Orrin Hatch tells Bloomberg TV he's more conservative than fellow senator Bob Bennett

Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch who sees fewer prospects for bipartisanship in the next Congress, said he's more conservative than fellow Utah Sen. Robert Bennett, who lost renomination to Tea Party opposition.

Hatch, who will be seeking a sixth term in 2012, said he's reaching out to activists in the political movement and is more closely aligned with their views than Bennett was.

"I'm no Bob Bennett," Hatch said in an interview on "Political Capital with Al Hunt" airing this weekend on Bloomberg Television. "I'm meeting with these folks, the Tea Party people and others, and I'm holding extensive town hall meetings." Bennett lost his renomination bid in May during voting at a state Republican convention.

Hatch is in line to chair the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee if Republicans win control of the chamber in the Nov. 2 elections, an outcome he said is unlikely. He has a reputation for working with Democrats, particularly the late Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, on matters such as health care and civil rights legislation.

Still, Hatch said Democrats have dampened his enthusiasm for bipartisan deals. He said Democrats have created strains by expanding government during the last two years, particularly taking power from states under a health-care program he helped establish for lower-income children.

"I've got to say, that was almost the final straw to me," he said. "But I'll work with any Democrat that's willing to work in good faith on good issues in the right way and do it in a fiscally responsible way."

"I'm certainly not going to let them keep spending and taxing us and building more government," Hatch said.

On tax policy, he dismissed the idea of moving the U.S. to a value-added tax, which would impose a levy at each stage of manufacture of a product, with the total paid by the buyer. The levy would either be embedded in a product's price or added on like a sales tax. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, has called for such a system.

"I disagree with Mitch on that," Hatch said. "It is so easy to increase taxes; it's very difficult to reduce them under a value-added tax. And just take a look at all the countries that have value-added taxes. Their taxes have gone up regularly, and they haven't been able to keep them down."

Hatch said a looming clash in Congress over income-tax cuts approved under President George W. Bush now scheduled to expire Dec. 31 will likely result in a simple one- or two-year extension of all the reductions.