BY EMILY ROLLA
More than 500 people crowded Froelich's Classic Corner to hear Rick Santorum campaign Monday morning.
Wearing his signature sweater vest, Santorum approached the podium to applause and began by thanking Franciscan University of Steubenville for being a "beacon of light," to the world by upholding true Christian principles.
University students made up a sizable portion of the crowd. In addition to students, Franciscan attendees included the Reverend Dennis Gang T.O.R, Dr. Scott Hahn, and Daniel Kempton.
Santorum spoke primarily about his plans to fix the economy. Chicago is anticipated to pay five dollars per gallon by summertime, he said. Just as employment begins to go down and people get a chance to breathe, wallets will be hit with the high cost of gasoline.
To solve this issue, Santorum stressed using the resources that are available in a responsible way. He addressed the benefits of fracking in order to obtain crude oil and suggested using that technology to access oil which would otherwise be left alone.
Santorum also spoke out against big government, saying that while health care and welfare have good intentions, they are in need of reform.
Santorum said that while there were downsides to a lack welfare programs, it forced people to be hard-working and self-reliant, depending on their families and communities for support. Santorum said his grandfather had to build his life from the ground up, first working in the auto factories in Detroit, then as a coal-miner in western Pennsylvania.
"There were no government benefits in 1925, except one: freedom," he said, to which the crowd responded with applause, chanting, "We pick Rick!"
The benefit programs were begun with an honest desire to assist those in need, but, Santorum said, took away that need for reliance on the family and the local community, enabling people to live a self-centered life and shirk their responsibilities.
"When I was born in 1958 less than 10 percent of the federal government's budget was spent on entitlement programs to take care of people," Santorum said. "Now 60 percent of the budget cuts are. And what has happened systematically is we've seen the degradation of the American family ... Some say the government facilitated that. The government responded to it, in what they believed was a compassionate way by helping. By doing so, they created the opportunity for more of it to happen."
"We need a frank discussion in our country about how we can rebuild those civic institutions, and how we can rebuild the family and the church," he added.
Santorum also stressed the importance of family. In a culture of me, family calls for sacrificial love, which is the heart of a truly just society, he said.
"We have to revitalize the basic institutions of our country: the Church and the family."