Santorum blames 'abortion culture' for problems with Social Security
(CNN) - Potential 2012 presidential candidate Rick Santorum said the "abortion culture" in America is to blame for the failing Social Security system.
In an interview with WEZS Radio in Laconia, New Hampshire, Tuesday, the former Republican Pennsylvania senator said abortion rates are influencing the number of children born in the United States and there are therefore not enough children to support the program long-term.
"The Social Security system in my opinion is a flawed design, period. But having said that, the design would work a lot better if we had stable demographic trends," Santorum said. "A third of all the young people in America are not in America today because of abortion."
Santorum, an outspoken opponent of abortion, made the comments in response to a caller who said abortion rates are to blame for the problems with Social Security and Medicare.
"We have seven children so we're doing our part to fund the Social Security system," Santorum said. "I want children to be living in America and contributing. America's greatest resource is our people and we're denying America what it needs, which is more Americans."
Santorum was in New Hampshire, the first-in-the-nation primary state Tuesday to meet with voters and headline a GOP dinner in Concord.
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America can't employ all of her children now and never has. Imagine the unemployment rate if there were 30% more people in each age group. Idiot.
Seriously...this is the dumbest thing ever said about abortion or social security.
Let's look at this ridiculous, completely unverifiable quote again: "A third of all the young people in America are not in America today because of abortion." Really, I can't wrap my brain around the wildly creative dishonesty of that statement, and the fact that there are brain-dead zombies who will repeat it as truth.
The most preposterous idea since Rev. Hagee's theory of the Holocaust as God's tool for returning Jews to Israel.
As it takes a while for those babies to grow old enough to contribute to Social Security, wouldn't it be better to encourage legal immigration, to collect their taxes?
I would say that women who don't want their child but have it anyway are not good parents to that child. Odds are that child will grow up with low self esteem, not get a very good job, and probably end up on welfare. Sounds like a good way to fund SS to me.
What he meant to say is, "we need more Americans unless they came from from south of the border".
Wow. Let's all have 10 kids . . . that'll solve the world's problems!!
What an idiot! Abortion the cause of the downfall of Social Security? Let's see – who do you think have abortions, people who WANT or can AFFORD to raise a child? No, sadly its people who do it b/c they can't take care of them. Santorum can't get his head out of the sand and see that the majority of those unborn children will probably not be working and be on welfare or criminals. He's against abortion b/c of his tramatic experiences with the birth and sudden death of one of his children. His head is not clear nor will it ever be, men like him are dangerous.
Mr. Santorum not everyone can afford "7" childrens. Not only that, but Mr. Santorum has a flawed logic that maybe he should have less kids in order to take the weight off for the future children that has to start supporting Mr. Santorum '7' children once they become old. And having a children is expensive, people who are poor and on welfare can't afford having kids so they have an abortion.
Your remark is really too stupid to comment on but I can't resist. So senator, exactly how many more children do we need to support Social Security? Let's encourage more "octo-moms" to make your plan more efficient. Eight at a time should help. Let's become another overpopulated nation like India and then we will have enough children to support Social Security. Although perhaps, just perhaps, there might be other problems related to overpopulation. Maybe the problem is that we're all working longer now than the original projection called for. Please senator, go away now.
This is the most idiotic argument I have ever heard...period. The Republicans use abortion as a weapon. They do not care about these unwanted children. If they did they wouldn't REFUSE to fund medicaid programs that would help families get affordable healthcare for their children. Nothing is a bigger deterent for someone deciding to terminate a prenancy than knowing that they cannot afford caring for the child after its birth. The most desparate parents are those that see their children in pain and cannot afford to get them the help they need when tehy are sick. They are going to get sick! Jesus would not REFUSE to fund Medicaid. Shame of the Republicans for playing this card.
Rick Santorum,
What have you to say about overpopulation? Is that problem to be ignored?
How many stupid Republicans can you find in a year? These people are sick. Can we please have some type of test for intelligence before we put these idiots in charge of anything important. Not God Bless America but Please God Help America.
Hers is the problem from the horses mouth. Shouldn't the elders of a society be responsible for passing a better life to their children and grandchildren. This guy thinks the youth should support the parents. WTF! He thinks aborted babies should be alive ro provide for their elders. They are happier dead!
might as well add that in order to put out a house fire, we need to start more fires in the house. dear zeus...how do stupid people like bush and this idiot get elected....oh yeah, because there are tons of even more stupid rednecks out there who think that these guys are smart enough to "lead".
"A third of all the young people in America are not in America today because of abortion."
Is this guy related to Dan Quayle?
Oh, great thinking, pea-brain. Maybe another million unemployed young people would solve the Social Security problem. Is this guy real? What a sick, sick joke. Saddest part is, a number of yahoos will believe him.
Wait, wait, wait.... The problem with Social Security is that we aren't producing enough children that will eventually contribute to the fund? Now explain how that isn't a giant ponzi scheme? Have more kids that will contribute money to support the older generations. So then those generations must have exponentially more children to support my generation, and so forth and so forth. Doesn't make sense to me Rick.
is there such a thing as truth-in-politic-speak?
this idiot uses any figure he decides to make up as true.
thank god he will only get about 1% of the vote.
What an idiot! This dummie is so irresponsible that he has 7 children and he thinks he is doing his part to help America? The exponential population growth in the world and the resulting demand on resources is not sustainable.In 20 years the funding of Social Security will be the least of the worlds problems.
Besides, the lack of jobs is the problem. If more prople had jobs there would be more contributions to support it. But this dumb republican is more worried about abortion than helping folks survive by giving them a job. He obviously was not listening like all the other republicans during the last election.
yea we definitely need more Americans in this economy
Excuse me, Mr. Santorum, but couldn't a counter-argument be made that the Social Security system is in trouble because too many Baby Boomers about your age were born in the first place? Wouldn't such an argument make the case for legalized abortion and contraceptive services as tools of sensible population control?
actually we're not paying for these non-existent human beings through taxes and welfare because their ill-equipped parents made the informed and private choice to decide what to do with their own body. YOU ARE AN IDIOT!
So overpopulation is the solution for social security? how does that factor into the unemployment problem? poverty? rising energy costs?
This guy is simply pandering to his audience. Abortion has nothing to do with what is wrong with social security. The problem is that there aren't enough politicians willing to make the needed changes to how social security is funded. The problem is that the entire baby boomer generation went through their entire careers knowing full well that they were part of a boom in population and that the next generation was smaller than theirs. They knew this yet they buried their heads in the sand and somehow expected the next generation to have no problem funding the boomer's retirement. It is beyond foolish to expect such an entitlement. I'm all for social security but the money I pay in should be funding my own benifits with some portion going toward those less fortunate than myself, not going right back out the door and into the pocket of someone else's grandfather.