February 08, 2012 3:01 pm ET filed under Blog
Senate Republicans' Lamest Attack Yet
January 27, 2012 11:01 am ET filed under Blog
The 5.6 Million Reasons Behind GOP Senators' Letter To Obama
January 18, 2012 1:00 pm ET filed under Blog
Sen. Orrin Hatch's Radical Class Warfare
December 12, 2011 12:11 pm ET filed under Fact Check
Republicans: Payroll Tax Holiday Isn't "Stimulating" Enough
A prominent group of Republican lawmakers are opposing Obama administration efforts to extend a payroll tax holiday — due to expire on December 31 — that would continue putting more money in the pockets of working Americans. Opponents lean heavily on the argument that the current payroll tax holiday has not had a sufficiently stimulative effect on the economy, but experts disagree, arguing that the holiday has helped bolster the recovering economy.
November 16, 2011 2:15 pm ET filed under Blog
GOP Senators Revive Malicious Distortion Of CBO's Health Care Calculations
November 09, 2011 4:39 pm ET filed under Blog
Ignoring Real Economic Problems, Sens. Coburn And Hatch Repackage Reagan's "Welfare Queen" Myth
September 19, 2011 10:55 am ET filed under Blog
What "Class Warfare" Really Looks Like
September 15, 2011 12:34 pm ET filed under Video
Sen. Hatch Channels Jeff Foxworthy: You Might Be A Tax-And-Spend-Liberal If...
September 15, 2011 12:21 pm ET filed under Blog
Sen. Hatch: "Taxes Are Already Heading Higher Than They Have Been Historically"
August 04, 2011 12:12 pm ET filed under Blog
Does Sen. Hatch Think It's "Perverse" When Millionaires Don't Pay Taxes?
July 12, 2011 3:38 pm ET filed under Blog
Sen. Hatch Names Himself "One Of The Top Conservatives In The History Of This Country"
July 12, 2011 1:19 pm ET filed under Video
Sen. Hatch Names Himself "One Of The Top Conservatives In The History Of This Country"
From the July 12, 2011, episode of Fox News' Happening Now:
July 07, 2011 9:18 am ET filed under Blog
Senate Republicans Repeat False Claim That "There Is No Revenue Problem"
July 06, 2011 6:00 pm ET filed under Blog
Sen. Hatch Delivers Factless Tirade Against New Revenues In Debt Agreement
July 05, 2011 4:10 pm ET filed under Blog
Business Lobby Support For Trade Agreements Bolsters Allegations That GOP Is "Sabotaging" The Economy
June 24, 2011 2:40 pm ET filed under Blog
Sen. Hatch: Obama Has "Moved Us Towards Europeanization Of Our Economy"
March 23, 2011 3:51 pm ET filed under Fact Check
Republicans Celebrate The Affordable Care Act's One-Year Anniversary By Reviving Old Lies
This morning on Fox News, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) declared that President Obama and supporters of the Affordable Care Act "keep saying things that aren't true" about the law, while Republicans continue to "put the facts out and our facts are backed up by the authorities." Of course, Hatch has it exactly backwards, which was evident today as Republicans commemorated the health care law's one-year anniversary by repeating worn out lies about a "government takeover" that will destroy jobs, cut Medicare benefits, increase the deficit, and raise premiums. Let's examine the real facts about the Affordable Care Act.
February 15, 2011 9:09 am ET filed under Blog
Sen. Hatch Attacks Budget By Likening Obama To Fiscal Hawk Neville Chamberlain
February 04, 2011 4:12 pm ET filed under Blog
Balanced Budget Amendment Deeply Flawed, Would Hurt The Economy
February 03, 2011 2:44 pm ET filed under Fact Check
Despite Criticism From Both Sides Of The Aisle, Republicans Propose Balanced Budget Amendment Again
Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) recently announced that he is re-proposing a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. Hatch has previously tried unsuccessfully to enact this amendment, with his most successful attempt gaining 66 of the 67 necessary votes for the act to become law. However, despite its popularity with Republicans and some Democrats in Congress, a Balanced Budget Amendment has also been criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike. A Balanced Budget Amendment would require a two-thirds majority to enact any new tax increases or raise the debt limit, transfer budgetary power from Congress to the judiciary, and be almost unenforceable, creating an unnecessary burden at its best and a potentially devastating hurdle to necessary spending at its worst.
December 13, 2010 1:46 pm ET filed under Blog
Sen. Hatch Calls Ruling Against Mandate He Once Sponsored "A Great Day For Liberty"
December 06, 2010 9:46 am ET filed under Blog
Fact Checking The Sunday Shows - December 5, 2010
December 06, 2010 9:43 am ET filed under Fact Check
Fact Checking The Sunday Shows - December 5, 2010
The lame duck session may be young, but lame Republican arguments on Sunday morning talk shows are a tradition in this town. This week, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) deceived Fox News viewers about the Affordable Care Act's impact on the cost of health care; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich labeled Democrats' tax proposal "class warfare," when the data show tax breaks for the wealthy are bad for the economy (and worse for the debt); and Gingrich suggested that business owners aren't hiring because of tax uncertainty, but that doesn't explain the decade of economic stagnation that followed the "certainty" of the Bush tax cuts. Meanwhile, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) claimed Democrats are "just spending, spending, spending and taxing, taxing, taxing," despite the fact that Democrats passed 25 separate tax relief measures in 2009 alone. Hatch and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) each claimed that "700,000 small businesses" will be affected by higher tax rates on the wealthy, a number that counts athletes, authors, and Wall Street giants as "small." Finally, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) flagrantly misrepresented a recent Gallup poll showing Americans want Bush's tax giveaways to the rich to end.
December 03, 2010 3:21 pm ET filed under Fact Check
Sen. Hatch's So-Called Small Businesses Include Millionaire Athletes And Wall Street Firms
Today, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) took to the floor of the Senate to criticize congressional Democrats for their handling of the pending expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts. Hatch claimed that he and his Republican colleagues "want to do more" than Democrats by extending tax cuts to earners in the highest income brackets. Hatch argued that "the so-called millionaires tax hike" was nothing of the sort, but instead a tax hike on hardworking small business owners. In reality, as Hatch's Republican colleague Lamar Alexander (R-TN) noted a few days ago, these so-called "small business owners" include multi-million dollar Wall Street firms as well as wealthy non-employer tax filers.
December 01, 2010 5:53 pm ET filed under Video
Sen. Hatch Praises Failed "Pro-Growth" Portions Of Bush Tax Cuts As Reason For Extension
December 01, 2010 3:55 pm ET filed under Fact Check
Despite Stated Opposition To Health Care Reform's 1099 Provision, Republicans Vote Against Repeal
For some time now, Republicans have desperately attempted to kill health care reform, peddling misleading claims and outright distortions to undermine the benefits of the law. In many instances, they have pointed to supposed ill-conceived provisions to denounce the legislation, using these specific details to contend that the bill is damaged beyond repair and therefore must be repealed. In particular, Republicans have decried the bill's 1099 reporting requirements for small businesses, claiming they are unnecessarily burdensome and will limit job creation. But when given an opportunity to vote on Sen. Max Baucus' (D-MT) amendment to repeal the 1099 provision and demonstrate their commitment to helping small businesses, Republicans balked. Indeed, despite their professed opposition to the 1099 provision, only two Republicans voted for the amendment.
December 01, 2010 3:42 pm ET filed under Blog
Sen. Hatch Praises Failed "Pro-Growth" Portions Of Bush Tax Cuts As Reason For Extension
November 22, 2010 6:02 pm ET filed under Fact Check
Sen. Hatch Claims Cutting Taxes Will Magically Not Increase The Deficit
Appearing on Fox Business Network's Bulls & Bears, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) treated viewers to the usual Republican talking points on the Bush tax cuts. When host Liz Claman pointed out that Hatch's tax proposals would result in a bigger deficit, Hatch responded that that's "not even true, because if we get the economy going we can pay for an awful lot of things we haven't." However, it's Hatch's claim that is actually "not even true": extending the Bush tax cuts will increase the deficit. And Hatch's rationale that the deficit won't increase because tax cuts will result in an improved economy is also bogus. Research has shown that cutting tax cuts for the wealthy is one of the least effective forms of economic stimulus.
November 18, 2010 5:48 pm ET filed under Fact Check
Republicans Collectively Freak Out About The Ghailani Verdict
In the wake of a civilian court verdict convicting suspected terrorist Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani of only one of the over 280 charges brought against him, Republicans had a field day decrying the Obama administration's decision to try suspected terrorists before civilian courts instead of military tribunals. The denunciations ranged anywhere from declaring such a decision "insanity" to suggesting that the Obama administration "nearly allowed this terrorist to get away." In reality, there is no evidence that trying Ghailani in a military court would have produced a more severe verdict. Indeed, whereas terrorists tried in military commissions have served relatively short prison sentences, those tried in criminal courts have faced significantly longer prison terms.
November 18, 2010 3:45 pm ET filed under Video
Sen. Hatch: Congress Should Punt The Tax Debate Until January
