The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:
The healthcare reform proposals before Congress threaten the existence of the two-party system, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) alleged Monday morning.
Hatch asserted that the health bills, which he believes represent a "step-by-step approach to socialized medicine," will lead to Americans' dependence on Democrats for their health and other issues.
"And if they get there, of course, you're going to have a very rough time having a two-party system in this country, because almost everybody's going to say, 'All we ever were, all we ever are, all we ever hope to be depends on the Democratic Party,' " Hatch said during an interview with the conservative CNSNews.com.
"That's their goal," Hatch added. "That's what keeps Democrats in power."
Why, it's positively diabolical!
"Do I believe they're that diabolical? I don't believe most of them are, but I think some of them are," Hatch said. "Maybe diabolical's too harsh of a word, but the fact is, they really, really believe in socialized medicine."
If you've got 33 minutes of your life that you don't really need, BBR has video of the interview.
This has been an underlying theme for Republicans; that you might like reform too much. That's the argument against a public option and that's the argument here. It would destroy competition by out-competing everything else.
And Democrats would start winning elections because they have ideas that people like. This is a terrible thing and they must be stopped at all costs. Well, not all costs -- you can't really expect Republicans to come up with pro-consumer ideas of their own. They don't do that, it's not what they're about.
So they have to kill Democratic ideas, rather than come up with their own. If you ever needed proof that Republicans don't give a damn about you, here ya go. Sen. Orrin Hatch all but admitted it.
