The American Spectator

Announcing a 2012 presidential run today, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) came out swinging in defense of Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform plan. He argued that the troops who stormed the beaches at Normandy should have the freedom to choose their own health plans.

“Those Americans risked everything so they could make that decision on their health care plan,”Santorum said. “They believe in themselves, the smart people, the planners, the folks in Washington who can make decisions better than you can,” he continued. “They’re saying to seniors, ‘you need to trust us. We are the ones who are gonna make decisions what every senior can have. We cant trust seniors to make decisions.”

Santorum compared the premium support system Ryan envisions for Medicare to the free-market Medicare Advantage accounts that were part of the prescription drug benefit. “Did we shove that down their throats? No, we did not. We gave them a choice,” he said. “That’s exactly what we’re proposing for Medicare - give them the resources to go out and choose what’s best for themselves.”

But the prescription drug benefit — for which both Santorum and Ryan voted — highlights a problem with limited government rhetoric by Bush-era Republicans. Despite its free-market elements, the prescription drug benefit was an unfunded new entitlement that grew government and made Medicare’s unfunded liabilities worse.