Hatch hates Baucus bill, likes Herbert ideas

Sen. Orrin Hatch was long part of the bipartisan "group of seven" trying to write a compromise health care reform bill in the Senate Finance Committee. But he blasted the final product of the other six members Wednesday. Meanwhile, he praised some reform ideas pushed to that committee by Utah Gov. Gary Herbert.

Hatch, R-Utah, dropped out of the "group of seven" in July, contending that President Barack Obama wasn't giving Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., enough flexibility to truly craft a compromise bill.

He repeated that Wednesday when Baucus unveiled the bill. "Now we have another health care reform proposal that simply leads to more spending and more taxes."

Hatch added, "This proposal spends another $900 billion, imposes a job-killing employer mandate that will harm low-income Americans, imposes $349 billion in new taxes, expands insolvent government programs and cuts Medicare by almost half a trillion dollars."

He called it "yet another example that shows the president cannot deliver on his promises to the American people of bipartisan health care reform."

Meanwhile, Hatch praised Herbert for calling on Congress to leave much of reform up to the states. He did that in a conference call with 12 governors to the Finance Committee, and in a letter to the Utah delegation.

Herbert's letter to Hatch said, "The best place for innovation and policy change is in the individual states, as we have a greater understanding of the specific needs of our citizens." He also worried that some reform bills would shift too much of the cost for health care for the poor from the federal government to the states.

Hatch praised Herbert saying he agreed that "state innovation and families should be the focus of our health care reform effort, not Washington. So, as Gov. Herbert also points out, why would we try to take a one-size-fits-all approach when, eventually, the cost burden will be transferred to the states themselves?"

e-mail: lee@desnews.com