With his second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has come under increased scrutiny of his time as a Pennsylvania senator and how he fashioned a “lucrative post-government career based largely on income from businesses that had benefited from his work in Congress,” the New York Times reports.
Santorum isn't the first politician to join the private sector once out of office, but records indicate that his actions while in the Senate helped smooth his way to a new career once he lost his seat in 2006.
As examples, the Times notes that as a senator, Santorum sponsored at least two bills and “pushed to amend a mammoth Medicare overhaul to including extra spending,” all of which would have benefited Universal Health Services, a Pennsylvania-based hospital management company.
A short time after leaving the Senate, Santorum joined the company’s board of directors where he was compensated with $395,000 in fees and stock options. He also began consulting for a Pennsylvania gas and coal producer, which benefited from policies for which Santorum advocated during his time in the Senate.
A senior advisor to Santorum's campaign told the Times that the former senator's wealth hasn't significantly increased since he left office and that said Thursday that the former senator had not drastically increased his net worth since leaving Capitol Hill. The advisor also notes that Santorum has "done a lot of things that have helped a lot fo companies and a lot of individuals. Almost anywhere he went, there's somebody who benefited from his legislation."
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