Mr. Santorum has called President Obama’s foreign policy a “disaster for America,” saying the president has played down the threat of Islamic terrorism. “We need to start by crushing ISIS now,” he has said of the Islamic State,
calling for the United States to “bomb them back to the seventh century.” A staunch supporter of Israel, he says Mr. Obama is wrong in pressuring that nation to seek a negotiated peace deal with the
Palestinians. Mr. Santorum argues that the main threats to stability in the Middle East are what he calls the “deranged leadership” of Hamas and, more important, Iran. He names Russia and China as the other primary threats to the United States. Citing Moscow’s growing militarism, he says he would put missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic.
His foreign policy stance does have a nice ring to it.
Here are some of his Senate votes on taxes:
• 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
So far so good!
Here is his record on trade. This is decidedly mixed
Voted YES on the Oman Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
• Voted YES on CAFTA
• Voted YES on the Morocco FTA
• Voted YES on the Australia FTA
• Voted YES on the Chile FTA
• Voted YES on the Singapore FTA
• Voted YES to Trade Promotion Authority
• Voted YES to extend normal trade relations with China.
In perhaps the most important free trade vote of the last generation,
Santorum voted against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993, perhaps the most important trade vote cast during his career in Congress. As a member of the Senate Steel Caucus, Santorum voted for and
co-sponsored a bill to slap tariffs on imported steel in 1999. In 2005, Santorum voted in support of an amendment that would impose a 27.5% tariff on all Chinese imports if China didn’t readjust their currency upward.
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He has also been sort of anti-regulation, voting against Dodd-Frank and against Cap and Trade. He also voted to open ANWAR to drilling.
However he voted yes on Sarbanes-Oxley.
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Significantly, he was one of the Senators who attempted to reign in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2005. This effort fell on the deaf ears of Barney Frank and Maxine Waters and we all know how that played out.
Along with 24 of his colleagues, he signed a letter that read, “If effective regulatory reform legislation ... is not enacted this year, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system and the economy as a whole.”
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He actually looks OK.
However his vote against NAFTA and for Sarbanes-Oxley indicate a vein of political expediency and a protectionist bent. He is clearly not coming at these issues through a hard-nosed belief in the underlying economics.
I guess he deserves a look, but I still prefer Jeb Bush whose record in Florida was more consistent on taxes and regulation ... and on spending (which I did not cover here, but which appears mixed.)
