Rick Santorum: Candidate Profile
The Iowa caucus is less than a week away and one candidate is experiencing a late surge in the polls: Rick Santorum.
According to a new CNN/Time Magazine poll, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is currently looking at 25 percent support from likely Republican primary voters; directly behind him is Texas congressman Ron Paul with 22 percent. Santorum has moved into third place with 16 percent. His rise in the polls may come as a surprise to some political pundits who wrote off the former Pennsylvania senator and strict social conservative early on in his campaign.
Santorum’s rise in the polls may be the result of a faltering Ron Paul. At the same time, Santorum has the staunch social conservative policy that many Iowan voters are looking for.
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With this new rise, The Christian Post took a closer look at the potential policies of a Santorum presidency.
Foreign Policy Issues
Santorum has promised a more hawkish foreign policy. On his website, he lists strong demands that would be made of Iran if he here president and admonishes President Obama for his so-called weak policy. He promises to ensure that Iran never gets nuclear weapons and vows close allegiance to Israel. Unlike Obama, Santorum says he will not meet with the heads of any terrorist state and wants to eliminate the post of ambassador to Syria.
This is in stark contrast to Ron Paul, a libertarian, who takes a more dovish approach to international affairs. Santorum spent time in Iowa this week and criticized his opponent’s foreign policy, calling some of Paul’s plans “craziness.”
“Let’s get serious about what message Iowa is going to send to the country. We want a responsible conservative,” Santorum said, according to the Marion Patch. “Where you can be a dictator is the scary stuff he (Paul) is for.”
Santorum also opposed Obama’s withdrawal plan from Afghanistan. He claims that Obama is trying to win political points by leaving and warns that the Taliban has a good chance of re-inhabiting the region.
Also, while he has lofty plans to scale back trillions of dollars of government spending, the Department of Defense would not be on the chopping block under a hypothetical Santorum administration. According to Foreign Policy Magazine, he said Obama’s defense cuts are a sign that the president is trying to “intentionally degrade our military.”
Economic Issues
In an economic plan titled “Made in America,” Santorum preaches American exceptionalism and vows to empower the economy by cutting taxes, limiting the size of the government, and passing a balanced budget amendment.
Ten things under the Made in America plan that Santorum promises to do if elected:
1. Cut and simplify personal income taxes by cutting the number of tax rates to just two – 10 percent and 28 percent, returning to the Reagan era pro-growth top tax rate
2. Simplify the tax code and reduce middle income taxes by eliminating the alternative minimum tax
3. Simplify the tax code, encourage savings and investment, and reduce taxes by eliminating the death tax
4. Lower the capital gains and dividend tax rates to 12 percent to spur economic growth and investment
5. Reduce taxes for families by tripling the personal deduction for each child
6. Reduce and simplify taxes for families by eliminating marriage tax penalties throughout the federal tax code
7. Retain deductions for charitable giving, home mortgage interest, health care, retirement savings and children
8. Cut the corporate income tax rate in half to make our businesses competitive around the world, from 35 percent to 17.5 percent
9. Eliminate the corporate income tax for manufacturers – from 35 percent to 0 percent – which will spur middle income job creation in the United States and will create a job multiplier effect for workers
10. Spur innovation in America by increasing the research & development tax credit from 14 percent to 20 percent and make it permanent
Social Issues
Abortion – Santorum, like most GOP candidates, opposes abortion. However, while many of his Republican colleagues leave the door for abortion open in the case of rape, incest, and the mother’s health, Santorum believes it should be illegal under all circumstances.
"I believe that any doctor who performs an abortion should be criminally charged for doing so," he told NBC in June. "I've never supported criminalization of abortion for mothers, but I do for people who perform them."
He also advocates for a constitutional amendment defining a fetus as a child, thus making abortion equivalent to murder.
Gay Marriage – While all GOP hopefuls are against legalizing gay marriage, Santorum is perhaps the most adamant in his opposition. He does not believe states have the right to legalize gay marriage and he supports a constitutional amendment that would prevent states from doing so.
"We can't say, 'The 10th Amendment, they (states) can do what they want,'" he said in Iowa last month.
"This is too important for that. There's a basic and central value. The family is the bedrock of our society. Unless we protect it with the institution of marriage, our country will fall."
Santorum, however, goes further and believes that the federal government should outlaw homosexual activity. In 2003, he compared gay sex to bestiality and pedophilia and urged the government to outlaw it. When the Supreme Court struck down sodomy laws, Santorum argued, according to The Associated Press:
"If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual [homosexual] sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. Whether it's polygamy, whether it's adultery, whether it's sodomy, all of those things are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family."
