Friday afternoon at the Dublin School in Dublin, New Hampshire, Rick Santorum offered a preview of his own general election argument against President Barack Obama. He quoted Juan Williams’s account of how the Obama administration rationalized its plan to push forward on passing Obamacare, even though Democrats had lost Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat to Scott Brown. “We believe Americans love entitlements and once we get them hooked on this entitlement, they will never let it go,” Williams apparently told Santorum of the administration’s thinking in the green room at Fox News.
From there, Santorum took off:
That’s how they see you, folks. People to addict. Hook. The president was up against a wall in the summer when the debt ceiling increase was being pushed. He went out to the American people and said, “Go out and call members of Congress to have them pass this debt ceiling without doing any spending cuts. Pass a clean debt ceiling.” Did he go out in front of the cameras with soaring rhetoric, with a vision for America as to why people should storm Capitol Hill to make sure the debt ceiling was raised? Did he inspire us? Did he lift us up with lofty goals and a vision for America?
No. What did he say? He looked at the camera and said, “If you’re a Social Security recipient, you better call because you’re not going to get your check. If you’re a Medicare recipient, sorry. You better call or you’re not going to get your benefits. If you’re the wife or the husband of someone deployed overseas, sorry, no paycheck.”
Hook. Dependency. This is the power that this president wants to exercise, and he wants more of it. Just like the kings of old. That’s what this election’s about.
No. What did he say? He looked at the camera and said, “If you’re a Social Security recipient, you better call because you’re not going to get your check. If you’re a Medicare recipient, sorry. You better call or you’re not going to get your benefits. If you’re the wife or the husband of someone deployed overseas, sorry, no paycheck.”
Hook. Dependency. This is the power that this president wants to exercise, and he wants more of it. Just like the kings of old. That’s what this election’s about.
For more, read Jonathan V. Last’s article on Santorum in the latest issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
