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Brian Beutler reports that Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has left the bipartisan “coalition of the willing” that’s trying to negotiate a deal on health care. The real question is why it’s considered necessary for a Democratic health care bill to have the vote of someone like Orrin Hatch in the first place. Eleven Senate Republicans in had more liberal voting records than Hatch during the last Congress (according to DW-NOMINATE scores). There are sixty Democrats. Surely no one expects incredibly conservative Republicans to vote for the Democrats’ vision of health care reform. After all, the parties are supposed to disagree.
