Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, gave a passionate rebuttal of Senator Sherrod Brown’s (D-OH) rant in which he accused Republicans of having a need to give tax cuts to the rich “in their DNA” during a committee meeting on the Senate tax bill. Hatch, the longest-serving, and oldest Senate Republican is known for usually being soft-spoken and reaching across the aisle. But when a partisan talking point was thrown at him by Brown, who is desperately trying to rally his base before elections next year, he wasn’t going to sit idly by.
“I come from the poor people, and I’ve been working my whole stinking career for people who don’t have a chance,” scolded Hatch as he stared down at Brown. “And I really resent anybody saying I’m just doing this for the rich. Give me a break.” As Brown tried to interrupt and smirked at Hatch, the elder senator continued, saying, “I’m telling you, this bull crap that you guys throw out here really gets old after a while.”
Hatch hammered the gavel multiple times before pleading with Brown to put his partisanship aside so Congress can work together to get the country out of its financial mess. For weeks now, Democrats and the mainstream media have been painting the Republican tax plans as cuts for the rich, a threat to Medicaid and Social Security, and a threat to the deficit.
House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republican lawmakers have said they would address spending and entitlement reform in the new year after tax cuts are passed. The bipartisanship that Senator Hatch is longing for will be needed in the new year in order to make those meaningful cuts to spending that, combined with across the board tax cuts, would create an incredible economic turnaround.
Watch the exchange between Senator Hatch and Senator Brown here.
