Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah.) became the latest Republican member of Congress to criticize President Barack Obama’s handling of the ongoing negotiations regarding the payroll tax cut extensions Friday.
Mr. Hatch called Mr. Obama a “scaredy cat” for delaying approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline project until after the 2012 election.
Like many other Republican members of Congress, the Utah senator believes the “shovel ready” Keystone project needs to immediate approval because of the jobs it would create.
Although he complimented the president, calling him “bright and charming,” he slammed him because over what he felt was a total avoidance of members of Congress regarding the ongoing negotiations over the payroll tax cut extension legislation.
“All we need is a president who will step up and start to lead and quit acting like some scaredy cat hiding in some closet in the White House,” Mr. Hatch said Friday in an appearance on Fox News.
Mr. Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, followed up the “scaredy cat” comment by saying he should have chosen other words, but did not apologize for making the assesment of Mr. Obama.
“That’s what I feel like,” Mr. Hatch added.
The Utah Republican is in favor of the bill that House Republicans passed earlier this week that would tie the extension of payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits with an approval of the Keystone project within 60 days of the enactment of the bill.
The President, along with many Democratic members of Congress, wants to delay the approval of the project until after the 2012 election.
Although House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA.) and Senate Majority Leader (D-NV.) maintain their view that Democrats are opposed to approving Keystone, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio.) tweeted a blog post Friday showing 6 Democratic senators and 4 Democratic Representatives who approve of the project.
Senator Hatch claims Mr. Obama is delaying the project because of his loyalty to environmentalists.
“My gosh, it makes sense, it is a shovel-ready project, ready to go right now, the pipes are already bought, it just has to be done,” the Utah senator stated.
“He gets pushed around by one or the other huge factions in the Democratic Party; in this case it is the environmental extremists,” Mr. Hatch added.
