Charles Dharapak / AP Photos
Rick Santorum may publicly support veterans, but his record in the Senate suggests otherwise. In 1999, the senator from Pennsylvania penned an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act forcing the Armed Forces Retirement Home, a sprawling campus in Washington, D.C., run by the Department of Defense, to sell its land to neighboring Catholic University for much less than it was worth. The struggling home had been looking for a way to retain its property while making money to fund the services it provides for military veterans and retirees—ideally leasing part of the property to a high-paying renter—when Santorum's Catholic U. amendment went through. The reduced payment the home received from the university led to a cutback in services and eventually a class-action lawsuit from the veteran residents against the home and its director. Now the retirement campus is filled with boarded-up, dilapidated buildings. One resident calls the state of the facility "demolition by neglect."