Presidential candidate Santorum visits Washington

Republican presidential candidate and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum made a stop in Washington Friday afternoon, where he spoke to a crowd of about 30 people in Café Dodici. Santorum spoke about a wide range of issues such as Iran, the budget, education, public employee unions and the courts.

Santorum said that not only will he attempt to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, he will seek to remove its government by funding dissident groups in the country.

?You need to help those in Iran who want to overthrow the government,? he said. ?There are strikes going on in Iran all the time, but they don?t last long because people are out of money and they have to go back to work. What if we got them money so they could keep the strikes on longer and shut down the economy, shut down the transit system and cause civil unrest? This is what we need to do. We need to have that government thrown out.?

Santorum referred to the uprising in Iran in the summer of 2009 known as the ?Green Revolution,? and said that the United States should encourage movements of that sort.

According to ABC News, four scientists allegedly linked to Iran?s nuclear program have been killed by gun shot wound, carbomb or poisoning in the past four years. Santorum said that such scientists are legitimate targets for assassination.

?If you are a nuclear scientist working on the nuclear program in Iran, you are an enemy combatant of the United States and you can be killed, period, just like any other enemy combatant,? he said. ?You can be killed just as we kill al Qaeda or kill Taliban. They would be put in the same category.?

Santorum said he would like to see structural changes to the government to reduce government spending. He said that the 17

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amendment to the Constitution, which established the direct election of senators by popular vote, and the changes to the filibuster rule, making it easier to end debate, have ?allowed for the federal government to explode.? Santorum said he also favors a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

?I hear this all the time from Tea Party conservatives, ?We gave you guys the reins of power and you guys didn?t control government,?? he said. ?How many times have we seen a dramatic contraction of the federal government in the last 70 years? Never. Why? Because Republicans have never had a super-majority in the United States Senate. The most senators they?ve had during that time is 55.?

A member of the audience asked Santorum his opinion of the National Education Association, a labor union that represents public school teachers and personnel.

?In my opinion, there is no real rationale for public employee unions to exist because of the unbalanced negotiating,? he said. ?The union has skin in the game, just like a private-sector union. But for the folks on the other side, it?s not their money. It?s not their business. They don?t lose a penny if they give away the store to the public employee union. They pass it on to you, and they may not be up for re-election or care about re-election. It creates this insidious loop that drives up the cost of pensions and health care.?

Returning to education, Santorum said the system is an abject failure.

?Every parent is responsible for the education of their child,? he said. ?You teach them their numbers, you teach them their ABCs, you teach them right from wrong, you teach them ?please? and ?thank you.? At some point in time, we convinced the parents in America that that stops and now it?s someone else?s child. It?s not. It?s still your job. One of the biggest complaints I hear from teachers is, ?parents stop.? If you?re going to have children in America, you need to be a responsible parent and do what is necessary to make sure they are ready.?

Santorum said he wants to eliminate the federal role in education. He said parents know best what kind of education their children should receive.

?One of the biggest mistakes I made in the United States Senate was voting for an increase in the federal role in education with the ?No Child Left Behind Act,?? Santorum said. ?I was told we needed to test the students to see how they were doing, and I bought into that. In my family, we home-school our seven children up to seventh grade and then we send our children to different schools. We?re blessed that we have the ability to do that. We understand that our children learn differently. Their education was designed around what we knew because we know and love our children and we know what?s best for them.?

With regard to the courts, Santorum proposed abolishing the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals because of what he called its ?judicial activism.? He said the role of the courts is to act as a ?referee on the sidelines? and not as a ?quarterback trying to score touchdowns for causes they believe in.?

?It comprises six or seven western states, and is the largest of any of the circuits,? he said. ?They are a radical group. Almost all of the Ninth Circuit?s rulings that come to the Supreme Court are overturned. They have become a rogue court. Do the president and the Congress have the power to abolish a court? The answer is yes. Look up Article 3 of the Constitution, which establishes one court, the Supreme Court. All other courts are established by the Congress and the president. I propose abolishing the Ninth Circuit, firing all the judges, dividing the circuit in two because it?s too big and bringing in new justices.?

Santorum told the audience that he was the only presidential candidate to campaign in the state against the retention of three Iowa Supreme Court justices, Chief Justice Marsha Ternus and justices David Baker and Michael Streit, who were all ousted following the November 2010 retention vote.