Tort Reform!
by digby
Pennsylvania reporter Will Bunch has the goods on Santorum’s corruption all the way down the line in this piece. The man is a religious radical and a right wing extremist, to be sure. He’s also a corrupt hypocrite.
Bunch’s piece is very thorough but it did leave out one of my favorite Santorunm stories. From the time he came into office, like all right wing Republicans, he railed against malpractice claims, blaming them for high medical costs and insinuating that they are mostly fraudulent wastes that benefit the Democratic party and the “trial lawyers.” They were so successful that they managed to persuade a whole bunch of Americans that, despite their own observations and personal experience, medical malpractice is a scam. They even got them to cheer wildly at the mere mention of the phrase “tort reform!” even though most of them wouldn’t know a tort from an apple pandowdy.
And yet Rick had no problem filing a malpractice claim of his own when the opportunity arose. But then, like most “values” Republicans (and Wall Street hustlers), when you look at Bunch’s bill of indictment, it’s clear that his main value is to never leave any cash on the table:
Back in 1994, when Santorum was in Congress and running for the Senate, he introduced H.R. 3918, which would have capped non-economic damages awarded by juries in medical malpractice cases at $250,000. On February 7, 2003, Senator Santorum said the $250,000 cap set in Congressman Jim Greenwood’s bill was “too low.” The next day, he told The Associated Press that he’d “been hesitant to sign on to any bill that has a cap.”
Did something happen to change Santorum from one who authored a bill capping damages for a victim’s pain and suffering into one who couldn’t even sign onto such a bill?
Yes. Reality happened to Rick. In 1999, Santorum’s wife, Karen, filed her own medical malpractice lawsuit against a chiropractor in Virginia, seeking $500,000 in non-economic damages – twice the amount allowed in her husband’s own legislation five years earlier…
Here’s how the Washington, DC newspaper Roll Call summarized part of Santorum’s testimony in the lawsuit:
“Karen Santorum, he said, ‘likes to be fit,’ but has had trouble losing weight since the birth of their two youngest children – Sarah Maria, who was born two years ago this month, and Peter, who is 2 months old – because she can’t exercise as easily as she once could.
“While Santorum described his wife as an exercise fanatic who used to engage in everything from step aerobics to jogging to lose weight after the birth of each of their first three children, the herniated disk changed all that.
“‘We have to go out and do a lot of public things. She wants to look nice, so it’s really difficult,’ Santorum told the jury.
“The Senator also said he fears his wife will be unable to help him out much with his upcoming re-election campaign because of her physical limitations and the poor self-image she has developed since her back problems changed her life and her daily routine.
“‘She has always been intricately involved in my campaigns,’ Santorum said, explaining that he and his wife ‘knocked on 20,000 doors together’ during his previous campaign.
“Now, he says, she ‘does not have the confidence to do that.’”
On December 10, 1999, a Fairfax County, Virginia jury awarded Karen Santorum $350,000 in her malpractice lawsuit. When asked about the judgment, Santorum said:
“The court proceedings are a personal family matter. I will not be offering any further public comments, other than that I am not a party to the suit. But I am fully supportive of my wife.”
On December 14, The Associated Press published the following statement by Santorum spokesman Robert Traynham:
“Senator Santorum is of the belief that the verdict decided upon by the jury during last week’s court case of his wife is strictly a private manner. The legislative positions that Senator Santorum has taken on tort reform and health care have been consistent with the case involving Mrs. Santorum.”
On December 25, The Washington Post reported:
“Santorum spokesman Robert Traynham said the senator’s wife never asked him for his opinion of the lawsuit and Santorum never offered it. ‘The senator and his wife, believe it or not, disagree on some issues,’ Traynham said. ‘This is a case between her and her attorney and her chiropractor. It has nothing to do with Senator Santorum.’”
A few weeks later, in January 2000, the judge in Virginia set aside the jury’s award, saying the $350,000 was excessive and reducing it to $175,000.
We wish Karen Santorum only the best of health, but for Senator Santorum the question is: What happens to the millions of people outside his own family whose pain and suffering he clearly doesn’t feel?
His [senate] web site ays: “Legal reform is an important issue that I place high on the agenda in the 109th Congress, as it is crucial to curb lawsuit abuse.” His press release says: “Senator Santorum has supported 3 prior attempts to pass medical liability reform including measures targeting the plight of OB/GYN’s and emergency room doctors. Democratic opposition prevented the measures from moving forward.”
Here’s what Rick said about this in Iowa:
Rick Santorum, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, told people at a town hall meeting earlier this month in Centerville, Ia., that he would push for tort reform. He noted that while serving in Congress from Pennsylvania, he fought for tort reform on medical liability and gun manufacturing issues…
Santorum’s remarks in Centerville have brought him some criticism from Iowa trial lawyers who have cited his wife’s lawsuit. He said in an interview Thursday that his wife made the decision to sue the chiropractor and anyone who thinks his wife has to hold the same policy positions as he does is “pretty chauvinistic and insulting.”
He also said his wife’s suit was consistent with reforms he has sought. Furthermore, he said his wife sued only because she considered the chiropractor to be a “bad actor.” She wanted to expose him to prevent others from being similarly disadvantaged by his care, he said.
“I think I have been very clear. There needs to be a medical malpractice system. I just think there needs to be reasonable constraints in order for there to be proper incentives for everybody in the system to bring costs under control and to provide quality care,” Santorum said.
I just love the feminist defense coming from this guy. The slimy hypocrisy is overwhelming.