CEDAR FALLS, Iowa --- Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum called the special 12-member deficit congressional committee a "bell and whistle" that likely won't achieve anything during a stop in Cedar Falls Tuesday.
Santorum, a former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, echoed skepticism expressed by House Republican leaders and other fiscal conservatives over the committee. Congress should instead implement a balanced budget amendment that will hold lawmakers accountable.
"It's exactly a little bit, a drop of medicine that the balanced budget amendment would require," he said to a crowd at the Park Place Events Centre. "The full dose of medicine is to get the Congress to do what they have to do and force them to do it, which is to limit government and balance the budget. What this commission is just a little dropper to do a piece of that in the short term."
The commission, which is part of a debt ceiling deal passed last week, is charged with finding at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reductions. However, several Republican presidential candidates, including Santorum, said it was the wrong approach.
Santorum also said he believed the deal and a subsequent credit downgrade by Standard and Poor's showed Washington is in dire need of leadership, which President Barack Obama isn't providing.
"He just says ‘It's not my fault' and ‘America will be fine,'" Santorum said.
Over the weekend, Standard and Poor's changed the U.S. rating from AAA to AA+. The other two ratings agencies - Moody's and Fitch - kept the country's rating at AAA.
Santorum is in the midst of a 14-day, 50-city tour ahead to drum up support at the Iowa Straw Poll in Ames Saturday. For much of his talk, Santorum focused on his career in Congress, which began in 1990 with his first Congressional election. That career ended in 2006 when he lost re-election of his Senate seat to former Pennsylvania Gov. Bob Casey.
Santorum said he's the only one in the field who's helped reform entitlement programs like welfare on a national level. He said he's also fought for traditional family values, like preserving one-man, one-woman marriage.
"I haven't signed pledges, I've taken votes," Santorum said.
He also indicated that he wanted to finish "in the top half" of the straw poll results in an effort to stay in the race.
WCFCourier.com
by Josh Nelson
http://wcfcourier.com/iowacaucus/profiles/rick_santorum/santorurm-pushes-for-balanced-budget-amendment-during-cedar-falls-stop/article_220861ae-c2a3-11e0-8e44-001cc4c002e0.html
