Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – Orrin Hatch, the long-serving Republican senator from Utah, who advocated deep tax cuts as well an anti-terrorism bill and a children’s program for health while supporting conservative judicial nominees, has died at the age of 88.

Orrin G. Hatch Foundation made the announcement that his death had been announced. They said that he passed away in Salt Lake City, surrounded and cared for by family.

Hatch was a strong conservative voice in Congress. He held a Senate seat from 1977 to 2019. Hatch served as a senator under eight presidents. The term of Gerald Ford ended in its final days and Donald Trump began his first two years. Hatch served the Senate for longer periods than any Republican.

Trump gave him the Medal of Freedom (the highest civilian U.S. honor) in 2018.

Hatch was a fierce advocate for conservative Supreme Court nominees such as Robert Bork who was proposed in 1987 by Reagan, but rejected in the Senate. Clarence Thomas was nominated to the Senate in 1991 by Republican George W. Bush. The Senate narrowly confirmed him. Brett Kavanaugh was also confirmed by 2018’s Senate.

Hatch was a lay minister of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He championed religious liberty and opposed abortion rights and represented the state where the Mormon Church is located.

His seven-year term as Utah’s longest-serving senator was extended to him for six years. Reagan’s endorsement was the key to his victory in his first election. Hatch tried to run for the nomination of his party in 2000, but was disqualified early.

His pleasant demeanor was well-known. He enjoyed writing poems and songs and had occasional temper tantrums. His powerful positions included chairman of both the Senate Judiciary and Finance Committees.

Hatch was one among the authors of the Patriot Act. This law was passed following the September 11th 2001 attacks against the United States by al Qaeda’s militant Islamist network. It expanded government surveillance power and increased its ability to track terrorists.

Critics of the law called it an infringement on individual liberties. Hatch said it was constitutionally legal, effective and legal.

Hatch was the driving force behind the Republican package of tax cuts that specifically benefit corporations and the wealthy. Trump signed this Republican package in 2017 despite strong opposition from Democrats. These tax cuts would significantly increase the federal deficit.

CHILDREN’S HEALTH

Hatch was an ardent conservative who sometimes had to break with his fellow conservatives. He would work with Democrats to obtain certain bipartisan bills approved. This was often done with Edward Kennedy (a libertarian lion who died in 2009).

In 1997, the senators teamed up to form the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. This program allows the federal government to help states offer healthcare coverage for low-income children. Millions of poor children have been provided medical care by the program.

His advocacy was for Utah’s nutritional supplement industry. A law that allowed companies to claim health benefits about their products, but not subject to federal safety and effectiveness reviews was authored by Hatch. Hatch was a major player in Trump’s 2016 action to reduce the Bears Ears, Grand Staircase and other national monuments that cover millions of acres in Utah. This move was condemned by conservationists.

He was a former boxer and he removed the gloves while he fought to support conservative nominees for the judiciary. In defense of Thomas, he read aloud “The Exorcist”, a horror novel about sexual harassment during confirmation hearings. This implied that the accuser had ripped off sexy details from the book.

Hatch supported Trump’s Kavanaugh nominee after being accused by a female of having been sexually assaulted years before. Hatch told anti-Kavanaugh women protesters that they would be talking to him when “they grow up”.

Hatch was also born March 22, 1934 in Pennsylvania. Hatch grew-up in poverty in Pittsburgh during Great Depression. After graduating from college, Hatch was an attorney and was completely unknown when he chose to run for Senate in Utah in 1976.

Reagan, an advocate of the conservative movement and a former senator, supported him in the Republican primary. This helped Hatch rise from the ashes. In the general election, Hatch defeated Frank Moss, a three-term Democratic incumbent. This election marked the beginning of the 1980 conservative rise nationally and of the demise of many Western Democratic Party members.

He called Democrats the “party of homosexuals” early in his career. According to the New York Times of 1990, he said that “that was stupid for me” Because I said it, I am entitled to be held responsible.

Hatch and Jesse Helms were at odds on the Senate’s floor in 1988. Helms was a conservative North Carolina Republican who had proposed an amendment to kill Hatch’s bipartisan AIDS legislation. It would have prohibited federal funds from “promoting or encouraging… homosexual activity.”

Hatch said to Helms that he was unsure if he should be on the Senate floor to pass judgment on any person.

He added, “Let him who is without sin casts the first stone.”

Elaine, his spouse and six children survive him.