Rick Santorum, Big Spender?
Paul A. Rahe ·
February 15, 2012 at 7:39pm
Anyone inclined to be misled by the Romney advertisement posted by Troy Senik below should read the article Was Santorum a Senate Spendthrift? posted by Jeffrey Anderson and Andy Wickersham on the website of The Weekly Standard. It turns out that the National Taxpayers Union -- no friend to big spenders -- consistently gave Rick Santorum higher grades than almost any other Republican Senator.
Santorum has his weaknesses. But in this particular he is unassailable. What will the Romney people do next? Accuse him of having committed nepotism with his own sister?
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May '10
Re: Rick Santorum, Big Spender?
The Club for Growth is one of the groups that like to distort the records of the candidates they don't like for whatever reason. Just sayin', from past experience.
May '10
Re: Rick Santorum, Big Spender?
James Of England
"Spending" is cherry picking?
There you go again, making up your own interpretation of what I said. In other words, constructing a straw man.
Where did I ever say spending as an issue was cherry picked? This ad, as typical of these kinds of attacks, cherry-picks a few votes and presents them out of context. By doing this kind of thing, you could make Mother Theresa look like the devil. And people actually do.
Your efforts to make these charges stick are actually kind of pathetic. As a partisan, your brain has shut off except to engage the "enemy."
Edited on February 16, 2012 at 6:16amJul '10
Re: Rick Santorum, Big Spender?
Chris Deleon
James Of England
"Spending" is cherry picking?
There you go again, making up your own interpretation of what I said. In other words, constructing a straw man.
Where did I ever say spending as an issue was cherry picked? This ad, as typical of these kinds of attacks, cherry-picks a few votesand presents them out of context. By doing this kind of thing, you could make Mother Theresa look like the devil. And people actually do. · 1 minute ago
Edited 0 minutes ago
Romney didn't do that though, right?
Edited on February 16, 2012 at 6:18amMay '10
Re: Rick Santorum, Big Spender?
Palaeologus
Not Romney though, right?
No, there's no substance on which to attack Romney. None whatsoever. We just cherry-picked Romneycare out of his whole entire stellar, super-conservative record.
OK, that's juvenile, I admit.
But come on, we're talking about this misleading ad here, and the wild distortion that Rick is some kind of crazy big government spender. Reality is much milder than that, and I'd like to hear something other than ever-escalating hyperbole culminating in James from England's "Santorum led the charge against fiscal responsibility!". I'm certainly not making any charge like that about Romney. Did you ever hear "Romney led the charge against freedom!" from me?
Edited on February 16, 2012 at 6:22amJul '10
Re: Rick Santorum, Big Spender?
Chris Deleon
Palaeologus
Not Romney though, right?
But come on, we're talking about this crazy ad here, and the wild distortion that Rick is some kind of crazy big government spender. Reality is much milder than that...
OK Chris.
But the same holds with the "running to left of Ted Kennedy" nonsense. It also holds with the "Obama is better because he won't wreck our brand" nonsense.
Surely, you can recognize that 30-second commercials are just that, whether they are Mitt's or Rick's.
They are both professional politicians, this ad was typical, and at worst, mildly misleading.
It was certainly no more misleading than this hastily construed, well-intentioned post.
Oct '10
Re: Rick Santorum, Big Spender?
chrislhayes After two years of tea-party, gadsen flag, live free or die rhetoric, GOP base is now favoring one of the least libertarian pols of our era
about 15 hours ago
Apr '11
Re: Rick Santorum, Big Spender?
Chris Deleon
James Of England
"Spending" is cherry picking?
There you go again, making up your own interpretation of what I said. In other words, constructing a straw man.
Where did I ever say spending as an issue was cherry picked? This ad, as typical of these kinds of attacks, cherry-picks a fewvotesand presents them out of context. By doing this kind of thing, you could make Mother Theresa look like the devil. And people actually do.
Your efforts to make these charges stick are actually kind of pathetic. As a partisan, your brain has shut off except to engage the "enemy." · 2 hours ago
Edited 2 hours ago
OK. The ad cherry picks some votes, that's true. Sorry, I thought you were referring to my cherry picking, and the Club For Growth's. Misunderstanding. Since I'd been referring to the totality of his bills, cherry picking seemed like an odd claim.
Regarding the ad, there are some cherry picked bills and some broad statements. It's quite hard to giver comprehensive guides in 30 seconds on complicated issues.
Apr '11
Re: Rick Santorum, Big Spender?
Chris Deleon
Palaeologus
Not Romney though, right?
No, there's no substance on which to attack Romney. None whatsoever.
OK, that's juvenile, I admit.
But come on, we're talking about this misleading ad here, and the wild distortion that Rick is some kind of crazy big government spender. Reality is much milder than that, and I'd like to hear something other than ever-escalating hyperbole culminating in James from England's "Santorum led the charge against fiscal responsibility!". I'm certainly not making any charge like that about Romney. Did you ever hear "Romney led the charge against freedom!" from me? ·
For the GOP's worst congress (the 109th), he was amongst the worst on the issue. If that's not enough to suggest that he was, by GOP standards, "a crazy big spender", assuming the word "crazy" is a superlative rather than a questioning of his sanity, I don't know what is.
Not all that spending was bad. He supported some cuts that didn't work out. He's done a lot of good things. Still, on this, his record stinks.
On other issues, he's generally strong; social (duh!), tort reform, sometimes regulations, foreigners...
May '10
Re: Rick Santorum, Big Spender?
Here's an article in the Weekly Standard, in case you haven't seen it yet, that makes a stunning case, by the numbers, that Santorum was, in office, not only a fiscal conservative, but among the two or three most conservative senators, despite the fact that he came from a bluish state. It's impressive.
Feb '12
Re: Rick Santorum, Big Spender?
Certain conservative questions aren't winners now because the GOP consistently assumed in past elections that they weren't winners. If you do not make the arguments, the other side will win by default (especially if the other side is aggressive, indignant, and ruthless). And it's not just "social" questions that I mean. After the victories and near-victories of so many conservatives backed by Jim DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund - when the typical GOP view was that only "moderates" had any chance - I hope that more Republicans are rethinking their assumptions about which conservative questions might be winners, now or eventually.
May '10
Re: Rick Santorum, Big Spender?
Katie, you probably forgot which thread you were on in all the frenzied posting going on, but this is the same article that Paul Rahe linked to at the top of the conversation.
It's pretty clear that people will filter out information that doesn't jive with their candidate. (We all do it-- it just helps to be self-aware about the process.) I think the pro-Romney folks on this thread have challenged the analysis from the National Taxpayers' Union on this thread. Fine, they can try to undermine it, but it's a pretty hard case to make that he was one of the worst spenders in the Senate. You can only do that by cherry-picking votes and ignoring the big picture, which your brain on partisan politics is very good at doing.
Apr '11
Re: Rick Santorum, Big Spender?
Chris Deleon
Katie, you probably forgot which thread you were on in all the frenzied posting going on, but this is the same article that Paul Rahe linked to at the top of the conversation.
It's pretty clear that people will filter out information that doesn't jive with their candidate. (We all do it-- it just helps to be self-aware about the process.) I think the pro-Romney folks on this thread have challenged the analysis from the National Taxpayers' Union on this thread. Fine, they can try to undermine it, but it's a pretty hard case to make that he was one of the worst spenders in the Senate. You can only do that by cherry-picking votes and ignoring the big picture, which your brain on partisan politics is very good at doing. ·
We have little data to understand the NTU claim that overall, on taxes, spending and other issues, Santorum was good, not specifically on spending. What data the NTU provides on the spending side of that portrays a pattern of heavy spending and trivial cuts. The Club For Growth takes a holistic look and makes the claim you describe as pretty hard.