Orrin Hatch: Reid Caved to 'Hard Left' on Nuclear Option

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid caved to "the hard left" by enacting the "nuclear option" that gives Senate Democrats more power.

"It's the hard left that Reid had to put up with. He should have just said, 'No we're not going to change the rules, we're not going to break the rules to change them and we're certainly not going to do it this way,"' Hatch told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.

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"Harry should have been a stronger leader under the circumstances and not allowed them to do that. It's a real mistake but between you and me, the real reason they did this is trying to create a controversy so they can escape criticism for Obamacare, which is wrecking the country."

But Hatch, a Republican who was a ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee from 1993 to 2005 and is now ranking member on the Finance Committee, believes the "nuclear option" was pushed by "a lot of people who know better."

"[They] just couldn't bring themselves to take on the leadership in the Democratic Party and Obamacare problems," Hatch said.

"[Obamacare] was a totally partisan bill, it was passed by them under very belligerent raw-power basis . . . and now it's blowing up in their face.

"Ninety-one percent of the American people like their health insurance before Obamacare. Why couldn't we just have concentrated on the 30 percent who didn't have healthcare and save us all of this tremendous energy."

Hatch said he has "great concern" over the Democrats' ongoing "power hungry" moves in Washington.

"By putting three liberals on the D.C. circuit court, when the court is divided four Republican nominees, four Democrat nominees . . . the Democrats are going to control that," he said.

"The president will be able to legislate from that bench [the] legislation that he could never ever get through the Congress of the United States. And that's what's behind all of this. And I'm telling you its immoral, it's wrong, it's very, very dangerous. Republicans are up in arms."

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