The Salt Lake Tribune

Tribune Editorial: Why Orrin Hatch is Utahn of the Year

(AndrŽ Chung | special to The Salt Lake Tribune) Senator Orrin Hatch is the senior senator from Utah, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and President pro tempore of the United States Senate.

December 25, 2017

These things are often misunderstood. So, lest our readers, or the honoree himself, get the wrong impression, let us repeat the idea behind The Salt Lake Tribune’s Utahn of the Year designation.

The criteria are not set in stone. But this year, as many times in the past, The Tribune has assigned the label to the Utahn who, over the past 12 months, has done the most. Has made the most news. Has had the biggest impact. For good or for ill.

The selection of Sen. Orrin G. Hatch as the 2017 Utahn of the Year has little to do with the fact that, after 42 years, he is the longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history, that he has been a senator from Utah longer than three-fifths of the state’s population has been alive.

It has everything to do with recognizing:

• Hatch’s part in the dramatic dismantling of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.
• His role as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee in passing a major overhaul of the nation’s tax code.
• His utter lack of integrity that rises from his unquenchable thirst for power.

Each of these actions stands to impact the lives of every Utahn, now and for years to come. Whether those Utahns approve or disapprove of those actions has little consequence in this specific recognition. Only the breadth and depth of their significance matters.

As has been argued in this space before, the presidential decision to cut the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in half and to slash the size of the brand new Bears Ears National Monument by some 90 percent has no constitutional, legal or environmental logic.

To all appearances — appearances promoted by Hatch — this anti-environmental, anti-Native American and, yes, anti-business decommissioning of national monuments was basically a political favor the White House did for Hatch. A favor done in return for Hatch’s support of the president generally and of his tax reform plan in particular.

And, on the subject of tax reform: For a very long time indeed, Hatch has said that his desire to stick around long enough to have a say in what indeed would be a long-overdue overhaul of the nations’ Byzantine tax code is the primary reason he has run for re-election time after time.

Last week, he did it.

The tax bill that passed the House and the Senate and was signed into law by the president Friday is being praised for bringing corporate tax rates in line with the nation’s post-industrial competitors and otherwise benefiting corporations and investors in a way that backers see as a boost to the economy, even as opponents vilify it for favoring the rich and adding to the federal budget deficit.

No matter who turns out to be right about that argument, the fact remains that tax reform has been talked about and talked about for decades and only now has anything been done. And Hatch, as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has his fingerprints all over it.

But perhaps the most significant move of Hatch’s career is the one that should, if there is any justice, end it.

The last time the senator was up for re-election, in 2012, he promised that it would be his last campaign. That was enough for many likely successors, of both parties, to stand down, to let the elder statesman have his victory tour and to prepare to run for an open seat in 2018.

Clearly, it was a lie. Over the years, Hatch stared down a generation or two of highly qualified political leaders who were fully qualified to take his place, Hatch is now moving to run for another term — it would be his eighth — in the Senate. Once again, Hatch has moved to freeze the field to make it nigh unto impossible for any number of would-be senators to so much as mount a credible challenge. That’s not only not fair to all of those who were passed over. It is basically a theft from the Utah electorate.

It would be good for Utah if Hatch, having finally caught the Great White Whale of tax reform, were to call it a career. If he doesn’t, the voters should end it for him.

Common is the repetition of the catchphrase that Hatch successfully used to push aside three-term Sen. Frank Moss in this first election in, egad, 1976.

“What do you call a senator who’s served in office for 18 years? You call him home.”

Less well known is a bit of advice Hatch gave to Capitol Hill interns in 1983.

“You should not fall in love with D.C.” he admonished them. “Elected politicians shouldn’t stay here too long.”

If only he had listened to his own advice.

The Salt Lake Tribune Letter: It’s clear Hatch has sold his soul and lost his way

(AndrŽ Chung | special to The Salt Lake Tribune) Flanked by his security staff on the left and Matt Whitlock, his communications director on the right, Sen. Hatch makes his way to a luncheon in Washington D.C. on December 21, 2017. Senator Orrin Hatch is the senior senator from Utah, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and President pro tempore of the United States Senate.

By Dave Klock,  The Public Forum      December 25, 2017

Sen. Hatch, what will you try to sell next just to get re-elected, the Grand Canyon? Perhaps the Mormon Temple? It’s clear to almost everyone here (Republicans, independents and Democrats alike) that you’ve sold your soul and lost your way.

You have forgotten that you work for the hard-working people of Utah and not the interests of big corporations and a president with questionable ethical standards. Your choice to stir the political pot at a time when our country needs real leadership is both sad and embarrassing.

Perhaps you are just too old and out of touch, as many say, or maybe you’ve been away in Washington, D.C., for too long. Either way, I look forward to voting for Mitt Romney in the Republican primary to rid us of a representative who no longer understands our values. No matter how a person feels about the national monuments issue, rest assured that everyone can see through your thinly veiled ruse to save your own political skin at our expense.

We deserve better. Your time is up. Thanks for nothing, Sen. Hatch.

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5 ways Donald Trump has failed to ‘drain the swamp’

David Knowles       December 22, 2017

In the waning days of the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump repurposed a well-worn catchphrase at a Wisconsin rally that not only resonated with his base of supporters but seemed to sum up his outsider White House bid: “Drain the swamp.”

One year into his first term, however, Trump’s pledge to root out Washington corruption has not exactly yielded the quick and easy results his slogan promised. Perhaps as a result, a new poll finds a sharp jump over the past 12 months in the number (44 percent) of Americans who think that most or all of the officials in the current administration are corrupt.

Here are five ways in which the Washington swamp has survived, and even thrived, under Trump.

The lobbying boom

A man holds up a “Drain the Swamp in Washington DC” sign as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump attends a campaign event at the airport in Kinston, N.C., Oct. 26, 2016. (Photo: Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

Trump’s swamp-draining project involved a five-point plan for scaling back the influence of lobbyists. So far, the president has made good on just one of those proposals: an executive order in January imposing a five-year ban on lobbying for outgoing administration officials. Questions have been raised about the legality of the ban, and it remains to be seen how it will be enforced.

Trump’s promise to push for a similar five-year ban on lobbying for members of Congress has yet to materialize. Meanwhile, the traffic has been mostly in the other direction, with more than 100 lobbyists named to positions in his administration, the majority serving at the very agencies they once tried to influence. The January executive order was meant to curb that practice as well, but within months the administration began granting waivers to allow lobbyists to take jobs regulating the industries they previously worked for.

Outside of government, a flood of lobbyists — many linked to the administration, including former Trump campaign manager Cory Lewandowski — have set up shop in Washington with the promise of selling White House influence. Through the first six months of the year, companies and interest groups spent a whopping $1.67 billion on lobbying, according to figures from the Center for Responsive Politics.

“I don’t think that anything’s really changed,” Republican lobbyist Brian Wild told Politico. “If anything, the lobbying business is booming right now.”

Amended staff disclosures

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn departs U.S. District Court in Washington Dec. 1. He pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the United States. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

As a candidate, Trump assured voters he would appoint “only the best and most serious people” to his administration. Accurately filling out financial disclosure forms, however, has proved elusive for many of his appointees.

Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, has amended his financial disclosure forms 39 times, according to the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics. In his July revisions, for instance, Kushner revealed that he had “inadvertently omitted” over 70 assets worth $10.6 million, and he added the names of more than 100 foreign contacts not previously disclosed.

Michael Flynn, who Trump says he fired for lying to the FBI and the vice president, amended his disclosure forms in August to include business contacts with an Iranian-American as well as consulting payments for a project to build nuclear power plants in the Middle East. This month, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador to the U.S.

Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and longtime Trump business associate Rick Gates have been charged with money laundering, for allegedly moving millions of dollars through foreign shell companies. Three days after Gates surrendered and the terms of his bail agreement were being set, his lawyers admitted that their client had failed to disclose that he was in possession of a second passport.

The Trump Organization

Traffic is seen moving along Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the Trump International Hotel in Washington Nov. 3. (Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

Despite the establishment of a revocable trust meant to insulate the Trump Organization’s business dealings from the presidency, a change to the document added in February allows Trump to tap profits “at his request,” ProPublica reported. Essentially, this means that Trump can still directly benefit from such holdings as his golf courses, his Washington, D.C., hotel, and foreign real estate transactions, despite conflict of interest claims.

“A president is not permitted to receive cash and other benefits from foreign governments,” Norm Eisen, who advised President Obama on ethics and government reform, told NPR’s Terry Gross. “And yet, Donald Trump is getting a steady flow of them around the world and right here in the United States.”

For a president who has spent nearly a third of his time in office at a Trump-owned property, where taxpayers also foot the bill for Secret Service lodging, the advantages of such an arrangement are apparent.

Meanwhile, Trump’s family has worked hard to expand the Trump Organization’s deals around the globe, the profits from which could put the president in violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution.

Despite assurances that the president would be kept in the dark about his business empire while in the White House, Eric Trump told Forbes that he briefed his father on a quarterly basis “on the organization’s bottom line, profitability reports and stuff like that.”

Financial opacity

Demonstrators participate in an April 15 march and rally in New York to demand President Trump release his tax returns. (Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP)

While running for president, Trump refused to make his tax returns public — as candidates and presidents have done for the last 40 years — on the grounds that he was under audit by the Internal Revenue Service. In fact, there is no legal prohibition on sharing audited returns, leading to widespread speculation about what Trump didn’t want the public to see.

As the Republican tax plan took shape in Congress, Trump attempted to sell it to the public on the grounds that it would increase taxes for the wealthy, including himself. “I’m doing the right thing,” Trump said, “and it’s not good for me. Believe me.”

There is no way to verify that assertion, but tax experts doubt it.

“Trump will make out like a bandit on all the big items,” Steven M. Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, told the New York Times.

Still, without Trump’s actual tax returns, it’s hard to know exactly how much the bill will personally benefit the president and his family. As White House press secretary Sarah Sanders made clear this month, the chances that Trump will ever release them rates somewhere between slim to none.

“My understanding — and I will double-check — but the president’s taxes, no matter who the president is, actually immediately go under audit after being filed,” Sanders told reporters.

All in the family

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner with his wife, Ivanka Trump, during a welcoming ceremony for her father at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv on May 22. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

There is little denying that the president has stacked his administration with family members and close friends. As Abraham Lincoln recognized in assembling a Cabinet that would function as a “team of rivals,” such an arrangement rewards loyalty above actual government experience, let alone expertise.

While past administrations adhered to a 1967 anti-nepotism law that forbade the appointment of family members, the Trump administration procured a Justice Department ruling that paved the way for unpaid White House roles for first daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner.

“In choosing his personal staff, the President enjoys an unusual degree of freedom, which Congress found suitable to the demands of his office,” Daniel Koffsky, deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel, wrote in a legal opinion.

Almost overnight, Kushner, a real estate developer with no discernable diplomatic experience, was tasked with jump-starting an intractable Middle East peace process.

Ivanka Trump, meanwhile, has attended high-level meetings with foreign leaders and continues to advise her father.

“I have heard the concerns some have with my advising the President in my personal capacity while voluntarily complying with all ethics rules, and I will instead serve as an unpaid employee in the White House Office, subject to all of the same rules as other federal employees,” the president’s daughter said in a statement. “Throughout this process I have been working closely and in good faith with the White House counsel and my personal counsel to address the unprecedented nature of my role.”

Also unprecedented was the promotion of Ivanka’s clothing brand by counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway.

“Go buy Ivanka’s stuff is what I would tell you,” Conway said during a Feb. 9 appearance on “Fox & Friends.” “I’m going to give a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody.”

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