Was Santorum a Senate Spendthrift?

By JEFFREY H. ANDERSON AND ANDY WICKERSHAM

Mitt Romney is now arguing that Rick Santorum’s record exposes him as one of those Republicans who “act like Democrats” once they get to Washington.  Romney surrogate Tim Pawlenty adds that Santorum “clearly has been part of the big-spending establishment in Congress.” Another Romney surrogate, former senator Jim Talent, says of Santorum, “He certainly has been outspoken on social issues . . . but when you get outside those issues into fiscal, spending, regulatory issues, his record shows that he’s been in the liberal wing of the Republican party.”

This is clearly emerging as one of Romney’s two prominent lines of attack against Santorum, the other — a related one — being that Santorum is a “Washington insider.”  But since the only reason Romney didn’t become a “Washington insider” himself is that he failed to win election in either of his two bids for federal office, and since the vast majority of the Republican party’s Washington insiders are backing Romney, this claim is likely to persuade precious few GOP voters.  That leaves Romney with only one real line of attack against Santorum:  that the former Pennsylvania senator’s record isn’t that of a fiscal conservative.

So, is Romney’s claim true?  Was Santorum a spendthrift in the Senate?  Fortunately, credible third party analysis is available to help us answer this question, so we need not merely accept the Romney campaign’s verdict as the final word on the matter. 

Read more: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/was-santorum-senate-spendthrift_629850.html