"Let's face it, once you get them on the dole, they'll take every dime they can."

As he left a meeting in the Capitol of the Senate health care working group, which is trying to craft compromise legislation that can pass the Senate without Democrats, Hatch was asked by a reporter, “How does the public’s perception of what the House did affect what you are doing?”

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“The public wants every dime they can be given,” he said. “Let’s face it, once you get them on the dole, they’ll take every dime they can. We’ve got to find some way of getting things under control or this country and your future is going to be gone.”

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray blasted Hatch’s comments.

“People who are getting access to health care are not on the dole,” Murray said. “They are working families. They are, by circumstances most of us hope we don’t get into, have a very seriously ill child or spouse. This is America. Certainly, we don’t call people who need health care people who are on the dole.”

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