EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Sen. Orin Hatch – Comments and raw audio
Posted by Clyde Middleton
on Oct 16 2009 Filed under Politics.
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Bill and I participated in a conference call today with Sen. Orin Hatch (R-UT). Several other bloggers, NewsBusters, CNS News, and the Washington Times were also on the call. The general topic was health care.
Here’s the raw audio:
Some highlights:
Sen. Hatch shared that the reconciliation approach to ramming the bill through the Senate is highly unlikely. There is simply no way to get the health-care legislation through with the Byrd Rule. He said that it would put a large burden on the integrity of the Parliamentarian’s office.
Concerning the public option, he said that Sen. Reid would certainly include it in the final Senate bill, it may just have a different name like “co-op” or “federal co-op.” He also mentioned the possibility of hiding it within a “trigger.”
He believes that the final bill with have a CBO scoring around $1.7 trillion, and that it will be very hard for the dems to avoid having a full CBO scoring of the final legislative language of the bill.
He questioned the dems integrity on denying the Hyde Amendment to specifically exclude any monies for abortion. If the bill did not fund abortions, he said, then why not be clear with the Amendment? He felt that they would eventually to exclude any prohibitive language, and thereby would be funding abortions.
As for timing of final floor action, he mentioned Christmas, but made no commitments except that he said it should take at least a month if not longer.
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