Two Scott Brown items to report today. First, Brown is bravely standing by his clearly-stated, principled position frantically backing away from what he said just a couple of days ago regarding Paul Ryan and the Medicare Destruction Act of 2011.
Senator Scott Brown will not disclose whether he supports a GOP budget plan that includes sweeping changes to Medicare, despite saying to a business group last week that he will vote for the measure when it comes up in the US Senate….
[Brown spokesman Colin] Reed said that Brown’s comments in Newburyport were merely an observation of political gamesmanship in Washington, not a commitment to vote for the measure or for the politically charged measures within it.
Ah, of course. To refresh your recollection, here’s what Brown actually said in discussing Ryan’s budget:
“The leaders will bring forward (Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s) budget, and I will vote for it, and it will fail,” he said.
So, obviously, when Brown said “I will vote for it,” what he meant was “I might vote for it, but I’d rather give the Senate a chance to work out a bipartisan compromise first.” How foolish of all of us to have missed the ambiguity that is, in hindsight, so clearly evident in Brown’s initial statement. How could we possibly have been so careless.
File this one under “Still Not Ready for Prime Time” – a file that gained new prominence with the Osama Facebook photo flap of a couple of weeks ago. Can’t wait for the next installment.
Second, Brown’s allegiance to Mitch McConnell and the Republican leadership in the Senate appears to be strengthening. Yesterday he voted to filibuster a sensible, modest bill that would revoke unjustifiable tax loopholes for the five largest oil companies as a means of reducing the deficit (the bill is hilariously entitled the “Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act”). I cannot for the life of me imagine what the justification for this vote could be, especially if you don’t live in a state in which oil companies run the show (this, presumably, explains the sad votes of Democratic Senators Landrieu of LA and Begich of AK). Anyway, the next time Scott Brown drones on about how terrible the deficit is, be sure to remind him of this cowardly vote.
Interestingly, the two other “moderate” Republicans – Senators Collins and Snowe of Maine – both voted against the filibuster, as did the independent Joe Lieberman.
It’s 2 billion a year and that is a drop in the bucket to the oil companies involved as they just reported profits of over 25 billion in the first quarter of 2011 alone. These are multinational companies that already use their status to move dollars to other countries to skirt taxes. Why do we have subsidies over and about this in the first place? If Republicans are serious about paying down the debt this is the low hanging fruit that will have no impact.
See, that’s your problem right there. False premise.
The Republicans created the deficit, after all, under Bush. And they made it worse by forcing through continued tax breaks for the richest among us.
Their charge that he put polluters first was so outrageous a falsehood that he had to vote to protect tax breaks for oil companies to show what he is really all about.
Brown 2012–Make Big Oil Happy!
Brown’s war chest is full of Wall Street and Koch Brothers cash.
According to this WTKK press release, the Senator said today not only that he will not support the Ryan plan but that he’s made it very clear he won’t support the Ryan plan.
SENATOR SCOTT BROWN ON THE JIM & MARGERY SHOW, 96.9 BOSTON TALKS: “NO, I CAN’T SUPPORT IT AND I’VE MADE THAT VERY CLEAR.” (5-18-11)
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contact: Ann Wog 617-822-6850 awog@969bostontalks.com
http://www.969bostontalks.com
May 18, 2011
Senator Scott Brown on The Jim & Margery Show, 96.9 Boston Talks
Senator Brown Refutes Claims of Support for GOP Plan to Privatize Medicare
Boston, MA (May 18, 2011): Speaking to Jim Braude and guest host Lauren Beckham-Falcone, Senator Scott Brown said this morning on 96.9 Boston Talks that he does not support a Republican proposal for the privatization of Medicare, written by Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
“No I can’t support it and I’ve made that very clear. But what I did say also is that I applaud the direction that it’s taking us in terms of reducing spending because we’re in a financial emergency and you need to move Washington away from basically spending money it doesn’t have.”
Brown also said, “I guess it’s political. Everyone’s in campaign mode. I’m in problem-solving mode. I’m going to look at each and every opportunity. A lot of the proposals in the Ryan budget are not my proposals; I’ve made that very clear.”
When asked directly by Beckham-Falcone whether the report in The Boston Globe was wrong, Brown replied, “We sent a statement out on that first story and they didn’t even run the statement so the fact that they don’t even run a response to what I say, it’s unfortunate.”
The Jim & Margery Show is heard mornings from 6-10am on 96.9 Boston Talks.
The audio of this interview is available now at: http://www.969bostontalks.com/jimandmargeryBlog/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntry ID=10238795
WTKK-FM is owned by Greater Boston Radio, Inc., a subsidiary of Greater Media, Inc., the parent company of 23 AM and FM radio stations in the Boston, Charlotte, Detroit, New Jersey and Philadelphia markets. Greater Media also owns a group of weekly newspapers in central New Jersey as well as several telecommunications towers located throughout the United States.
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