Santorum and Fiscal Issues
From what Mitt Romney and his surrogates are saying, you would think that Rick Santorum was the king of all earmarks and generally not a fiscally responsible guy when he was Pennsylvania’s junior senator.
Santorum’s Club For Growth grades during his final two years in office aren’t the picture of an unmitigated disaster Romney’s followers are trying to portray.
In 2005, Santorum got a 73%, putting him in a tie for 35th place, ahead of 18 of his Republican senatorial colleagues, including fellow Keystone State Senator Arlen Specter (47%) and Ohio colleagues George Voinovich (56%) and Mike DeWine (43%). Current Romney adviser Norm Coleman came in at 49%.
In 2006, Santorum improved to 81% and 21st place. It’s important to note that while Rick got better, the rest got worse [Specter (40%), Voinovich (40%), Coleman (44%)], except DeWine, who stayed the same (43%).
Santorum’s two-year average of 77% (labeled “lifetime,” but really only two years, because CFG only began publishing scorecards in 2005) puts him 28th among listed Senators. Romney endorser John McCain is a point behind; anyone with an ounce of observational power knows that Romney is far less conservative than McCain, who is only occasionally conservative himself.
There is also no doubt that as Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney didn’t mind feasting upon the earmarks the Bay State’s aggressive Democratic congressional cadre was able to extract from the public purse.
Romniacs need to find a better line of attack, because, especially in comparison to their own candidate, who for starters opposed the Bush tax cuts and raised taxes (oh, excuse me, mostly fees) by hundreds of millions of dollars while he was governor, this dog won’t hunt.
Unless you get an A (100%) you are failing.
What bills did he vote for that sunk him to an average of 77%?
I would have graded him zero for voting for NCLB, foreign aid, omnibus spending bill that included funds to Planned Parenthood, gun lock legislation and a bill that threw ice-cold water on abortion clincs demonstrators placing them in handcuffs for trying to talk women out of killing their baby.
Comment by sirbourbon — February 9, 2012 @ 5:13 pm
100%? Really? When are you running for president so we can vote for you?
NCLB had the potential to be a noble cause (and hasn’t worked out), there isn’t a senator in town who hasn’t supported some foreign aid (esp Israel and Egypt) and omnibus bills that were imperfect, and the last three are horse manure unless you can prove them with links. Good luck.
Comment by TBlumer — February 9, 2012 @ 5:45 pm
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