Santorum: the CONSISTENT conservative?

In the 1993 interview, the 35-year-old Santorum sounds little like the unflinching conservative he claims to be today. He describes his voting record in the US House of Representatives, where he represented the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh, as "pretty much in the middle" compared to the rest of the Pennsylvania delegation, which included 11 Democrats and 9 other Republicans. His record, he went on, was "pretty compatible" with that of Arlen Specter and the late John Heinz, both moderate Republican senators from Pennsylvania. (Specter later switched to the Democratic Party.)

In the interview, when asked about the role of government in Americans' lives, Santorum responded, "I believe that the federal government should set up a system where we create the right incentives for you to make efficient choices."

On health care, as he called for more government involvement, Santorum said Republicans had "dropped the ball" by not making health care reform a headline issue in recent elections. "I even said it to President Bush when he came to Pittsburgh to campaign for Dick Thornburgh [then running for US Senate] in 1991, that health care was gonna be the big issue and that we had to take responsibility for trying to solve this problem," Santorum said. "We can't continue to ignore it and say, 'Oh well, you know, it will work itself out in the marketplace.' That's wrong."

Santorum in '93: More Government Needed in Health Care | Mother Jones

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