Sen. Orrin Hatch told Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview that Mitt Romney has been a “success at everything he’s ever done” and is “one of the most exceptional people” he has ever met and just has to be himself in order to win the presidency. Hatch also said he is “disappointed” in President Barack Obama for running a negative campaign and America is on track to be “worse than Greece” if he gets re-elected.
“I’m disappointed in the president and not so much him as the people around him that are doing this,” the Utah Republican said, referring to Obama’s attacks on Romney. “But, they couldn’t do it without him. And I don’t think the super PACs could do it without him either, and super committees. I’m disappointed in him.”
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To win over voters, Hatch said all Romney has to do is be himself, and he is “a very, very fine, upstanding, decent, and honorable person,” and Romney needs to show he is more qualified to lead an economic turnaround.
“All he has to do is show how he can pull this country out of the economic doldrums that it’s in,” Hatch said. “We know that another four years of Barack Obama, we’re going to be over $20 trillion in debt. We’ll never pull out of that. It would just about be devastating for this country, as great as it is. It would be very, very difficult for us. So, I think all he has to do is just be him. Mitt Romney is a very, very fine, upstanding, decent, and honorable person. He’s a good family man. His wife is a great human being and the five boys are all great human beings as well. I mean, they are the quintessential decent family in this country. And of course, he’s been a success at everything he’s ever done.”
Proof of Romney’s effectiveness can be found in his handling of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Hatch said, and the fact the former Massachusetts governor is “ a very decent and honorable family man and he loves his life, he loves his kids, he loves his country” is starting to come through to voters.
“You know, he’s so confident and so well educated and so successful that sometimes people don’t identify with that and much as we would like him to,” Hatch said. “But if you really got to know Mitt Romney like I know him, he’s down home, he’s a homebody, he’s someone who has given altruistically to every community he’s been in. He saved the Winter Olympics.”
“I can tell you, we were in terrible shape. Allegations of fraud, mismanagement, even criminal allegations that weren’t accurate. We were $400 million in debt. It was a disaster; it looked like it was going to be the biggest eyesore in Olympic history. And then we brought Mitt in. He brought the best financial people in, pulled that thing all off, set up the best Winter Olympics in history. We wound up with $100 million surplus.”
“Think about that,” Hatch continued. “He took over Massachusetts, one of the most liberal states in the union. You know, it was in deep difficulty. It had a $3 billion deficit. He paid that all off, balanced the budget in each one of four years, and got unemployment down to 4.7 percent from I think it was 5.6 percent. You know, you add all that up, this is a guy that gets things done. That’s what we need right now. We don’t need more of the same.”
Hatch, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said the country will face a “fiscal Armageddon” shortly if there continues to be an absence of leadership.
“We’re headed for ‘fiscal Armageddon,” he said. “And the president seems willing to do that, he seems willing to put us even further in debt just to play class warfare in this election. I’m very disappointed in him for doing that. It’s going to take a person like Mitt Romney to pull us out.”
“His goal would be to come down from the current number, 24 percent spending GDP ratio that is one of the highest since World War II when the government had to take over almost everything to get it down to at least 20 percent and to get revenues up to about 18 percent, 18.5 percent where they’ve traditionally been. Mitt knows how to do that.”
Hatch went on to that Romney knows how to get things done and that Obama, while “charismatic,” hasn’t lived up to expectations.
“And I’ve got to say that Governor Romney is one of the most exceptional people that I’ve ever met, Hatch continued. “I know him very well. I’m the only person I think that he’s endorsed on public television pre-primary. And I have to say that I respect people that get things done. I respect people who work their butts off. I respect people who are successful in life. I respect people who live their religion. … The president is a charming man. He’s charismatic. But I tell you, he hasn’t lived up to the potential that he said he would live up to and his answer to everything is more federal government, more spending. He actually believes that government has to create the jobs.”
Obama’s policies, if allowed to continue in a second term, will put the United States on a track to be worse than Greece, Hatch said.
“If he wins reelection, we’re going to be even more than $16 trillion in debt. I think we’re headed to $20 trillion in debt,” he said. “Our debt to GDP ratio is 103 percent right now. It might be higher since I haven’t checked for a number of weeks. But that’s Greece’s 150 to GDP. If President Obama stays, we’ll be over 200 to GDP. We’ll be worse than Greece. We can’t allow that to happen. His philosophy, his economic philosophy, is bankrupt. And Mitt, one thing about Mitt, he’ll take charge and he’ll really turn things around. And he’ll really expect everyone to work together to do the things that are in the best interest of our country. And he’s a leader. He isn’t one of these guys that sit back and huffs at his advisors to tell them what to do. He’s going to tell the advisors what to do. And he’ll get it done.”
Hatch said he believes the Bush tax cuts will be extended for all income earners.
“I suggested, and it was the Hatch-McConnell bill, that we put the ‘01, ‘03 tax relief ahead for one year,” he said. “And then both Democrats and Republicans dedicated that year to doing effective tax reform. You know, that would be the smartest thing that we could possibly do. However, the Democrats made it a partisan thing and it was voted down.”
“But I think it’s going to come to that because back in 2010, the president said that the economy is not good enough to be able to do away with that tax relief, that we need the tax relief to pull it out of the storm. Well, we’re in worse shape today than we were in 2010. And now the president is playing class warfare, demanding that we really sock it to about 940,000 small businesses, the ones that create 70 percent of the jobs in this country. It’s crazy. But it’s what appeals to the liberal democrats in this country who never seem to really think about being fiscally conservative.”
Hatch also said he believes the GOP will take back the Senate in November,“It takes a really good race by Mitt Romney,” he said. “I think that we’ll win. In fact, I’m pretty sure he’s going to win. When I look at all the features of what’s going on and all the aspects, if Mitt wins, I think we have an excellent chance of taking back the Senate. There are about 12 Democrat seats that are really in play. There are at most probably three to five Republican seats and we think we can hold on to all of those. We might lose one.”
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