Sen. Orrin Hatch slams the Obama administration and congressional Democrats for their election-year attempt to demagogue the tax inversion issue.
Reports The Hill (see also related Wall Street Journal story):
A top Senate Republican on Thursday denounced the Democrats’ push to curb a recent wave of offshore tax deals as “despicable,” saying Democrats were more interested in scoring political points than actually solving the problem.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), the top Republican on the Finance Committee, was particularly incensed that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and other top Democrats had questioned the “economic patriotism” of companies that sought to reincorporate abroad, slashing their tax bills in the process.
The Utah Republican, a 35-year veteran in the Senate, said the Democrats’ use of the term was especially galling because liberals have long recoiled when the GOP questioned their judgment on national security issues.
“Their knee-jerk response was to claim arguments about patriotism were out of bounds,” Hatch said at a speech at the Chamber of Commerce. “Apparently, they see things a little differently these days.”
