MyDD :: A Hyperbolic Hatch Lays An Egg

A Hyperbolic Hatch Lays An Egg

by Charles Lemos, Mon Nov 02, 2009 at 04:55:50 PM EST

Pass healthcare reform and we destroy the two party system. That's the charge Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch is making today. To begin with, I am not really sure that a two-party system is worth saving if one of those parties is today's GOP. Better to go the way of their antecedents, the Know-Nothings and the Whigs, if all the GOP can muster is no after no while promising more tried and failed free market economic policies. To suggest that the GOP is a party of limited government and fiscal discipline flies in the face of an eleven trillion deficit that is a legacy of reckless tax cuts for the wealthy and even more reckless spending on perpetuating an empire that long ago lost its raison d'être .

From The Hill:

The healthcare reform proposals before Congress threaten the existence of the two-party system, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) alleged Monday morning.

Hatch asserted that the health bills, which he believes represent a "step-by-step approach to socialized medicine," will lead to Americans' dependence on Democrats for their health and other issues.

"And if they get there, of course, you're going to have a very rough time having a two-party system in this country, because almost everybody's going to say, 'All we ever were, all we ever are, all we ever hope to be depends on the Democratic Party,' " Hatch said during an interview with the conservative CNSNews.com.

"That's their goal," Hatch added. "That's what keeps Democrats in power."

That claim led Hatch to suggest that some Democrats are "diabolical" in their pursuit of health reform.

"Do I believe they're that diabolical? I don't believe most of them are, but I think some of them are," Hatch said. "Maybe diabolical's too harsh of a word, but the fact is, they really, really believe in socialized medicine."

If catering to needs to the American people is diabolical, then by all means call me diabolical.

Update [2009-11-2 19:22:29 by Charles Lemos]: Not to be out done by a United States Senator, Congresswoman Virginia Foxx of North Carolina today posits that passing health reform is a greater threat to our country than “any terrorist right now in any country.” More on this from Think Progress.

Tags: Senator Orrin Hatch, US Healthcare Reform, US Politics (all tags)

Permalink :: 7 Comments :: Post a Comment

Re: A Hyperbolic Hatch Lays An Egg (2.00 / 1)

I don't know why everyone is acting like this is such a weird statement. It's basically the Bill Kristol memo writ large. There's a lot of people who still vote for Democrats because they're the party of Social Security and Medicare. As Kristol wrote in 1993:

A successful Clinton health care bill ... will relegitimize middle-class dependence for "security" on government spending and regulation. It will revive the reputation of the party that spends and regulates, the Democrats, as the generous protector of middle-class interests.

It's odd that Hatch would make this argument out loud, not so much because it's a big secret, but simply because it's so unpersuasive to anyone who doesn't happen to be an elected Republican. Sure, if you're trying to convince wavering Republican legislators, this might be a convincing argument. But real people care about whether it's a good bill or a bad bill, not about whether it will help the electoral fortunes of the Democrats. It's the context that makes it bizarre, though - Hatch's argument itself is straight outta 1993.

"Another problem we have...is that in election years we behave somewhat as primitive peoples do at the time of the full moon." --Harry Truman

by Steve M on Mon Nov 02, 2009 at 05:06:52 PM EST

Re: A Hyperbolic Hatch Lays An Egg (none / 0)

Republicans like to forget that blacks voted solidly Republican right until the New Deal. Back in 1860 Bill Kristol would have been making the argument that emancipation would be bad idea because it would endear blacks to the GOP. Oh wait, i'm sure there were more than a few who did make that argument then.

It's sort of comforting to know that the looney right is the same as the lonney right 100 years ago.

by vecky on Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 01:51:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: A Hyperbolic Hatch Lays An Egg (2.00 / 1)

I sort of share Charles'ambivalence to saving the two-party system considering the current state of the Republicans (and I'm an ex-GOP who had the same worries in the 1970s and 1980s).
I also wonder if Sen. Hatch should have considered the consequences of being so ideologically rigid in Ronnie Hollywood's heyday.

Would be nice if it looked as if the axe was going to fall on somne Republicans tomorrow and next year, though.

by spirowasright on Mon Nov 02, 2009 at 05:16:57 PM EST

Unfortunately, many Democrats feel the same (none / 0)

They dont want universal healthcare because they dont think it would be "fair" to create a program that would stack the electoral deck against their Republican friends.

by Kent on Mon Nov 02, 2009 at 05:21:24 PM EST

Find one. (none / 0)

Only one who is on record saying that.

2nd Law of Obamadynamics: Financial gain flows with the direction of Obama bashing.

by NoFortunateSon on Mon Nov 02, 2009 at 05:35:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Bush's only gift to the US... (2.00 / 1)

...was destruction of the GOP.
<To suggest that the GOP is a party of limited government and fiscal discipline flies in the face of an eleven trillion deficit that is a legacy of reckless tax cuts for the wealthy and even more reckless spending on perpetuating an empire that long ago lost its raison d'être .<>
In my opinion, this needs to be further stressed by the deomcrats. As long as the fiscal responsibility road is closed to them, the GOP will continue to wander in the wasteland.

2nd Law of Obamadynamics: Financial gain flows with the direction of Obama bashing.

by NoFortunateSon on Mon Nov 02, 2009 at 05:37:08 PM EST

For once, Hatch was being honest... (none / 0)

If a good health care bill becomes law, it just may be the 1,000th cut of this "death by 1,000 cuts" that they've been suffering since 2005 when Americans started to wake up to Bush and his many mistakes. They've worked so hard to prove that government doesn't work (since it never works when they defund it and privatize it while in power), so a functioning health care system would mean that their corporatized version of government really was never the answer.

Want to defend marriage equality in Maine? Ask me how!

by atdleft on Mon Nov 02, 2009 at 05:54:53 PM EST

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