Orrin Hatch: “I want to take a few moments this afternoon to correct the record on something very important. In his opening remarks…”

“I want to take a few moments this afternoon to correct the record on something very important. In his opening remarks this morning, the distinguished Senate majority leader made a number of claims and accusations relating to the tax extenders legislation. As you will recall, last week the Senate voted not to invoke cloture on the substitute amendment to the tax extenders bill. Since that time, the Senate majority leader has been accusing Republicans of voting against tax relief. He said we are obstructionists and that we ``work so hard to do nothing.'' This is, as we know, par for the course. When the majority leader is not calling out American citizens by name and attacking them for getting involved in the political process, he is usually accusing Senate Republicans of one thing or another, and doing it so unjustifiably. Today, he attacked me personally for my vote against cloture on the tax extenders substitute, saying: ``The primary Republican who negotiated this, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, voted against his own bill.'' It is true that I negotiated. It is true that I helped to get it through the committee. It is true that I got our side to agree to a voice vote. Needless to say, I cannot let this go unanswered. I am here now to set the record straight. First and foremost, I want to make clear that I support the tax extenders legislation, and everybody in this body knows it, and if they do not, then they better go take an IQ test.…”