From Our Future
"Bullcrap!"
That's the epithet Orrin Hatch threw at his fellow senator, Sherrod Brown, during a meeting of the Senate Finance Committee. Brown's offense? He pointed out that Republicans aren't shooting straight when they say their tax cuts for the rich will help the middle class.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) had called the GOP's bluff with an amendment to their bill that would have cancelled tax cuts for corporations if middle-class wages don't rise -- something Republicans have promised their tax plan will deliver.
Republicans promptly blocked it.
Stating the ObviousAs he spoke for Wyden's doomed amendment, Brown commented upon the obvious. "I just think," he said, "it would be nice, just tonight, before we go home, to just acknowledge, well, this tax cut really is not for the middle class, it's for the rich."
Apparently that remark hit a little too close to home, because Sen. Hatch pretty much lost it. "I come from poor people," Hatch said, "and I've been here working my whole stinkin' career for people who don't have a chance. And I really resent anybody saying that I'm just doing this for the rich... We didn't have anything. So don't spew that stuff on me -- I get a little tired of that crap!"
Added Hatch: "This bullcrap that you guys throw out here really gets old after a while."
Believing In OpportunityThe problem with Hatch's impassioned tirade is that Brown was correct, and voters know it. Only one-third of registered voters support the Trump/GOP tax plan, according to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, while slightly more than half oppose it.
Nevertheless, Hatch must have been impressed with his own performance, because he tweeted a video of the exchange to his Twitter followers, and in case they missed it, he elaborated on his credentials as a working-class hero:
"I grew up in a shack with a Meadow Gold Dairy sign for a wall. I worked as a janitor to pay for law school. I believe in opportunity because I've lived it.
"And that's what we're going to deliver with #TaxReform."
Just The Facts, Ma'amA couple of minutes of quick research yielded the following information:
Orrin Hatch went to the University of Pittsburgh Law School. Tuition and fees there now total $33,152 per year for in-state students, and $41,332 per year out-of-state. The average tuition plus fees for the country's top 10 ranked law schools is $60,293.
The average janitor's salary in the United States, according to one survey, is $28,117 per year. That's not enough to cover tuition and fees, much less the cost of books, incidentals, food, and rent.
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