Rick Santorum: British Empire's Decline Due To Growth Of Social Programs

BOONE, Iowa -- Rick Santorum said Monday that the United Kingdom's development of a social safety net, including universal health care, cost the nation its empire and "world domination," a mantle he said the United States has assumed but is in danger of losing under Barack Obama.

"If you look at every European country that has had world domination, a world presence, from the French to the British -- 100 years ago, the sun didn't set on the British Empire," Santorum said at an appearance in Sioux City, Iowa. "If you look at that empire today -- why? Because they lost heart and faith in their heart in themselves and in their mission, who they were and what values they wanted to spread around the world. Not just for the betterment of the world, but safety and security and the benefit of their country."

"We have taken up that cause," Santorum added. But now, he said, "We have a president who doesn't believe in America."

Santorum said the United States is being handed to the United Nations under President Obama, who he often says cares about making government bigger, not better, for the American people.

"This is a decision about what kind of America you are going to hand to your children and grandchildren," he said in Boone. "Are you going to leave an America that is more and more dependent on bigger and bigger governments that do the things that families and churches and local communities should do?" as audience members shouted, "No!"

Comments

[Dealancey DeLancey]

09:18 AM on 11/09/2012

Just Passing Through

9:17 A.M. E.S.T. 11/9/2012

DeLancey Official Action

[DavidGDeLancey]

01:39 PM on 05/27/2012

Some states have Mass Health for those that cannot furnish it. Interesting we really should do more research. I suggest that each and every one of us in The United States of America should pay for insurance, and any other kind of survival technique concerning living, then we can adjust our lives to see what we actually would be interested in doing. Of Course there is now a lot of citizens who are already doing that.

Darn read this from the above post by Rick Santorum in Boone, Iowa. It's in the very last paragraphical venture. "Are you going to leave an America that is more and more dependent on bigger and bigger governments that ___(here it is)>___ do the things that families churches and local communities should do?" ( D.G. DeLancey what {what about the families} and in that the local communities and as part of any country and its historic cultures affiliated with certain religions ___the churches what about them).
____Again another assuming position towards the presidency that's all good in some degree. But acknowledging the presidency would be the efficient way. Search: DeLancey for President and gather some great historical data at the same time. Thank You. 1:39 P.M. E.S.T. 5/27/2012

[oIIIIIo]

01:48 AM on 03/28/2012

Rick Santorum shows that he is totally ignorant of British History (http://lezgetreal.com/2012/01/rick-santorum-fails-the-history-of-the-british-empire/) Yhe decline happened long before the British adopted socialized medicine. His argument is about as weak as can be since he doesn't not chronicle any history at all! He only gives anecdotes that one would expect from a Junior High School child at most. Come on you should be able to better than that! I guess when it comes down to it he is trying to appeal to simpletons, statistically that is where most his votes come from. This is rural areas and people who did not graduate from institutions of higher education. People in the big cities can see right through this dolt! I find it particularly insulting that THE GUY THINKS EVERYONE IS DUMBER THAN HE IS!
I lived in England for two years during the end of the nineteen-ninetys. I also had a chance to compare their system of medicine to ours. I can't say system because we don't have a system. I received good care and it didn't even cost me anything. I compare this to what we have in the US which is over priced and in many instances includes, on average, a TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF FRAUD AND OVER BILLING. Health care in America is behind most of the industrialized world. When Americans are leaving the country to get good, affordable health care the system is broken.

[DavidGDeLancey]

12:39 PM on 03/01/2012

What will make this country prosper. It is realizing that equal opportunity is required. Please search ~ David George DeLancey for President ~`and or`~ My Five Issue Plan ~ Have a nice day reviewing my attempt as a country leader and a citizen of the United States. 12:38 P.M. E.S.T. 3/1/2012 This is in fact an "Acknowledgement" not an 'Assuming Position for the presidential seat' It is our presidency lets leave something there worth while. Thank You

[AsherJudah]

05:38 PM on 01/03/2012

Wow, so Great Britain lost its status as a world power due to social programs. Rick ought to go back to school and study a bit of history before opening his mouth and letting stupid comments leap from his tongue. The British empire was in decline - colonializim ceased to be profitble because people decided they didn't want some foreign government running and occuping their country and booted them out. Following World War 2, Britain was nearly bankrupt and destitute because of a war they didn't have the resources to fight - social programs had nothing to do with whatever ills faced by Britain. More revisonist "history" from someone who apparentlly never studied it in the first place.

[DavidGDeLancey]

12:58 PM on 03/01/2012

Are there enough jobs in the U.S. to conquer the environment and its society at large. How can a single individual claim to create jobs for american people. It is all the people in America that invited to this subject. I David George DeLancey acknowledge that it definitely takes a fundamental, that would be now a monetary system, and a monetary system consists of a monetary that would be our national currency. In fact national and currency carry a familiar norm that is the character of individualism better know as indivisible liberties. This country had land in the begging then it ventured towards a national bank, but the real concept of survival was farming and producing foods. This was the trade, of course amongst other things such as tobacco, fur, oil, newspapers and clothing, horses and other animals for use were traded as well. Moreover a hard core raw material for a currency was not broadened until much later.

What does it take to survive in this country of now modern times, yet no different then the early 19th century and yet the beginning of a society if that. What is our natural accommodation to survival in this country.

Search the DeLancey History Files for a political DeLancey recognition.

12:56 P.M. E.S.T. 3/1/2012 Who is really in charge, or who needs to be in charge. It is the "Government'; We in fact as citizens of the United States are that government. Thank You

[pb31]

03:10 PM on 01/03/2012

If I recall correctly, there was a slice of the British Empire that was lost during the eighteenth century. That was long before any social safety net in England. Seems that it was just a bunch of colonialists that wanted to go it alone, and did.

Now, it seems to me that after WWII, that same sort of independence thing cropped up in India, Africa etc. to an extent that poor old Britain just couldn't stop. After all, at that time they had just finished fighting two rather exhausting wars. I don't know that it was having medical care that sapped British strength. Rather, it seems like fighting the wars might have played a role.

Anyway, isn't supporting the anti-colonialists really sort of the American thing to do, given our history and all? Shouldn't we be glad that other countries got to do what we did?

[RageVsMachine]

12:42 PM on 01/03/2012

all the cons care about is power and greed, for whi te Amerika.

[phread]

11:33 AM on 01/03/2012

With a republican the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the republican and his corporate backers more money or more power... republicans claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. republicans demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective, toward which all their deceit is directed, is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the American worker in eternal subjection.

[phread]

11:30 AM on 01/03/2012

Historically false...The british empire declined due to WW II and the fact that britain could no longer afford to enforce empire militarily.

WW II was the end of european colonialism in that the Europeans could no longer afford the policing of their colonies and also needed help from the colonies to fight the war...

[reciprocat]

08:59 AM on 01/03/2012

That boy is insane! haha! I love 'im.

[robmclaughjr]

08:10 AM on 01/03/2012

What a ridiculous statement. It's Santorum's "shock of the day"!

[justobserve]

08:09 AM on 01/03/2012

"Obama doesn't believe in America": These GOP presidential candidates think if they keep putting words in Obama's mouth, those lies would become the truth. They are the ones who only believe in "the America of the rich" taking advantage of the middle class. They don't believe in an America where everyone should have a fair share of their hard work. How much wider of the gap between the haves and the have-nots in America do they want? The gap is widening, the CEOs taking bonus of hundred of millions while the hard workers get diminishing wage in real term and they are still not satisfied? Yes, these greedy GOPers want to do favors to their rich friends at the expense of the whole "other America" so when they are out of the congress, with their very generous retirement package paid by taxpayers no less, they would find employment with these people in return! Cut anything relating to the poors and the middle class while taxpayers still paid for these greedy people's big salaries, allowances, health care,..., that they never put on the chopping board that they pioneered to cut the deficits! Greed has no bound!

[sharin]

08:06 AM on 01/03/2012

oh come on HP!!! the author of this article thinks she is a journalist and then puts up this tripe without giving it the ridiculous lie that it is
be a journalist! do your job! don't just report a "he said, she said"

[johntangier]

07:57 AM on 01/03/2012

THE BRITISH EMPIRE, WHERE THE SUN NEVER SETS. SKIPPY, THEY HAD NO SOCIAL PROGRAMS, GO BACK AND WATCH THE MOVIE OLIVER.

[yerachm]

07:50 AM on 01/03/2012

Empires collapse because of over extension. Very simply, in order to secure its borders, an empire must continuously subdue the threatening societies adjacent to its spheres of influence, in a never ending domino effect. Think Korea, Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan, perhaps Iran (and other nascent superpowers like Panama and Grenada.) It is the financial burden associated with the foreign military and civil presences that drains the economy, freeing upstart powers to usurp the old empire's role.
Fact is, the US became the world's dominant economic power by 1895. Britain was finished as a first level world power by the end of the First World War. This was just a few years after Dickens chronicled the desperate plight of the industrial poor. The social programs that Santorum decries came much later. If you doubt me, ask Newt.
So the threat we face is NOT Obamacare; it's Cheneywar.
How strange and sad that Mr. Santorum, a deeply religious man, one who opposes all abortion because of the supreme value he places on human life, nonetheless believes that Britain lost its soul when it chose human services over military power and glory: Britain "lost heart and faith in their heart in themselves and in their mission, who they were and what values they wanted to spread around the world." How exactly does Santorum reconcile his diametrical core beliefs? One thing seems clear - if national leaders can talk and think like that, then the "end" must be near.