Posted on 01/05/2012 7:24:42 AM PST by Kaslin
BRENTWOOD, N.H. — Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum committed one of the gravest sins in Republican politics on Wednesday evening by knocking the revered former President Ronald Reagan at a packed town hall meeting.
While addressing America’s entitlement crisis at his first New Hampshire event since his stunning near-victory in the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday, Santorum said Reagan contributed to the entitlement crisis by pushing Social Security’s sustainability issues down the road instead of dealing with them head-on in the 1983 bipartisan deal to fix Social Security.
“If Rick Santorum gets elected and we do what I said that we need to do, which is to deal with the entitlement programs now, not 10 to 20 years from now,” Santorum said.
“You’ll know — unlike Ronald Reagan who maybe was a better politician than me — you’ll know that it was Rick Santorum that worked together and got the American public to gather together to fix this problem. Why? Because it is our problem.”
Santorum was walking the audience through what he called the “ancient days of yesteryear” in a interminable and incredibly detailed response to a questioner. He explained that in the 1983 deal Reagan brokered with Democratic Speaker of the House Tip O’Neil to fix Social Security, the retirement age was moved back to 67, but that change wasn’t slated to be enacted until the politicians responsible were out of office.
“This was the brilliance of the politicians that did this,” Santorum said sarcastically.
“They were absolutely brilliant. They passed a bill that didn’t take affect for 20 years so nobody blames them. It was brilliant. They increased the Social Security age by two years back in 1983 and it didn’t start phasing in, it doesn’t fully phase in for almost 40 years. And so Ronald Reagan did that. Most people have no idea — no one associates Ronald Reagan with raising the retirement age. Why? Because all of the people it affected were nowhere near retirement and they didn’t know about it.”
To another questioner, he continued his critique of Reagan for the Social Security deal.
“You know, I love Ronald Reagan, but if I would point to one thing during his administration that he did a serious wrong, it was this bill — it was this Social Security fix,” Santorum said.
“He bought the idea of increasing taxes now — that’s always what the left wants to do — increase taxes now, reduce benefits later. And that’s exactly what the bill did.”
Later Santorum invoked Reagan positively while explaining his plan to get rid of the tax code and create a new system with two rates: 10 percent and 28 percent.
Santorum said he chose 28 percent as the top rate, “Because that’s the top level Ronald Reagan put in place, and if it is good enough for Reagan on taxes, it’s good enough for me.”
He also regretted the debt problems which he did not fix, but noted that was a conscious decision to make them a lower priority than winning the Cold War.
Ronald Reagan was not God and would be offended if anyone said he was. He just happened to be the most capable president this country produced in more than the last century.
Why that dirty SOB. Get a rope! /sarc
Or maybe because it's best to give the citizens such changes will affect time to make adjustments in their retirement plans. Santorum's not making as great a point here as he seems to think.
I hope he becomes competitive beyond Iowa, but this one won't help him with many voters.
I agree the headline doesn’t match the story. It could just as easily be titled “Rick Santorum offers reasonable critique of 1983 law.”
Most conservatives know Reagan was not perfect. For some reason, the MSM has been led to believe we think he was.
Well based on this article, what Santorum said was a legit criticism, OTOH trying to discuss SS at that time was death for a politician.
“He bought the idea of increasing taxes now — that’s always what the left wants to do — increase taxes now, reduce benefits later. And that’s exactly what the bill did.”
That quote is accurate. I heard Santorum say it last night at a town hall broadcast on C-Span.
That said, the headline is over the top. Citing a disagreement over one aspect of one bill from 1983 is hardly “sacrilege”
Unless Ronald Reagan has been designated by the GOP as a diety, beyond all criticism, Santorum's comment on a specific issue does not warrant the Daily Caller's histrionic headline. In the meantime, Santorum's specific claim can be discussed, debated, or refuted with substantive evidence.
Oh. And Reagan himself would probably agree with what Santorum said last night.
This is exactly true. He did do that by raising FICA taxes and changing/reducing some benefits, and then spent the newly created surplus as did both Bush's and Clinton.
That is not to say that Santorum or any Republican will do better than Reagan did 30 years ago. Look at the recent congress/Obama action on SS FICA taxes,.
Here goes the “take down Santorum” crowd.
So far, if we look at recent history, they win.
I rarely listen to O'Reilly, but I had it on Sirius last night driving, and I heard him put those words in Santorum's mouth as if it were fact. I'm glad Santorum pushed back and denied it. I just had to shake my head. They've done this with George Allen, Rick Perry, and now Santorum.
“Mitt Romney’s propaganda people are very busy this week.”
There is no rest for the wicked.
“that” was an attack on Reagan?
LOL!
man, last 48 hours I hear nails being pounded all around Santorum but I don’t see any jello stuck to the wall
Yawn.....
Rise to the top to challenge RINO Romney and Marxist Obama and expect to see baseless attacks.
“Ronald Reagan was not God and would be offended if anyone said he was. He just happened to be the most capable president this country produced in more than the last century.”
Agreed. His greatest mistake though was not Beirut, it was allowing a smaller man to ride his coattails.
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