commercially.

A synthetic fuel tax-credit amendment that Santorum added to a larger bill in 2006 was cited by Time magazine as "a multibillion-dollar scam" that benefited "a small group of the politically well connected."

It is possible to look further at Santorum’s Congressional record, and it is a rather disheartening one for a presidential candidate. And speaking of candidates, in many of his recent speeches campaigning, he has made a point of attacking Romney for allowing Massachusetts to allow rape victims to be given contraceptives. Yes, the man is not only against abortion for even rape victims, but also giving them contraceptive aid. He has said publicly that this would subject these poor victims of violence to yet more violence. I imagine he does not see carrying the baby of a rapist to term at all troublesome for thee women (and girls!). I think this may have even gotten some Catholics to sit up and wonder what Santorum would do if said rape victim were a member of his family.

I think many people are missing the point here. You see, I believe that if anyone in Rick Santorum's family were to be raped, he would still not permit an abortion. He is that extreme. Having Rick Santorum in any public office would be like having Cotton Mather come back to life and preach to us about "Sinners in the hands of an angry God." Not that he would be averse to toadying to special interests, mind you. But he is the symbol of the intransigence that has paralyzed Congress since the tea party people came to Washington claiming to know everything because they know nothing. And they would prefer that no one know anything. Rick Santorum seems to believe that he is on high moral ground being so rigid in his social values, being against anything that does not fit into his narrow view of the world.