Hatch too extreme | The Salt Lake Tribune

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Since moving to Utah in 1984, I have supported Sen. Orrin Hatch in every election.

One reason The Tribune listed in its endorsement is that Hatch would be the ranking minority member of the Senate Finance Committee and possibly its chairman ("Hatch for Senate: Give Utah's lion one more term," Our View, Sept. 23).

During the next six-year Senate term, the finance committee will have to address financing and reforming Social Security, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"), Medicaid and CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) — plus rewriting the federal income tax code and balancing the federal budget. These issues will impact every man, woman and child in the United States.

Ever since the extreme right wing of the Republican Party ousted Sen. Bob Bennett, Hatch has moved to the extreme right. With Hatch's move, I cannot support him as either Senate Finance Committee chairman or ranking minority committee member.

These issues are too important to be written by either the extreme left or right.

I hope others will see my logic and support somebody other than Hatch.

Garth Pellett

Sandy