I intend to keep an ongoing thread of major anti-liberty positions of each significant candidate. I worked on a few of these in the last campaign also. Please bump this thread with new information as it comes out.
Article for sharing : Rick Santorum on the Issues
1996 - He voted for the anti-gun
Lautenberg Amendment to Federally strip citizens of gun rights if they are convicted of a certain misdemeanors.
2001 - He voted for
No Child Left Behind, further federalizing education in America, and doubling the size of the Department of Education, in both employees and in budget size.
2001 - He voted for the
USA PATRIOT Act.
2001 - He voted to
bailout the airline industry with Federal tax-dollars.
2002 - He voted for the creation of the
Department of Homeland Security.
2002 - He voted to
create the TSA, which now unconstitutionally searches people in airports, bus stations, subways, train stations, on highways, and more.
2003 - He voted to expand prescription drug entitlements with his support of
Medicare Part D, which is now a $7 Trillion unfunded liability.
2004 - Endorsed pro-abortion candidate
Arlen Specter.
2006 - He was the #1
most lobbied member of Congress.
2006 - Made list of most
corrupt members of Congress.
2008 - Wrote an article titled
Vote For Foreign Aid.
2008 - Endorsed
Mitt Romney as his first choice in 2008 election.
2011 - Advocates a
trade war with China.
2011 - Advocates
sodomy laws used to imprison homosexuals.
2011 - Says that
foreign scientists should be treated like members of al-Qaeda.
2011 - Advocates the TSA
racially profiling Muslims.
2012 - Says that he would
bomb Iran.
He voted to raise the debt ceiling at least 8 times.
He worked with Hillary Clinton to ban "inappropriate material" in
video games.
“I came to the House as a real deficit hawk, but I am no longer a deficit hawk. I’ll tell you why. I had to spend the surpluses. Deficits make it easier to say no.” --
Rick Santorum, 2/5/2003 (
source)
"If you're a conservative, there really is only one place to go right now. I would even argue farther than that. If you're a Republican, if you're a Republican in the broadest sense, there is only one place to go right now and that's Mitt Romney." --
Rick Santorum, 2/1/2008 (
source)
"I don’t want to go to a trade war. I want to beat China. I want to go to war with China and make America the most attractive place in the world to do business." --
Rick Santorum, 10/11/2011 (
source)
“And I stood up from the very beginning back in 2003 when the Supreme Court was going create a constitutional right to sodomy and said this is wrong we can’t do this. And so I stood up when no one else did and got hammered for it. I stood up and I continue to stand up.” --
Rick Santorum, 10/22/2011, (
source)
"I have always been a supporter of uniform laws on values that undergird the family. That's why I supported the Federal Marriage Amendment - you cannot have 50 different marriage laws. And you cannot have 50 different abortion laws." --
Rick Santorum, 2011 (
source)
"Don’t give me this idea — I hear this: ‘Oh, you’re a moralist. You’re trying to impose your values.’ Everybody’s trying to impose their values. That’s what America’s about." --
Rick Santorum, 12/29/2011 (
source)
CONCLUSION: Rick Santorum is a poster-boy for what drove voters away from his party during the Bush years. He supported all the worst expansions of the Federal Government when his so-called "conservative" principles should have led him to opposition. He's voted for the creation of multiple Federal agencies, supported bailouts, helped double the Department of Education, allowed the Federal Government to spy on U.S. citizens without warrants, supported every interventionist war, is an outspoken supporter of foreign aid, supported a terribly irresponsible expansion of Medicare, and has a history of making anti-libertarian comments. He is eager to use the power of govern to enforce his biases against certain cultures and lifestyles -- the mentality of a true authoritarian social engineer.
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