Q&A with Senator Orrin Hatch
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Politics
Today, I went to a class where Utah’s Senator, Orrin Hatch was the guest speaker. Senator Hatch allowed us to ask him questions and answered all of them, including one I asked him about torture concerning his comment back in August on ABC’s This Week saying “we don’t want to cripple our ability to be able, in very crucial times, to get the information we’ve got to have to save our country and to protect our people.”
I asked him what his thoughts were on water boarding, torture and other interrogation techniques and he says that water boarding does work and does get people to talk. He also says that military personnel such as the Navy Seals also get water boarded as part of their training so that they no what it feels like. He also said that he is not really for water boarding detainees and that there is a limit to what interrogators should be able to do. Interesting, considering that some leaders in his party continue to claim that they are for water boarding detainees and that it is not torture.
After the class, I was able to speak with him and hear him answer more questions. He recently said that Guantanamo Bay beats Illnois, referring to the weather of course. According to him, Guantanamo has all new facilities and that their is nothing illegal or immoral happening there. And with the recent objections of people like New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg saying he would like the trial Khalid Shaikh Mohammed moved out of Manhattan, the trial may be held in Guantanamo after all.
Another thing that I said that I really agree with is in defense of NASA and the space program which has recently been the subject of proposed budget cuts. This maybe because his constituency will be hit with the budget cuts as it would cut jobs in Utah as Representative Rob Bishop has pointed out, but also as the amount of technology that NASA has been able to develop that has benefited the country. NASA’s budget in 2011, they propose spending $100 billion over the next five years (2011-15), which seems like very little compared to $548.9 billion for the Department of Defense or even $49.7 billion for the Department of Education’s discretionary spending.
Senator Hatch also mentioned in the discussions that he believes Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee in 2012, citing his experience with economic matters and in business as the former CEO of Bain & Company. I also agree with this, however there will be a lot of competition from Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement.
Overall, I enjoyed the Q&A with Senator Hatch, he is an excellent on the spot speaker and is able to eloquently defend his positions on the issues. If the Republican party wants to take back control of Washington, they need more people like Senator Hatch on their side.
