Retire Hatch. That was the mantra Utahns heard from
FreedomWorks several weeks ago just before the Utah Caucuses. I am not a donor
of FreedomWorks and I am not a leader in any of the major parties. I like to think of myself as just an
average Utah conservative. That
said, the FreedomWorks statistics intrigued me. Did Senator Orrin Hatch really vote to
raise the debt ceiling 16 times and did those raises really amount to $7.5
trillion? If it was true, then this added one more reason to my belief that
Hatch no longer represents me.
I have been an audit and compliance professional for
12 years and we have a saying in that industry--“trust but verify.” So, as a
private citizen, I decided to do my own homework on FreedomWorks’ assertions.
What did I learn? I learned that, while all data is
subject to some interpretation, for several years Hatch voted consistently to
the raise the debt ceiling. Using information from the Congressional Research
staff and the congressional record itself, going back to 1978, the year after
Hatch went into office, the record shows that Hatch voted “Yes” or via
“Unanimous Consent” to raise the debt ceiling 20 times for a total of $7.9
trillion dollars. If you include
“Voice Votes,” that total rises to 37 times and $8.8 trillion. In all, federal
debt has risen over $14 trillion since Hatch has been in office (and it is
still rising).
Frankly, I was stunned. $14 trillion? A little more math shows this is the equivalent of Senator
Hatch handing a bill for $45,000 to every man, woman, and child in the state of
Utah (that is $224,000 for a family of 5). And that bill is just for debt—it does not include the money
required for ongoing expenditures. Where is the country going to get that kind
of money? Certainly, even “the rich” cannot help pay for that kind of debt. Where
was the “conservative” Senator Hatch when all of this was going on? He was
voting “yes.”
The bottom line is that FreedomWorks pretty much
got this statistic right. Wow.
However, as I mentioned earlier, this is just one
more reason why I believe that Hatch no longer represents me. My disillusionment with the Senator’s voting record actually started back in the year 2000 when, during that re-election
year, Hatch was touting his experience on the Judiciary committee. It did not
take a legal scholar to recognize that this so-called “power” was not being
used to advance conservatism.
Hatch was not opposing Clinton appointees nor was he pressuring the
administration for more conservative judges. In truth, he was actually approving
liberal appointments. What I did not know then, but know now
is that Hatch not only voted to seat Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsberg--two of
the most liberal judges on the Supreme Court--he is proud of the fact his suggested them to President Clinton.
Then, in mid-2001, came the embryonic stem-cell
debate. I am unashamed to say that I believe life begins at conception and I
believe a majority of Utahns hold this belief. We can quote one of our beloved
leaders, a renowned medical doctor, as saying, “Life begins when two germ cells
unite to become one cell … A continuum of growth results in a new human being.
The onset of life is not a debatable issue, but a fact of science.”[1]
What did Senator Hatch do with that belief? He shunned it and became one of
only a handful of Republican Senators to join a large number of Democrats in
urging President Bush to reverse the ban on embryo destruction and allow
scientists to use human embryos for research. Thank goodness President Bush
held his ground on life and upheld the ban. What is not well-known is that when
Barak Obama became President, the ban was lifted and embryos are now being
destroyed in the name of science. Senator Orrin Hatch is officially on the same page
as President Barak Obama on this issue.
About 10 years ago a columnist at the Deseret News
wrote, “it's time to quit calling Hatch a conservative. He's a moderate on
social issues — and him siding with liberals [should no longer be a surprise].”[2]
Do Utah conservatives honestly want to give Senator Hatch six more years as a
lame-duck senator during which time he could do what he pleases? Be as liberal
as he wants with no checks on how he could vote? I think not. In my view, it is time to look at
conservative alternatives. Thank goodness this election year we, the average
conservative voters of Utah, have a choice and if we choose, we can elect Dan Liljenquist and "Retire
Hatch."
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