Democracy Has Prevailed.

July 22, 2005

How Philadelphia Sees Senator Santorum

You have to check out this column by Ronnie Polaneczky (registration required). Polaneczky has some serious problems with Senator Santorum's hypocrisy.

For example, he writes:

Here's what Santorum wrote about giving financial aid to poor single moms:

"The classic example of the failure of liberal social and economic policy is the Great Society welfare programs... . Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC), as welfare was known until 1996, put government in the role of family breadwinner."

Clearly, Rick has a problem with paying moms to have babies, and frankly, I do too.

But here's what he wrote regarding his demand that government increase the child credit and tax deduction for parents with kids: "The government actually provides less help the more children you have. The opposite should be true, and I am working on some amendments to fix this inequity for large families. (OK, I admit that with six kids of my own at home, I'm biased; but the tax code really has it in for big families.)"

What I suspect he's really saying: An out-of-work mom with more kids than she can afford doesn't deserve the government's help. But a middle-class senator with more kids than he can afford sure does!

Where he sometimes gets help instead: Santorum told the New York Times that his parents help him out financially. "They're by no means wealthy - they're two retired VA [Veterans Administration] employees - but they'll send a check every now and then. They realize things are a little tighter for us."

Except that he makes $162,000 a year. I'll bet a welfare mom of six kids could live very well on that, so why is a 47-year-old man hitting up his elderly parents for cash? Or asking for tax breaks?

But at least his folks have the money to lend him. That's because both his parents receive pensions. Why? Santorum grew up in a two-career family - a kind of family he deplores in his book as being obsessed with giving their kids "things" instead of time!

"Children of two parents who are working don't need more things. They need more us!" he writes in his book.

It's a good read. Go get the whole thing.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It is just more political posturing on his part. You are correct, if he makes $100K+ a year I doubt he borrows pension money from his parents. His views on dual- income families is not wrong. In an ideal world a stay at home or at least a part-time working parent would benefit our children, unfortunatly over taxation and out of control consumerism has made this option unattainable for anyone that desires to move ahead financially.