20120303 Orrin Hatch meeting

This meeting was held at the Provo Marriott. The room filled up nicely and peaked at around 3pm with 100 people. There were many there with camo on who had attended a Caucus training meeting just before this meeting that was put on by USA-ALL.

3/3/2012 2:04:11 PM Background (from Hatch campaigner) … Hatch got us the ear in Washington. As you drive home look at all the restoration stuff on your way to Cedar City. That was all because of Senator Hatch.
3/3/2012 2:04:45 PM Introductions Julian Babbitt We want to give you plenty of time to ask questions. We want to get right to it, so please welcome Senator Hatch to the front of the room to get us started.
3/3/2012 2:05:19 PM Information Orrin Hatch We are happy to have you here and look forward to answering questions. There is one of the great Utahns here that wants to say something about this State to start with. He is the right guy to stand up for our Second Amendment rights. Don Peay is a sportsman in this state and is a very close friend of mine. We are close to John Stockton as well. Don why don’t you come up.
3/3/2012 2:06:17 PM Introductions Don Peay “I grew up in West Provo near the airport. I went to Sunset School and eventually got a job at a sporting goods store. I went to Provo High then BYU and graduated with a degree in chemical engineering and an MBA. I have lived the American dream. I grew up in a single wide trailer and have been in the halls in DC with this powerful Senator. I was on the campaign trail with Mitt Romney for the past little while. People are frustrated with where this country is at.
My father in law has this big fit and asks, “Why can’t our Senate do anything?” It’s because we don’t have enough good people there. Senator Hatch is a conservative and a heavy lifter. He also reaches across the aisle and works with Kennedy and Reid. If you can’t reach across the aisle you can do nothing. People want the power back in the hands of the people and not the government.
Let me tell you just two examples of what he has done for us.
One issue in the hunting and fishing industry is the environmentalists have stopped all range land rehabilitation. I was in the Rose Garden when Senator Hatch passed the healthy lands act.
Hatch stopped the environmentalists with a bill. They got it through the House and then CA and Feinstein came over because their lands got fired (burned).
No one had changed the Endangered Species Act in the last 30 years. It has been hijacked and has destroyed thousands of jobs. Then they dropped some wolves in the west which destroyed our industry. People said that you can not change the Endangered Species Act, but Orrin Hatch put his pick and shovel in the ground and led the effort to do that. Some people think that it was Lee that did it. It never played in the Resource Committee. It was done because he was the ranking member of the Finance Committee.
That was April 15, 2009. Without him being there it would not have happened. If you like to see elk or wildlife then you can thank him.
You might ask, “How can we trust you?” I am just a good old boy from Provo. He works 10-12 hours a day and gets things done. If you understand Washington politics then you know it takes seniority. So let us keep him there.
3/3/2012 ~2:10 PM Thanks Don. He needs to go to another appointment. He is a very dear friend and we have fought together to keep our lands alive. I didn’t know what he would say, but thank you. There is nobody who has done more than Don Peay.
Elaine and I both graduated from BYU. She taught 3rd grade and then I went to Pittsburgh to get a law degree. I was there for a short time and then we returned here. We have 23 grandchildren and 87 great grand children. I was a little disappointed that our children didn’t give us more grand children.
Elaine just had her left knee replaced otherwise she would have been here. She had her right one replaced seven years ago. I try to support her. She is a wonderful woman.
I’m glad that BYU won the game last night. As you know Janice Kapp Perry is a good friend also. We have written music together and she is a lovely human being.
What I would like to do is have a couple of people call on people who raise their hands so let us get as many questions in as we can.”
3/3/2012 2:14:14 PM Question Shumway I heard you voted for NDAA can you explain more about that? We know about the power to prison of citizen.
3/3/2012 2:14:46 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “Almost everyone voted for it. Under that bill if a person is accused of terrorism then they can be indefinitely detained as enemy combatants. There is a protection in there that they have a right to Habeas Corpus. Or that they can prove they are not terrorists.
I am one of the authors of the Patriot Act. We knew there were a lot of terrorists and we needed to give law enforcement the tools to solve these problems. Every criminal law restrains liberties. There are 3 main objections.
1 – The ability to follow the telephone as well as the terrorist. The way it was you would have to get a warrant to wire tap a terrorist who has used a telephone facility. In the modern day and age they would just go off and buy a phone and change for another cell phone so they couldn’t get a warrant to follow every phone. Anybody with brains would say that this is a wise thing to do.
2 The second thing on the very far right and the left is that under the Patriot Act you can go to the library and see what they have checked out or the computers they have used. That is how we got the Unabomber. He had been checking out these materials about bombs and they got suspicious.
3 Is the lone wolf issue. If There are terrorists that may not be associated with al qaeda you had to have a change in the law to follow somethings. Anybody with brains would want this. You are giving law enforcement the [problems]. They are complex and the vast majority of conservatives are for them. I helped to get them along.”
3/3/2012 2:18:36 PM Question “I am very concerned about lands. In talking with Herbert I thought that Utah was supposed to defend us. Two men had to mortgage their houses to pay fines for doing community service in our area. Is there something that you can do on the 2 young men that did some work on a trail? I guess it was a 150 year old trail they wanted to fix after it had been washed out. The investigation was conducted by some people up here. There was supposedly $450,000.00 in fines because of sites they “disturbed.” They were so frightened they turned themselves in because the BLM was moving on them. The wilderness organizations have full run of the offices of the BLM. These people were fine but I would like to see your office get involved. They said that they had pictures and that there were ATVs that were running over skulls. We haven’t seen them.
We have a huge problem and nobody is addressing it. I don’t think there were any archeological sites down on the trail but they are all up in the cliffs.”
3/3/2012 2:22:04 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “The feds are over interpreting all the laws. We work on issues like that all the time. All I can say is that I am not pleased with how the BLM is handling things.
I am sick of the restraints they put on Utah. It is really very irritating and people can’t afford to defend themselves. Of course nobody should disturb archeological sites, but we are treated like we don’t own our own State. That is why we are looking at getting control of the lands back. It used to be that there were only 1 or 2 BLM agents and now there are too many.
We handle those problems at my office all the time. We can do something with them I can report this to Senator Lee and he should maybe look in to that for us.”
3/3/2012 2:23:58 PM Question This is a nice segue in to my question. With you being on the Finance Committee can you defund the departments that are managing our country by Fiat? EPA is getting in the way. BLM as well.
3/3/2012 2:24:38 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “We are so overrun by the Federal government. I have been appointed to be the subcommittee chairman of the western lands subcaucus. With the bureaucracy we need to have 60 conservatives in the Senate to do anything. We have never had a fiscal majority. Most of them go with the liberal Democrats. There are things we just can’t get done because we don’t have the votes. We stop an awful lot of bad things from happening.
We are 64% owned by the Federal government and that is why we hope to get the land back except for the Wilderness. We shouldn’t have bureaucrats and we shouldn’t have to go to Federal court every time we turn around. We have always been behind.
If you look at the map you will see that all the central states are Red and the East and West coasts are Blue. They have tremendous power because of the huge population. 35 million in CA and New York has huge numbers of people as well. That is why the Senate is so important.

There was the great compromise that brought about the Conssitution. There needs to be equal rights of suffrage for the States. Utah only has 6 electoral college votes. We have 2 Senate seats. Jake Garn and me, Bob Bennett and me, now Mike Lee and me. We have to be 10 times better and I wish we could have more votes. You can not find a Democrat who will vote on our natural resources.”
3/3/2012 2:28:13 PM Question “At the DMV I heard that they require a birth certificate and passport or Social Security card and the mothers maiden name. This is where the fraud happens. I think that needs to be stopped. Then they send that information to home land security. I came here from Arizona and the Federal government … I don’t like them having that.
One other thing is that Governor Herbert just started an energy committee. We don’t need another committee. I am concerned about that.”
3/3/2012 2:29:54 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “Three quarters of public land is being held by Federal governmet. We can solve almost every problem we have with the fields in our State. They have made a great move in Texas using their resources which is on private lands. There are billions of barrels of oil offshore.
This president signed a deal with Brazil and gave money to them to drill oil and we will buy their oil. But we won’t allow drilling except a little bit with the permits. A lot of energy companies that are in Africa and Brazil came from our US companies.
We know how to do this without causing a BP oil spill. We are awash in Natural Gas. We can drive all kinds of cars. Boone Pickes is in my office very often talking about natural gas.
If we could move all our hauling trucks to natural gas we could save a lot. But Obama just stopped the pipeline and they are going to take the oil to China.
This is the worst president we have ever had. If you were to meet him you would probably like him personally. But when you see what he is doing. He is really hurting our country.
With the presidential candidates, Mitt Romney is the one. I like all of them well. Any one of them would do better than this president. Mitt has no skeletons and has been successful at every thing he has atempted to do. The vast majority of companies worked well because of his abilities. I would like to see a man like that.”
3/3/2012 2:33:36 PM Question Thank you. I have sent you email. I have gotten answers within a week of each.
3/3/2012 2:34:01 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “I have a great staff. They have to do what I want done. We answer a lot of letters. We get them from all over the country. When they know my record they hope that I can pull this country out of the abyss.
I have to be Chairman of the Finance Committee. I wouldn’t run again if I weren’t in this position. This is where capital gains taxes are decided. It was the Hatch/Liebermann bill that brought down the taxes on capital gains. They said that we would lose revenue but they were wrong. People actually started trading again.
All of the spending is right in that committee. That is why I am running again. I have chaired the Judiciary as you know. I have had a lot to do with getting conservative judges to get on the Court.
I was also part of the Human and Labor resources. The Judiciary is the one that sets up the judges, one third of the power in the country. I have had a hand in every justice that was chosen.
We have thousands of cases that bind us all over the country. There is nothing that can help bring us back from the abyss as being on the committee.”
3/3/2012 2:36:52 PM Question I have a question about health care. I support bringing health care to the States. I am concerned about those who don’t have health care. What are we going to do about that?
3/3/2012 2:37:27 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “We can do this at the State level. We now have a 2.6 trillion dollar Obmacare. It is anything but affordable. There are some things in there that would bring medicaid to the States. The state can do what it needs to with its demographics. The health exchange in Utah works for us and it’s different from theirs im MA. If you turn this over to the Federal govenrment you are creating more bureaucracy.
You are from Great Britain and sometimes you have to wait and wait. (Actually you don’t and the system works great). But when I talk to people from there I don’t want to go to that system. Like that. Here in the US they are going to ration health care. They are going to start saying that you can’t do things in those areas with older people. It can be so much more efficiaent on a state level. And most of the states will do beter.
I don’t want anyone to be without health care but a lot of us would have worked with them if they had listend.
1/6 of the health care economy was changed on a purely partisan vote. There were a number of us who would have worked with them to make it less expensive.
Let me give you an illustration. There is a catheter in to the heart that doesn’t require surgery. This was approved in Europe where 36000 lives were saved but not here. They couldn’t get it through FDA.
I went in to Corbin and made a big fuss. I hauled the medical device leader in and got it done in 2 weeks. We could have gotten it done. The bureaucray is holding things up. We want this to be safe but there is too much in the way.
They are so cautious because they got chewd up by Thalidomide. People died and made a big thing out of it. So now the FDA has become so risk averse that we are losing out on our therapies.”
3/3/2012 2:42:26 PM Question I am with the a financial institution. The second worst law is the Dodd Frank bill.
3/3/2012 2:42:49 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “I disagree. It is actually THE worst law. It has allowed 4 banks to control all the banking in this country. All the Dodd/Frank does is cause a huge amount of overhead. It will reduce the number of banks from the 15,000 of 15 years ago down to half. The Consumer Bureau has no accountability. They can shut down things on a whim. The lady running for Senate against Scott Brown. He has been a great person in the Senate. Our record has been smeared by falsehoods and disingenuity.
That stuff should not exist. It is fair to disagree and you can raise questions with me. But my word, there is no reason to have the unfairness of the groups that are outside of Utah.
What can we do. We have got to change the laws by having enough votes.
That’s the Banking committee that can change Dodd/Frank. We almost did change Obamacare and then one Republican went with the Obamacare.
2014 the whole bill is going to go in to effect and it will be terrible.
Dodd/Frank is terrible as well.
The Economist is a moderate liberal magazine and pretty accurate. They said that the US is over-regulated and we are being regulated out of the world market place.
I was Democrat all the way through BYU but then I learned to read and write and became a Republican. I do not normally tell that joke as much now since they said that I was saying that Democrats don’t know how to read and write.
But there is no such thing as fair journalism out there now. They do not like Republicans. Even Hannity lets you see the other side. The real vote counters are the American Conservation Union and when they look at me over time then it is really good over time.”
3/3/2012 2:48:49 PM Question Jeanette Beckham “We heard from an interen that when Orrin Hatch speaks people listen in DC. Whether you like the system or not it is about experience. It is our Constitutional system.
3/3/2012 ~2:49 PM Orrin Hatch It took me many years to become ranking on the Senate Finance Committee. It just takes that long. You can’t even get on the committee usually in less than 6 years. When I get out on the floor you very seldom see them argue with me.
Ted Kennedy would raise the decibel level sometimes and argue with me and I would chew him up. He would frequently come over after and ask “How did I do?” Even Kennedy though would come to the center right for me. They don’t debate me because I will let them have it if they stray.
I was at a meeting with 700 people and there was a guy there who said that seniority doesn’t count. The reason that the pilot could land the plane in the Hudson River was experience. It was because he trained as a glider pilot.
I mentioned that to Senator Moss when I ran against him because 18 years was enough if you are not acting in the best interest of Utah.
Let me just say that the reason I am running again is because I believe that I would let my country down, my family etc. if I turn down being Chairman of the Finance Committee. If we are going to save this country you have to be chairman.
Nothing happens as raking member without me but it is his power as Chair to set the agenda. I will consult with whoever the ranking member would be.
You would be shocked at what we can do if I can get in control. There are 53 Democrats that still control the floor.
Just Thursday on one of the most important votes in history Harry Reid let 3 votes come over to vote with us and we still lost. He let them come over because it is an election year for them.”
3/3/2012 2:54:13 PM Question “I want to say that I really appreciate that you hold town hall meetings by phone. I don’t know of many other people that do that. My question is about taxes – statistically 49-51% of tax payers pay no tax. How can that be made more fair?”
3/3/2012 2:55:20 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “In the Joint Committee on taxation we quizzed them and the bottom 51% of all households do not pay any income tax. 23 million of them get refundable credits more than they pay. Another 16 million get credits to what they and their employer pay.
I do not want to tax the truly poor. I want to help them. But you can not tell me that all 51% of households are truly poor. Should they pay as much as the 49? No.
Would I be for a flat tax? You bet your sweet bippy I would be.
Mitt has come out with a 5% tax. The last time we really changed the code was many years ago. Ever since then the Finance and Ways and Means committees have made it useless. It should be flattened, simplified, and understandable. That is one of the goals.
I believe Mitt can bring the leadership to that issue.”
3/3/2012 2:58:03 PM Question Is it better to have Flat or Sales/Consumption?
3/3/2012 2:58:14 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “I like the Sales tax, but it is awfully easy to raise it. Europe has a VAT and it is raised all the time without the public knowing. If we had a true consumption tax you can determine what you will buy. You can choose to buy a cheaper car. There is some merit but it is difficult to monitor and collect monies on consumption.
Getting half of 535 people in the House and 60 in Senate is hard to get. My friend, Steve Forbes is also for a flat tax as are a whole bunch of others.”
3/3/2012 2:59:33 PM Question Are you willing to stand up on these appointments or the Recess appointments and executive orders?
3/3/2012 2:59:53 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “They were illegal and unconstitutional recess appointments. The President does have executive order powers. They have to be careful that they are not outlandish or radical. I am ready to stand.
What he did on the recess appointments was absolutely wrong. Even Clinton came down to the rule. Unless the Senate is out of session for more than 3 days then the President cannot Recess appoint.
During the Bush years when the Republicans had it. The last two years the spending had really gotten huge.
Obama should never have done that. He had no respect for history or parliamentary procedure. He did it because he had the power to do it.
Harry Reid did what we are doing to keep Bush from appointing anybody. Bush respected that. To have that respected you have to do that.
Reid did not do that. Reid moaned and groaned about Republicans trying to control things and Bush’s appointments. But he forced him to not do it through pro forma sessions.
Now Reid is saying that it is wonderful. It has created a lot of angst and antagonism.
Reid broke another rule as well.”
3/3/2012 3:03:10 PM Question I have been barraged by phone calls from Freedom Works. We want all incumbents out. What do you advise we do to help you get re-elected?
3/3/2012 3:03:40 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “They are not Republicans, but radical libertarians. I believe in freedom but they go to the extreme. They put out this big brochure that is filled with falsehoods, and lies and disingenuity They try to make the votes look bad. I have voted for over 12000 votes and that is more than all but 3 other people.
It is so inaccurate that they can get away with that kind of lie. I don’t agree with people who don’t know the truth.
They hate Mitt Romney and Orrin Hatch. You fill it in. I think people have a right to present their point of view. But they need to be accurate and honest.
I have no respect for them at all. They have spent more money against me than they have spent against Obama. It is well over $500,000 now. They have spent more money against me than they have against all 23 Democrats who have been doing it to us in the United States.
How any Utahn can support a lousy bunch of people like that is a mystery to me.
One thing you can do is get out to the mass meetings to elect the Hatch delegates. People are deciding to get out there. If you elect the Hatch delegates then that is the best thing you can do for me.
It is also good to make contributions. You can get out and put signs in your yards too.
You can stand up for me in those meetings. You can learn enough to dispel the falsehoods. There center seems to be in Utah County. Utah County has always been my biggest supporter.”
3/3/2012 3:07:44 PM Question I talked about this at Washington County and you have not attended iCaucus debates. Why not attend the debates?
3/3/2012 3:08:10 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “The iCaucus meetings are for fundraising. They are partisan fundraisers. I don’t remember receiving any invites.
I am not going to some place where it is stacked against me.”
3/3/2012 3:08:53 PM Question We are dealing with the prairie dog, but then you recently called the mayor down there and stopped moving things because you were getting heat from Boxer.
3/3/2012 3:09:14 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “It is absolutely false. I am 100% with you. It is pathethic that they would let these bills not go through. We have filed the bill. We have to go through the process. It is amazing how many things I do get done. These environmental Senators are way off the left wing plank
It takes times to get the votes. It takes years some times to get these things through.
Anyone who says that I back off is not telling the truth.”
3/3/2012 3:10:53 PM Question “I was on the campaign trail back then at the beginning in Pleasant Grove. Please give our best to Elaine.
(Hatch) I get up at 4-5 on the morning and she has put up with a lot.

If all of our public servants were examples like you of public service then DC would be a better place. I just heard that the campaign manager of your opponent quotes the “18 years is long enough.” But I was there when Brigham Young came in the valley (laugh). I was there in your campaign and I told them the second part of the quote was about the Senator not representing Utah.
I was also in charge of vocational and technical training legislation in the State of Utah. I gave you a call and flew back to DC and talked with you. I knew that the first question would be if the Karl Perkins legislation was good for Utah. And we said that Utah wanted it. You got the Karl Perkins Act through that effects every student in Utah.
It was taken care of by you.
I got one of these flyers and I called the office in DC. I understand the genesis of this group is the Texas Congressman who was convicted of crimes. Who is the Congressman and Freedom Works?”
3/3/2012 3:14:16 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “Dick Armey was not convicted. He has been a good conservative. He is making a fortune off this group. Freedom Works. Their own president voted for the same things I did. Somebody called Armey about that and he said, “that was then and we are talking about Hatch, not Dick Armey.”
He is a good guy and economist and has a good gift of gab. The money is more important to him than anything else. They don’t care if we have a majority in Congress they just want money. They don’t seem to realize it is important to have a majority to get things done.”
3/3/2012 3:16:01 PM Question I am a Lincoln Republican. Those who believe in good and decent government. If every one were like you then we would have a city on a hill that would shine.
3/3/2012 3:16:27 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “I’ll be happy to call the Mayor and set him straight on the gopher issue. It does take votes though.
If I hadn’t been there over the past 35 years fighting we would have lost so much more. That is the reason I am there. I am going to win this election. With the lies and deceit and fraud. If we let that happen in our state we deserve it.”
3/3/2012 3:17:33 PM Question Who is the leader if Obama is elected?
3/3/2012 3:17:43 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “He has to come to me if we get the majority. There is an arrogance there that is difficult to understand with him. He is a disciple of Saul Alynski. The way to win is to overcome and destroy them. We have got to take our state and Utah County back. These people are giving Utah county a bad name.
They are ready to throw all the bums out. If you think that brand new Senators can carry what I can carry you have a new thing coming.”
3/3/2012 3:18:58 PM Question “I am here with my son. We make our living with the livestock industry. We are also hunters.
This state has spent thousands of dollars to build up our elk herds. So I have a two part question concerning the wolf.
The wolf has come to this state. I have seen their tracks. I have been on the range a lot and I have seen the evidence of the wolf in this state.
I know what the wolf has done in Montana and Wyoming. They delisted it in Idaho and Montana. I understood that we were going to delist it before it got here. There is a section in Utah where it is delisted in the North East corner. But the wolf is right here in Utah County. That is where I have seen these tracks.
How long is it going to take to delist the wolf in this State so that we can control this?”
3/3/2012 3:20:58 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “I led the march to get this delisted. They have destroyed Elk, deer and mountain goats and lions. It is just ridiculous. All I can say is this.
That is as far as I could see us get it done.
There is a smaller number here versus there. There you are able to go after these wolves.
I would kill every one of them if I could. They are dangerous and attack human beings. We have had to shoot it to save a life and that kind of stuff should not exist in America.
I was the leader of the Sage brush rebellion and we need to do that again. We have to go after these people because we have rights too.
I understand the Endangered Species Act and it is way out of whack. When you tie up the Juaquin Valley in CA because of some small fish you can’t grow things. They have let things be out of whack because the liberals have been in control.
I am going to have to raise money for my own campaign. I have raised millions for the other senators. I want to get more people like you and me in the Congress. People who respect animal life but think there should be some reason to it. Even this year when it has been hard to raise I have still raised over one million.”
3/3/2012 3:24:16 PM Question If Obama has pulled this Recess shenanigan why hasn’t something been done?
3/3/2012 3:24:33 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “Suits have been filed but it will take years to get there. This is something that the Congress needs to heal itself on. You have to change the rule. We can’t get the Republicans since they have seen how this gets abused and may use it. I think the rule ought to be the rule. Republicans should live by the rules. Reid did not stand up to Obama. He stood up against Bush.”
3/3/2012 3:26:10 PM Question NDAA that was put in to effect two days ago. New detention rules you voted against.
3/3/2012 3:27:06 PM Answer Orrin Hatch Remember that we have the principle of habeas corpus and they are terrorists and you need to have evidence. We do not want terrorists in our country. If they are enemy combatants.
3/3/2012 3:28:35 PM Question But the Patriot Act was meant for just terrorism and it has been used for other things.
3/3/2012 3:28:52 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “It was the power for dealing with terrorists. The fact of the matter is as the longest serving person on the security committee there hasn’t been an abuse. Without the act we would have had a number of attacks without it. Because of the terrorist act we have been able to take care of these problems. We,
let me just say that someone just went to DC with a dirty bomb recently and if they did that in DC it would discombobulate this whole country. That is what the anti-terrorist act is all about.
I am on the side of law enforcement on this one. I am on the side of protecting our people. We have spent months and months trying to get it right. We have not shown that it has been abused or misused.
It has been used to protect American citizens. There are some laws I don’t like. I used to defend people who were falsely accused and I was able to show that they went too far. We have a good robust criminal law system in this country.”
3/3/2012 3:31:23 PM Question You know me with the Endangered Species Act. First time in 37 years it was changed during a Democrat majority. Thank you for sticking up for us with that. The suggestions that we cower to Boxer is not the case. We went right over Boxer on that one.
3/3/2012 3:32:12 PM Question I have a concern about President Obama with his anti-conservative.
3/3/2012 3:32:46 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “I am decrying Freedom Works. I am trying to elect people who you would like to have in government. To be the people that conservatives believe in.
As the vice chairman of the Convservative committee.
Obama has spent over $800 million in the last election. John McCain had less that $300 million. This time the unions alone in the last electin put up $50 million in hard money and there was $950 million more they put out on the local, state, and federal levels.
The unions raise between $5-6 billions. Every employee is a paying person. The unions know that they will get executive orders for whatever they want. They will back the guy that will let them take over the country.
In the last few years they packed the labor relations board they packed with liberals. He packed 3 on the board just this year. They are changing 76 years of labor law by Fiat.
The only way you can stop it is by getting a Republican president. You have to have a labor mediations board. You could say that an election only needs 50% plus one vote of people that are voting. They have changed that. Once it was based on 50%+1 of ALL employees. They should have to play by all the rules. They are doing it by regualtory Fiat.
One other thing is that they still blame Bush for what has happened. We have had 4 straight years of deficits. It started in 2008 when the Democrats took control of both houses of Congress. At that time the Bush administration was spending 42% of the GDP. He is now spending 72% of GDP and headed for over 100% of GDP.
Our debt is over 100% of GDP. That is Greece by the way. You get the spending over 100% then that can not happen.
We have got to start standing up for our people. How many of you have written letters to the editors? You ought to do it! The liberals plant all kids of articles but we all have to get active here.
You have to take back the caucus system.”
3/3/2012 3:38:34 PM Question I agree with you about Freedom Works. I don’t like out of state money coming in. What do you have to say about Freedom Path?
3/3/2012 3:38:54 PM Answer Orrin Hatch I would like all of them out of here. I think the PACs are being brought in because of the falsehoods that are going on. I have seen a couple of Freedom Path ads. I haven’t seen all of them. I would like them all to get out of here.
3/3/2012 3:40:01 PM Question “I look at most everything through a prism. I look at it through illegal immigration since I can just group a whole bunch of stuff. On Freedom Works they don’t have credibility with me. They are open border guys. What they have to say goes out the door for me.
We are not left with much to go on. The border can not be defended becaue of the jobs are available.
Your father was a union guy and you learned a trade. You know what scab labor is. That is what is being done with labor. Is there some way that you can help us? We need E-verify to be useful and used nationwide.
The Republicans and Democrats do not have much credibility since there was a bill in 2006. The Republicans are holding this up in the House.
Are we just going to let these jobs go?”
3/3/2012 3:42:51 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “He is raising the point of immigration. There are over 12 million of those who are here. There are those who have overstayed. Our system is so dumb and we don’t have a way to get them out.
There are some in the community who are here illegally. I have fruit growers who can’t get people to pick fruit and then they should be able to come and then go home. There should never be broad based amnesty.
Go back to the Simpson Mazzoli Act of 1986. We gave amnesty to 3 million undocumented individuals. I voted against this and stood on the floor and said that you would get millions more coming in. We have today over 12 million. We have got to find a way to resolve this. Everify is a good system. There is a good system that could work.
I worry about the good people who have kids that are citizens because they were born here.
I will try and do my best in the next 6 years. I am going to make everybody mad one way or the other. I know one thing that you cannot even begin to solve it if you don’t secure the borders. We can do it but we need to secure the border.”
3/3/2012 3:45:34 PM Question On the immigration issue I have a grandson who is married to my granddaughter. He came in to this country when he was 2 years old. They have 3 children and he wants to be a citizen. We have had lots of difficulties and expense.
3/3/2012 3:46:13 PM Answer Orrin Hatch We have to find an answer to this. We need to find people who will come together on this.
3/3/2012 3:46:31 PM Question Howard Johnson “First just a story for fun. You talk about the prairie dogs that you would shoot if you could. My father in law is a rancher up in Spanish Fork canyon. He had the deer and elk crossing his lines all the time. The Fish and Wildlife wouldn’t come and take care of it. He took his trusty rifle out and he shot so much that he had about 21 elk on the ground and then he got on the phone and told them to come and get the elk he had shot.
We have a thing with this land and you talk about the fires in California and how we had a humongous one in Yellowstone. We had a large one in central utah with the beetle. They were forbidden to cut the trees down and use them so that the forest was waiting to be destroyed and wiped thousands of acres of land.
This brings in the question as states came in to the union they were given the land. They have refused to give the land back to us. It is illegal for the federal government to have more land than is for their operations.”
3/3/2012 3:49:41 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “They say that they can handle or control it. They were only to have it until they sold it. These are hazy questions that need law to change over time. We need a majority. We are losing Colorado and now we are losing them to 3 billionaires because it is a Democrat state now. You can count on them not to stand up.
We have 2 Democrats in Montana. I am trying to think of others. We have got to change it and it is a pretty hard thing to do.
The Constitution is not absolutely clear on that. We have to test it. Hopefully the Supreme Court will side with us on these issues.
The last two justices may come out on our side if they are honest. Supreme court only hears about 8 cases a year. We need a Republican President and it’s going to be because of Freedom Works we might lose. If he gets re-elected we lose the circuit court of appeals. Mitt is heads and shoulders above the others.”
3/3/2012 3:53:00 PM Question Changing the subjet to the housing problem. It is effecting a lot of people in Utah. What should be done?
3/3/2012 3:53:28 PM Answer Orrin Hatch “I disagree with what was going on with the Clinton and Democrats pushing to get houses they could’t afford. Economics come to the forefront but people should be able to afford what they buy.
We are not getting there with this administration. They are still pushing and Fannie and Freddie is asking for 2.6 billon more dollars. They were the ones largely responsible for what is going on now. They are Democrat party signatures. Fannie and Freddie employees want him. Their President is from the OBM and he made 100 million dollars over 5 years.
There is no indictment yet but he is under very serious questions. He has cooked the books to justify bonuses.
Dodd/Frank is still law and they are sick about it today. It is worse than Obamacare. I don’t know how the Supreme Court is going to come down. I don’t know that they can uphold the individual mandate.
That is an indirect approach. Even one of the conservative judges thinks it might apply. I don’t know how it will go. Those hearings will come up at the end of March. This is the first time they have held 3 days of hearings at the court.
Judge Vincent has the most clear case and I think it should be followed. Sutton in Ohio as well was able to uphold constitutionality.
Some think that Roberts and Kennedy will go over with it. If it proves to be true we have to change Obamacare.
I stood on the floor of the Senate last Thrudayday and made a strong speech on religious liberty. I am the author of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. I am also the author of the Religious Liberty Protection Act. In almost every case they took over freedom of religion in the totalitarian regimes.
It isn’t a question about contraception. Most people don’t want to interfere in that. It is the rule of religious freedom and if the Catholics, Mormon, Baptist or others will have to comply with this rule. He said that the insurance companies would be forced to give it free. But the Catholic church and Mormon church is self insured.
Are they going to force the church to do that? These are bigger isues. I made the case pretty strongly on the floor.”
3/3/2012 4:00:04 PM Information Orrin Hatch “I have to get back up to Salt Lake. I am plesed to see how many of you came out. I am sorry to let some people have it. But there is a lot of rudeness in politics today and I am not going to take it.
If we allow Freedom Works to distort our system, I am not a shrinking violet. Some of these people are so radically right that they meet at the bottom with the radical left.
They don’t care about the Republican party. My Gosh but they sure do want to get rid of some of us that want to make a difference.
As long as I am there you have someone who is going to fight for you and I am not going to give up and I am not going to quit.
You have got to the spread the word to your neighbors and friends. If we let them take it over then we lose.
Who do you think helped save Hill Air Force Base? It is the greatest Air logistics command is should not be removed.
Clinton wanted to take it way from Utah and give it to CA. They didn’t have to room to expand, no ranges, or software facilities. We had to beat it down. Then he chose Texas and why would he want to do that? Because of the 54 electoral college votes. We stopped it. Who got Falcon Hill where the Air Force is going to get office space free that is now part of the states income?
We did that. The NSA facilitiy is thousands of jobs. 37 states tried to get that facility. It came down to 7. It means 10,000 jobs. Why do you think we are doing better? It does pay to have people who have experience. To give that up is like throwing everything away.
It is a real big mistake. That is why I am running again.
In another 7 years Mike Lee will have that much more expreince. Elaine and I want a life too. I am committed to this state and this country. And you can walk out of here and think it is interesting. If you are not going to do anything then you are letting your country and your state down.”
3/8/2012 3:25:32 PM Adjourn