Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) believes that the poor, not the rich, should pay more to help reduce the nation’s debt. Just another example of a Saturday Night Live skit that has come to life. “I hear how they’re so caring for the poor and so forth,” Hatch said in remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, in reference to Democrats.

“The poor need jobs! And they also need to share some of the responsibility.” Hatch made these comments during debate on a motion that would allow the Senate to begin debating a non-binding resolution that says millionaires and billionaires should play a more meaningful role in reducing the nation’s debt. The motion passed 74 to 22 despite Hatch’s argument. Only one Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) voted against the debate while Sen.

Jeff Sessions (R-Ala), who had called the resolution “pathetic”, voted to move ahead with the debate. But, the attention fell on Hatch on Wednesday when he suggested that the wealthy in the nation are already doing too much. Even though, if you remember, the nation’s effective tax rates are at modern lows since the Bush administration slashed rates in 2001 and 2003. In his view, it seems, the middle class and poor should be picking up the slack.

“The top 1 percent of the so-called wealthy pay 38 percent of all income tax. The top 10 percent are paying 70 percent of all income tax,” Hatch said. “The top 50 percent pay somewhere near 98 percent of all income taxes. 51 percent don’t pay anything,” Hatch said, suggesting the payroll taxes that the poor and middle classes pay towards Social Security yields them an especially generous benefit. “Democrats say they [the 51 percent] pay payroll taxes.

Well, everybody does that because that’s Social Security. They pay about one-third of what they’re going to take out over the years in social security,” Hatch railed. “Obamacare — a family of four earning over $80,000 a year — gets subsidies. Think about that. That’s what we call the poor?”

Hatch hedged that the poorest of the poor shouldn’t have to pay taxes. But he was clear that people who qualify for subsidies because they can’t afford things like health care should dig deeper. “Now, we don’t want the really poor people who are in poverty to have to pay income taxes,” he said.

“But 51% of all households. And that’s going up, by the way, because of our friend down in the White House and his allies.” Dude, you cannot get blood from a turnip. There is nowhere else for me to dig. The wealthy have savings and retirement accounts. I don’t.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/bvcphoto/3178527172/

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About the author

Erin Chavez
Erin Whitney-Chavez has been writing professionally since 2009. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts from St. Bonaventure University and received a Master of Arts in mental-health counseling from Argosy University. Erin Whitney-Chavez is a licensed mental health counselor and has worked in the mental-health field for more than 10 years.

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