Santorum doubts major cuts likely

Transcript

Republicans in Congress will have a hard time enacting major spending cuts or comprehensive immigration reform this year, Senate Republican Conference Chairman Rick Santorum told The Washington Times.

Republican leadership will, however, force votes on a host of thorny social issues such as a constitutional amendment that would ban homosexual “marriage” before the elections in November.

“Certainly, we want to have these votes on record before the election,” said the conservative Pennsylvania Republican, who faces a tough re-election this year.

“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,” Mr. Santorum said in an interview this week. “There will be a lot of issues relating to stem cells that the pro-life community would like to vote on.”

The news comes as polls show conservatives growing increasingly frustrated with Republicans in Congress for their failure to make good on promises to cut spending and toughen immigration laws.

In the interview, the No. 3 Senate Republican also laid out his party’s agenda for the year, titled “Securing America’s Freedom, Homeland and Borders.” The broad platform aims to, among other things, deal with immigration and runaway federal spending.

But the prognosis for comprehensive immigration reform and significant cuts to federal entitlement programs this year, he said, isn’t so bright.

“We barely had the votes to pass the bill we did last year,” Mr. Santorum said of last year’s legislation that cut $40 billion out of programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. “In an election year, it’s just very, very tough.”

Though he faces a popular statewide official in November, Mr. Santorum said he would be happy to vote for another round of cuts to entitlements this year.

“I think we need to do more,” he said. “Controlling the size and growth of government is exactly what Republicans are all about.”

Just last year, Republicans led by President Bush created a whole new entitlement program to provide prescription drugs to seniors. Mr. Santorum said it was “legitimate criticism that we were not fiscally responsible,” but defended the program as “essential.”

Immigration reforms face similar obstacles, he said.

“The conference would like to do a comprehensive bill,” he said, referring to legislation that includes both border security measures and a program to deal with illegal aliens in the U.S.

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