George Will praises Santorum for 15-year old welfare reform work:

Santorum is not, however, a one-dimensional social conservative. He was Senate floor manager of the most important domestic legislation since the 1960s, the 1996 welfare reform. This is intensely pertinent 15 years later, as the welfare state buckles beneath the weight of unsustainable entitlement programs…

What he neglects to mention is that Santorum voted for the unfunded prescription drug benefit that made Medicare that much more unsustainable. Santorum is partly responsible for increasing the federal government’s unfunded liabilities by trillions of dollars. Bruce Bartlett summed up the damage back in 2010:

According to the latest actuaries’ report, Medicare Part D will cost taxpayers — beneficiaries pay virtually nothing — $62 billion this year. This figure is expected to rise sharply in coming years to $150 billion in 2019. By 2030, Part D alone will cost taxpayers 1 percent of GDP. In present value terms, Medicare Part D adds almost $16 trillion to our national indebtedness….That is why former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker has called the unfunded prescription drug benefit “the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s.”

Santorum has since said that he regretted voting for it, but still argues that the “design” of the program is what caused it to come in under budget, which is a common and misleading argument from Republican supporters of the measure now desperate to justify what they did.