GOP Address: Sen. Hatch Knock's President's Proposal to Avoid the Fiscal Cliff - East Idaho News
Politics

GOP Address: Sen. Hatch Knock’s President’s Proposal to Avoid the Fiscal Cliff

  Published at

GETTY P 042112 ORRINHATCH?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1354325391332T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images(SALT LAKE CITY) — In this week’s Republican address, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, criticizes President Obama for “an utter lack of leadership” on avoiding the fiscal cliff, and says the longer he waits to “get serious,” the harder it will be to find a resolution.

Sen. Hatch says the president’s obligation is “to first steer us away from the fiscal cliff, and second, to tackle our $16-plus trillion debt …”  But instead of proposing a balanced approach to resolving these fiscal matters, Hatch says President Obama has only presented a “classic bait and switch on the American people.”

Hatch, Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, says the president’s proposal includes “a tax increase double the size of what he campaigned on, billions of dollars in new stimulus spending and and unlimited, unchecked authority to borrow from the Chinese.”

Comprehensive tax reform is necessary if we want to reduce the nation’s debt, create jobs and increase the GDP, Hatch says. But he adds that it should be done without raising taxes on Americans, and preferably while preserving the survival of Medicare.

“But,” Sen. Hatch says, “we’ll never get there with the unserious plan the President proposed this week. The longer the White House waits to get serious is a day closer to going over the fiscal cliff, and the harder it will be to find a solution.”

On Friday, House Speaker John Boehner said of the fiscal meetings, “There’s a stalemate. Let’s not kid ourselves.” Added Boehner, R-Ohio, “Right now, we are almost nowhere.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

SUBMIT A CORRECTION