The Washington Times has the transcript of a recent interview with Rick Santorum up on
their Website. In it Rick answers questions about the Republicans policy agenda for the coming year. Here are some highlights:
Q. What cultural issues will the conference bring up in the coming months?
A. One of the most important amendments is marriage. That will be brought up sometime certainly before the August break, and hopefully a lot sooner than that. There will be issues relating to life, child-custody protection. The stem-cell issue is eventually something we're going to have to vote on. There will be a lot of issues relating to stem cells that the pro-life community would like to vote on. The flag amendment is something that we're certainly going to vote on.
Q. Why this summer?
A. With marriage, we've always been waiting for a trigger or a linchpin or something that happens within the courts that might give us a little bit more momentum. We did get a federal court ruling that a state constitutional amendment was unconstitutional under federal constitutional law. To me, that was a pretty good trigger, but we don't have an appeals court ruling. So, we're sort of holding off to see whether there's going to be any kind of decision. We wanted to give some time. It doesn't look like that's going to happen, so I think we're just going to move forward and vote the amendment.
Q. What role do the elections this year play in this decision?
A. Certainly, we want to have these votes on record before the election.
...
Q. What are three areas of the federal government where you would cut?
A. They have to be in the areas that threaten the long-term fiscal health of the country. Medicare and Medicaid would be areas where we have to find savings. We have to control the growth of spending there. I've voted for changes in those programs, and a lot more than what passed. I think I have a record of being willing to put my money where my mouth is. The third area is to try to keep the rate of growth in spending at the federal level at or below the rate of inflation on discretionary accounts. The entitlements are the key. And we have to do something about Social Security. But that's not as much an issue of deficits as it is avoiding future tax increases.
Amending the U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage and flag burning, restricting stem cell research and cutting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. That certainly is an ambitious agenda those Republicans have.
