Why I can't vote for Santorum

I have to say I'm not exactly super excited Santorum won yesterday. It seems the race has narrowed down to Romney versus Santorum. Given that the race is narrowed down to those two, I will vote for Romney because as Jonah Goldberg has pointed out "If elected, Romney must follow through for conservatives and honor his vows to repeal Obamacare, implement Representative Paul Ryan’s agenda, and stay true to his pro-life commitments." In the same article, Goldberg mentions that Romney is not a man of vision, instead he is a man of duty and purpose. Now, that is upsetting for most U.S. citizens because over time the President has become an office of vision and charisma, unlike what the founders intended the presidency to be, but that's not the point of this post. Am I waffling on my candidate? No. I haven't ever been that excited about Santorum, except for the way he handled the same-sex marriage issue at a college a while back; other than that, I haven't had a lot to say about him other than he is not a fiscal conservative. I have said that much. Check out the video below.

When asked about fiscal issues he says, "Go vote for Ron Paul." OK, I will. Now, it could be said maybe Romney would say the same thing, but I find it interesting that Santorum replied the way he did. Anyway, what is Santorum's fiscal record? Club for Growth writes that his economic record is above average, "But his record also contains several very weak spots, including his active support of wasteful spending earmarks, his penchant for trade protectionism, and his willingness to support large government expansions like the Medicare prescription drug bill and the 2005 Highway Bill. As president, Santorum would most likely lead the country in a pro-growth direction, but his record contains more than a few weak spots that make us question if he would resist political expediency when it comes to economic issues." 

I read this over at Lonely Conservative: 

One complaint is that Mr. Santorum’s claim of being the only truly small-government conservative among the three top GOP nomination contenders is undermined by his support of big-government spending while in the Senate — especially when it comes to the mile-long Pittsburgh tunnel project that was part of a deal with Mr. Brooks and his union.

In exchange for helping push through federal support for the project, Mr. Santorum won the endorsement of the state’s building and construction trade unions — including Mr. Brooks‘ 14,000-member carpenters union.

Even Sen. Arlen Specter, then a Republican from Pennsylvania, turned against the project when its overruns climbed to $450 million and then hit $528 million.

“We had a deal with Santorum,” said Mr. Brooks, whose Greater Pennsylvania Regional Council of Carpenters, along with other major building and construction trade unions, endorsed Mr. Santorum after the senator went to bat in Washington for construction of the tunnel under the Allegheny River. The tunnel’s only stop is at the two taxpayer-funded sports stadiums built with Mr. Santorum’s support.

“Very seldom are you going to have a union endorse a Republican,” said Mr. Brooks. “But the project created 4,000 jobs” — even if they were temporary — for workers in the construction and building trades.

Critics, including Mr. Specter, say the tunnel’s gargantuan costs far exceed its projected benefits to western Pennsylvania.

Read the rest here. 

Reading that story only confirmed my already made impression of the fiscal Santorum. He is a staunch conservative when it comes to social issues, but his fiscal philosophy is rotten, which doesn't make sense because good fiscal policies drive good social policies. If government is limited as it should be, then social programs social conservatives don't want funded will not be funded and there will be no "issue." 

I think my man Newt is out of the race, by that I mean he most likely cannot win the nomination; same goes for my man Paul, so I think the nomination race is most likely between Romney and Santorum and if that's true then my vote will be for Romney. I honestly think Romney can get votes from independent voters which help to get Obama out of office. Santorum? I don't think he can get independent votes because of his staunch social conservatism which will lead to four more years of Obama. 

Is Romney my ideal candidate? No he's not, so don't think I'm a Romney fan in any way. What do I want? I don't want four more years of Obama. 

I'll end the post with Goldberg's summary of Romney. 

"...Romney is not a man of vision. He is a man of duty and purpose. He was told to “fix” health care in ways Massachusetts would like. He was told to fix the 2002 Olympics. He was told to create Bain Capital. He did it all. The man does his assignments.

In this light, voting for Romney isn’t a betrayal, it’s a transaction. No, that’s not very exciting or reassuring for those who’d sooner see monkeys fly out their nethers than compromise again. But such a bargain may just be necessary before judgment day comes."