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Lafayette will host a “Conversation with Senator Rick Santorum on the Future of Social Security” from 10:30-11:30 a.m. today in Colton Chapel.
The event, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the William E. Simon Professorship of Political Economy. Named for former U.S. treasury secretary William E. Simon’52, the professorship was established to encourage the examination of issues that lie on the boundary of economics and political science.
“President Bush made it abundantly clear during his re-election campaign that reform of the Social Security System would be his domestic priority in a second term, and Senator Santorum, as chair of the Social Security subcommittee of the Senate Finance committee, will play a key role in legislative proceedings — he will be at the center of the debate in the Senate,” says Mark Crain, the Simon Professor of Political Economy in the department of economics and business.
“How the policy debate on the sustainability of the Social Security system and proposals to change the system are resolved has vast implications, and ranks as the premier domestic policy issue of our day,” Crain says. “Even beyond the consequences for the Social Security system, per se, the resolution of this debate foreshadows the dividing line between public versus private responsibility in the coming decades.”
Crain joined the faculty at the beginning of the current academic year. He came from George Mason University, where he had served since 1982, most recently as director of the Center for Public Choice and professor of economics. Author of seven books, including Volatile States, published last year by University of Michigan Press, he also taught at UCLA and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and was assistant to the director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Texas A&M University and B.S. in economics from University of Houston.
Santorum has served in the U.S. Senate since January 1995. He has been elected to a third term as Republican Conference Chairman, the party’s third-ranking leadership position in the Senate. As Conference Chairman, he directs the communications operations of Senate Republicans and is a frequent party spokesman. He is the youngest member of the leadership and the first Pennsylvanian of such a prominent position since Hugh Scott in the 1970s.
Santorum was raised in Butler County and attended Penn State University. As an undergraduate he became actively involved in the political process as a campaign volunteer for the late Senator John Heinz. Santorum received a B.A. in political science from Penn State in 1980 and earned an M.B.A. in 1981 from University of Pittsburgh. Later, he graduated with a J.D. from Dickinson School of Law. In 1990, at age 32, Santorum was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
He serves on the Senate Agriculture Committee; Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Senate Committee on Rules and Administration; Senate Special Committee on Aging; and Senate Finance Committee, of which he is the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Social Security and Family Policy.
Santorum and his wife, Karen Garver Santorum, are the parents of seven children: Elizabeth, John, Daniel, Gabriel (deceased), Sarah Maria, Peter, and Patrick.
