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LIVONIA, Mich. -- On the day Mitt Romney criticized him for not focusing enough on the economy, Rick Santorum stressed the need for simplifying the tax code, cutting trillions from the budget and building the Keystone pipeline.
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum often splits his time on the stump between focusing on jobs and social issues.
And while the former Pennsylvania laid out his economic plan to a local Chamber of Commerce here, he also pivoted into the social issues that have come to largely define his campaign.
"The separation of church and state that our founders believed in, which is what I just described, has now been turned on its head," he said. "And now, it’s the church, people of faith, who have no right to come to the public square and express their points of view, or practice their faith outside of their church."
That was received with applause from the 300 supporters in attendance.
"All reporters in the back, they say, 'Oh there’s Santorum talking about social issues again,'" he said. "No, I’m talking about freedom.
I’m talking about government imposing themselves on your lives."
The balance between talking about the economy -- which will likely be the most important issue in the Novemeber election -- and social issues has been a delicate one for the Santorum campaign. The candidate often splits his time on the stump between focusing on jobs and focusing on the issues of abortion, the family, and religious freedoms. Now, in a state hit particularly hard by the recession, the former Massachusetts governor is trying to exploit it as a weakness in his rival.
Stumping in Rockford, MI, earlier in the morning, Romney said of Santorum, "It's time for him to really focus on the economy."
Responding to Romney's critique, Santorum told reporters, "Tell him to watch my speech."
On the eve of the Michigan and Arizona primaries, the Romney campaign unveiled a new line of attacks against Santorum, building off his "sometimes you take one for the team" defense of earmarking during last week's debate. Santorum did not use his speech to defend his fiscal record in Congress, but instead split time between portraying himself as a consistent conservative and introducing his plan to rebuild America's manufacturing and energy industries.
"This is a tax plan that isn't conforming to any type of school of economics, because America has its own destiny," Santorum said. "We don't fit into a school. We do our own; we cut our own path; we're Americans; we can do things different, and we can be successful in doing it. Our plan is bold. It doesn't just, you know, take an existing tax code and play around with it in 59 or 69 or 89 different tweaks."
Last year Romney unveiled a 59-point economic plan.
Santorum's first of three stops throughout the Wolverine State compliments an op-ed he in today's Wall Street Journal outlining the major tenants of his plan.
"Capitalism is painful," he said. "We all know markets are painful sometimes. When people dont keep up, when people do things that the market doesn't like, a lot of people suffer. They suffer more if you try to rig the game. I've been consistent on that. I can go after President Obama on that. No one else can in this race can."
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Is obama a socialist, fascist, marxist, communist? All I know is some people (anti-American progressives) get extremely upset if you refer to him as one or the other!!
All I know for sure is that he is not an "American Capitalist" so in an effort to properly identify him and calm the rhetoric. I am coining the term "soroist" maybe no one will be offended?
First has anyone questioned who "frank" in "Dreams from My Father" was???
Google frank marshall davis and obama!
Then google his white house appointees, valarie jarrett, andy stern and cass sunstein.
For even more enjoyable reading google george soros, anthony van jones, then refresh your memory on the terrorist bill ayres, bernadine dorhn, the crook tony rezco and oh yes ole ref wright, obama's old Chicago buddies!!!!
Of course all these associations are only coincidences????
The question remains just what is obama??????
Socialist, fascist, marxist and communist are just code words for n*gg*r. Poor republicans just can't use the word they would like so they have to use a code.
Soros Disses Obama
By Andrew Stiles
November 17, 2010 4:53 P.M.
Comments
24
The Huffington Post reports that liberal billionaire George Soros voiced harsh criticism of President Obama during a private meeting with Democratic donors on Tuesday, and came very close to suggesting that financial support for the president might be better directed elsewhere:
Soros’s people were quickly on the defensive:
The Left’s dissatisfaction with the Obama administration is widely known, but mounting a primary challenge against Obama from the left in 2012 has never seemed like a realistic option. That said, if Soros decides to put his money where his mouth is,things could get interesting .
February 12th, 2012
01:35 PM ET
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16 days ago
Soros undecided on pro-Obama super PAC
Posted by
CNN's Ashley Killough
(CNN) – Billionaire financier George Soros said Sunday he has not decided on whether he will create a super PAC to help President Barack Obama win re-election.
"But I think it's a big, big issue that the 'Citizens United' has really unleashed private money for political purposes that can be used anonymously," Soros said on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS."
Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker
Monday night, the president's re-election campaign announced it would urge donors to contribute to a super PAC supportive of his candidacy called Priorities USA.
The move represented a reversal of Obama's position on the third-party spending giants, which were made possible by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2010 on the Citizens United case.
Super PACs are allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on a candidate, as long as they don't coordinate with campaigns.
"This isn't just a threat to Democrats," Obama once said of the ruling in 2010. "This is a threat to our democracy."
After seeing the heavy stream of money pouring into Republican super PACs, Obama's campaign decided to change its stance and encourage supporters to donate to Priorities USA.
While Soros hasn't yet made a decision on following course and building his own super PAC, the high-profile Obama supporter cautioned against the impact the groups will have on the 2012 elections.
"This will create an unequal playing field, which will further destroy the political system," he said.
Soros added that he's always been open about giving away his money, and only does so on principle, "not for pursuit of my private interests."
"So whatever I decide, I will state what I'm deciding, but I'm distressed by the problem that 'Citizens United' has created," he said.
Santorum looks like the rusbo candidate. Mr grover, the gop, & the rushbo believe that schools are screwels. And santorum will tell you that to go to college, to get a two year accreditation to operate a machine on an assembly line is snobbish. Ditto heads means low pay.
Gary K, like most on the right isn't capable of discussing his candidates because he knows there is no defense for them. He has to turn it around on Obama. He has to start talking about Soros or whatever other talking point they come up with.
Santorum doesn't care about freedom. All he cares about is drastically changing the social make up of the country. He wraps it in the Bible and the 1st ammendment. Not everything is Biblical or Constitutional.
bear, I've been talking about soros, van jones and the rest obama's anti American progressives for a long time and fully intend to do so until he (obama) is ousted in November!!!!
Would you rather I wouldn't????
Gary - I guess you will be talking about Obama long after November...at least another four years.
Obama 2012!!!
Repub candidates spend more time talking about President Obama than themselves or what they can do for our country. I, for one, do not want to return to the dark ages.
OBAMA 2012 Because it takes more than 4 years to unBushwack an economy!
A vote for obama is a vote for soros's one world government!!!
Vote soros van jones, and obama OUT!!!!
Hey Gary, do you slobber when you talk? Just askin'
Freedom means different things to different people. To most people it means having choices and options and not being compelled to a particular one. For the elite and powerful, it means freedom from toil by rigging the system so others do their share of the work. Notice how Republican politicians use the word freedom a lot while Democrats rarely speak it. I think the word freedom has been confused with the word liberty. Liberty has conditions with it. A soldier can be on liberty but he has obtained permission and must return to his post later. Pure freedom cannot exist for anyone unless they have control over slaves and servants who tend to all the manual labor needed for anyone on Earth to survive on an individual basis.
LMAO, I hate to say it but even rachael madcow makes a better spin doctor, again LMAO!!!
I PREFER Freedom from any and all religions besides the one I CHOSE to attend .
Waves at Gary . Gary also is on IGNORE , because , he ALSO has all the newest Fox News talking points .
Fox News = News For Dumb Fux .
The more I hear from slick Rick, the more I long for the other slick Rick from Texas. At least we know slick from Texas is a dumb SOB and proud of it.
For Santorum to talk about "vomiting" about President Kennedy's speech was political pornography. It's another example of his being against something before he was for it.
His idea of freedom is for the religious right to enact laws to limit freedoms for those that don't have the same values. The want to shove their morals and views down our throats.
Oh Mr Frothy go crawl back under the rock from whence you came.
"applause from the 300 supporters in attendance" ????????
They must have been still cleaning up the mess that millions of Romney supporter left at Ford field.
The problem with tyranny is that it never feels like tyranny if you agree with the beliefs of the tyrant. The millions of Germans who lined the streets to throw flowers at Hitler never felt oppressed, but if you were to ask a Jew ...
I see often the same seeds of tyranny being planted in America that once sprouted in Germany back in the 30's. Even the economic conditions are relatively similar. Now, I'm not saying Santorum is Hitler, no, not at all. But I have found that Santorum, and indeed modern conservatism, have been borrowing from the Hitler playbook as much as possible without actually quoting from Mein Kampf.
Here's an example of what I mean: If you compared a list of groups that Hitler once had tossed into his death camps with a list of who modern conservatives adamantly oppose and, in some cases, even hate, you would find that they are virtually identical. Let's make that comparison now. If you replace "Jew" with "Muslim," check. Hitler didn't like intellectuals and neither do conservatives. Check. Hitler had gays thrown into the camps and conservatives are out to oppress gays. Check. Hitler hated socialists, communists, and progressives. Yep, check. If you replace "gypsy" (which we don't have in the US) with "poor people," once again, check. Hitler hated liberals and so do conservatives. Big check-a-roony there, too. Do you see the pattern yet?
But it's more than just this. The GOP and right-wing news media don't even bother hiding their lies, and their mesmerized followers repeat and spread them. I'm sure we're all familiar with Goebbels and his Big Lie theory which worked like a charm. Today, we have conservatives convincing Americans that Obama is "waging a war" against religion which, of course, is ridiculous tripe. Yet that's one of those Big Lies Goebbels spoke of, one repeated so often than people begin to believe it. Perry even had the temerity to claim children must "celebrate Christmas in secret." Fortunately, Perry overplayed his hand on that issue since Americans weren't quite that propagandized ... yet. But you do have Fox News literally making up articles in the Constitution in order to convince the American people that Elena Kagan should refrain from ruling on the constitutionality of Obama's health care bill.
Truly, the examples stretch on to the horizon and one post cannot do it justice. One thing is certain, however: "Tyranny" is never recognized as such by those who support it, yet it only takes a snobby - whoops, I mean educated - population to see how history is repeating itself in very subtle ways. Santorum and his ilk represent tyranny, and religion is only being used as a weapon to usher it in. What I find pathetic is how the right-wing crowd will equate government regulations on light bulbs as a form of "tyranny." I wonder if Ann Frank or Sophie Scholl were thinking about light bulbs as they struggled under the Third Reich.
For the record, I am not suggesting that Santorum or the GOP are out to create a second Holocaust. I don't think that at all. But the Third Reich was more than just mass exterminations. It was religious and political oppression even against those loyal to Hitler, and this is what I'm touching upon. We, as a people, need to recognize when a tyrant - even when we may agree with him - is knocking on our door. In a truly free society, we are duty-bound to fight for other people's freedoms - the freedom to be liberal, to be atheist, to be intellectual, to be Muslim, to be gay - even if we, ourselves, would never wish to be any of those things.
That is what America is all about.
Obama/Biden 2012.
While Santorum raises 'questions' about Obama's faith, Santorum shows himself to not be a good Christian, to not have any Christian values. As A Catholic, we were taught not to lie, yet Santorum insists on pushing lies ... he knows they are lies. His mean spirited attacks on dead heroes show his lack of character. If he believes in God, he knows he is condemned to hell for his sins. He is pushing a religious power grab, no different than the Muslim Brotherhood. His motives are power and greed, his true God is Satan.
After listening to Santorum's speech tonight, I understand why he feels that education is his number one enemy.
Hospitals care for the sick. Schools provide education. If the churches want to do these two things, they need to pay the entire cost themselves, or abide by federal law. Churches have the freedom to be churches, not to expect to enter into any other business and expect to receive special treatment.
Churches have to abide by the law of the land. The Catholic Church tried to take of their pedophilia problem without abiding by the law. It was not a freedom, it was a cover-up.
Last time I checked, the federal government was not trying to close the doors of any churches, although it seems many churches have in the last few decades decided to weaken and undermine the governmental process.