In a speech on the Senate floor today, US Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, blasted President Obama's call last night for tax hikes on job creators and middle-class families to bring down the debt. Hatch explained that the President is the only one calling for these tax increases, when the cause of the over $14 trillion debt is spending. Following are excerpts from Hatch's speech: On the President's 'Balanced Approach': "The President talked last night about the need for a balanced approach. Here's what he means by that. To balance the budget his way, we will have to raise taxes by roughly $2 trillion. So what does he think of the plan of the Senate's distinguished majority leader? After all, the Majority Leader has put forward a plan that does not contain tax increases. Presumably, the President would therefore oppose the Majority Leader's plan as unbalanced. But that would assume the President is not playing politics with this debate." On Politically Opportunistic Red Herrings: "All of the demagoguery on jets and yachts and oil companies, yields about one week of deficit reduction from the President's ten year debt. Even throwing in a one-time confiscation of all the income for taxpayers above $1 million, you can only add 244 days. Add it all up and what the President is proposing amounts to less than one-tenth of deficit reduction from the debt President Obama will add over the next 10 years." On a Failure of Leadership ...