News : Santorum brings 2012 presidential campaign to Vinton

Cameras from a variety of media outlets surround Rick Santorum in the Vinton Public Library Monday.

Rick Santorum signs posters for VSMS 8th grade students who attended his event for extra credit.

Josh Shafer asks Rick Santorum if climate change will cause World War III; the senator said no.

Kathie Ervin asks Sen. Santorum a question about immigration.

Rick Santorum signs papers for Angel Kaplan, Raechel Wehage, Josie Radcliffe and Kristin Halstead.

The 2012 presidential election came to Vinton Monday evening, as former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum brought his campaign for the Republican nomination to the public library.

An audience of about 60 adults and a handful of 8th grade students of Mr. Alex Vasquez listened to Santorum’s stump speech and asked questions during a 90-minute stop at the library. Also among the crowd were a handful of young Santorum opponents, who follow the senator from town to town with video cameras, hoping to catch him saying something they can post on their web sites. Fox and NBC television cameras also followed Santorum through Iowa.

The economy, said Santorum, is the main issue of the 2012 campaign. He said his plan would create jobs in the private sector by cutting government jobs.

“I do not plan to take credit for creating jobs,” he said. “It’s the private sector that creates jobs.”

Santorum, who served in the U.S. House from 1991-1995 and in the U.S. Senate from 1995 to 2007, said his plan includes cutting the corporate tax rate to 17 percent and eliminating tax loopholes. He would also eliminate taxes on manufacturing companies, to help those companies be able to be more competitive. He would also significantly reduce the tax rate for companies that relocate their operations, and their money, into the U.S. Approximately $1.2 trillion in assets belonging to U.S. companies is now located in foreign nations, said Santorum. Reducing that tax would encourage more companies to return to the U.S., creating more jobs here, he said.

The repeal of “Obamacare,” as well as reform of Medicaid and Social Security are issues that the federal government must deal with, said Santorum.

A Santorum administration would seek to end government subsidies for all forms of energy: Oil, ethanol, wind and solar energy.

“We need to let the free market determine which are most economically viable,” said Santorum. He would also lift the moratoriums that limit drilling for oil and allow more coal mines to be developed.

Santorum also said there is a need for moral leadership in the U.S. He encouraged the audience to read his book, “It takes a family.” He said that while only 6 percent of two-parent families are below the poverty line, 33 percent of 1-parent families fall below that line. He said government leaders need to work with local organizations to find ways to encourage marriage.

Mr. Vasquez offered extra credit to students who attended the event. They brought work sheets on which they wrote what they agreed with the candidate on, as well as areas on which they disagree with him.

Student Josh Shafer told Santorum that one of his teachers had said that the news reported that World War III would start because of climate change.

Santorum replied that he was 99 percent sure that climate change will not start World War III. He said that the earth has always had eras of getting warmer and cooler, and that the impacts of modern life are much less significant than volcanic activity and solar flares when it comes to affecting the temperature of the earth.

Another VSMS student asked Perry if he opposed solar power. He said he does not oppose solar power, but does not support subsidies for any energy source.

A man in the audience said, “I like you, but why should I vote for you when you are only polling at 3 percent?”

The senator replied by saying that early in the 2008 campaign, the two leading candidates according to the polls were Rudy Guliani and Fred Thompson, both of whom dropped out very early in the process. The people of Iowa determine the winner by listening to the candidates, not the pundits, said Santorum. He also told the audience that he has a network of volunteers and precinct captains all over Iowa that is working to bring him votes in the Iowa Caucus in January.

In response to another question, Santorum said that while he supported President Obama’s decision to kill a U.S. citizen who had become a terrorist in a drone strike, the President’s insistence that non-citizen terrorist suspects have the same rights as U.S. citizens sends a mixed message.

In Afghanistan and Iraq, Santorum said the Obama strategy of announcing to our enemies the timeline for withdrawal is a mistake. He said America needs to make it clear that we will work with our allies and the residents of those countries on a plan for a lasting peace.

In response to a question on education, Santorum said it should be up to the states, not the federal government to set standards for schools. The educational system, he said, must become consumer-focused, with consumers being the parents whose children are being educated. The federal government’s practice of “micromanaging” education is not helping, he said.