Orrin Hatch, longtime Utah Republican senator, dead at 88

[Oddball]

Yet another carpetbagger, who was one of the best friends that the warfare/welfare state ever had.

meh

 

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[AMart]

“I wouldn't want to see homosexuals teaching school anymore than I'd want to see members of the American Nazi Party teaching school."-Orrin Hatch

And we see now he was correct. Too many groomers.

 

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NYT Orrin Hatch obit is wild

 

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even Hillary likes him now

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Hatch is a fine example of what happens to any individual when they have been in Washington for too long.
He was a man of conviction and desire to do the right thing for awhile, but then just became another pocket for lobbyist to fill the past 10 years at least.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

even Hillary likes him now

It was a different time.
Shall we compare Hatch with Democrats on race?
I don't think that is a winning strategy.

 

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[wamose]

RIP, but I never did like his neocon politics.

 

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Hatch didn't expect a doggone thing from government except providing a level playing field

R.I.P., with gratitude, to Senate legend Orrin Hatch - Washington Examiner

Orrin Hatch, the former seven-term Republican U.S. senator from Utah who died on April 23 at age 88, was one of the finest public servants of my lifetime. Hatch’s dogged and principled conservatism created a legacy in which his civility was legendary, his legislative triumphs legion...

www.washingtonexaminer.com

 

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Hatch has passed more bills into law than any legislator in history: 750 bills, and most are quality bills, not just quantity

 

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Orrin Hatch's brother Jesse was onboard a B-24 in February 1945 when it was shot down over Austria

 

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Orrin Hatch Was the Quiet Architect of Our Miseries

The rote memorials hailing Orrin Hatch’s civility and bipartisanship miss the point. Hatch was a committed, often fierce right-wing warrior who served corporate power and reshaped the political order toward greater misery.

jacobinmag.com

excerpts:

Hatch entered Congress by winning a stunning upset against three-term incumbent Frank Moss, a staunch New Dealer and friend of labor who opposed the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons and backed civil rights and government programs protecting ordinary people from runaway corporate power. The right-to-work-supporting Hatch famously beat him despite never having served in any political office, with no experience in campaigning, and having only moved to Utah eight years earlier. It would mark the very last time a Democrat represented the state in the US Senate.

It oddly mirrored the career trajectory of the man who would serve as Hatch’s longtime colleague and friend: Joe Biden, who likewise kicked off a historically lengthy Senate career by beating an entrenched incumbent more progressive than he was.

The senator from Delaware was often Hatch’s partner in crime — literally so, with the two helping rewrite the federal criminal code to establish harsher prison sentences, weaken bail, and eliminate parole. The two steadfastly backed federal law enforcement over the Waco and Ruby Ridge disasters, and worked together on the civil liberties–shredding anti-terror legislation that followed, Hatch urging Biden to drop attempts to restore some particularly objectionable measures in order to get the bill over the line. In the years that followed, Hatch was a major backer of Biden’s horrendous bankruptcy bill, saying it was only fair that “those who can pay their bills should pay their bills.”

Joe Biden Backed Bills to Make It Harder for Americans to Reduce their Student Debt

Jennifer Ryan did not love the idea of taking on debt, but she figured she was investing in her future. Eager to further her teaching career, she took out loans to gain certification and later pursued an advanced degree. But her studies came at a massive cost, leaving her confronting $192,000 in...

www.consumerbankers.com

Trump headed to Utah in December with plans to shrink Bears Ears and Grand Staircase

<font><font><b>Washington •</b> President Donald Trump plans to visit Utah in December to announce that he will trim the boundaries of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, a move that is likely to spur an instant court battle.</font></font>

www.sltrib.com

Tribal leaders and Dems blast Trump in the first House hearing on his decision to cut two national monuments in Utah

<b>Washington •</b> Tribal leaders testified Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s slashing of two national monuments in Utah was illegal, and House Democrats questioned whether the process was precooked in favor of oil and gas companies and special interests.

www.sltrib.com

 

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“A lot of people still don’t know me,” Hatch complained in 1978. “If they did, they would realize I hold a progressive record on such things as civil rights, youth employment, small business, and disability benefits for pregnant ladies.”

 

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Hatch Urges Changes To End Medicaid 'Gulag' - KFF Health News

Utah senator says he wants to "modernize" the system following the model of the 1996 welfare reform.

khn.org

 

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more Hatch hypocrisy:

And if you weren’t a kid, then you simply weren’t worthy of any of his sympathy. Hatch was a foe of Obamacare (“the stupidest, dumbass bill that I’ve ever seen,” supported by the “stupidest, dumbass people I’ve ever met”) to the bitter end, claiming its individual mandate provision was a violation of liberty — even though he had happily sponsored a bill with that very provision during the Clinton years.

 

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more:

His loyalty was rewarded when Trump had him lead the charge on one of Hatch’s long-standing goals. With GOP majorities in both chambers of Congress, what did Hatch, with his lifelong “sympathy for the downtrodden,” turn his efforts to? Shepherding a massive $1-trillion tax cut tailored overwhelmingly for the rich through Congress, which colleagues said would “be the capstone of the career of a senator who has passed more legislation than any other person in Congress.”

Hatch loaded the bill up with goodies for corporate interests and the wealthy and personally profited from its provisions, while at the same time fearmongering about the deficit when it came to keeping CHIP, his own program, funded for a comparatively paltry $14 billion. Yet he was outraged — outraged! — that anyone would suggest this was a favor to the rich.

“I come from the poor people,” he howled. “And I’ve been here working my whole stinkin’ career for people who don’t have a chance. And I really resent anybody saying that I’m just doing this for the rich.”