Republican senatorial candidate Scott Brown sat down with the editorial board of the Seacoast Media Group last week. Fast friend and implacable enemy Jeff McMenemy reports:
Former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown blamed the Affordable Care Act for the U.S. Supreme Court's recent controversial Hobby Lobby decision. The court ruled 5-4 that closely held companies do not have to provide four types of contraception mandated in the Affordable Care Act if the owners have religious objections. "Had we never had 'Obamacare,' we never would have had that decision because that was a mandate from 'Obamacare' that got us into that position," Brown said during an editorial board interview Wednesday with Seacoast Media Group.
Brown, who describes himself as a "hardworking, honest, bipartisan, problem-solving, pro-choice moderate Republican," emphasized that women should "have the right to do whatever they want with their bodies in terms of reproductive health." He said Hobby Lobby was providing 16 forms of contraception, but balked at providing what it considered abortion-inducing contraception such as the morning-after pill. "I've always felt that people should be able to practice their faith and not have their faith pitted against their individual beliefs," Brown said.
The former Republican U.S. senator from Massachusetts addressed a wide variety of issues during the interview held in the Portsmouth Herald newsroom, from the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as "Obamacare," to his decision to move to New Hampshire, his willingness to debate his GOP competitors and how to create jobs.
He defended his decision not to work to ban negative third-party advertising in his closely watched race with U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. "The horse had already left the barn. Before I was even announced or a resident here, they were already running those third-party negative ads," Brown said. "Gov. Shaheen was raising money all over the country from those very same groups who were actually raising and spending money against me." If he had agreed to the so-called People's Pledge, which he did when he ran against U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., it would have left him "at a tactical, competitive disadvantage."
Brown also spoke at length about the "high cost of education" when asked about complaints by recent college graduates about student loans. He agreed that student loan interest rates should be lower, but maintained the "root of the problem" is the increasing cost of higher education.
Brown suggested preventing colleges from getting federal funding unless they keep their tuition increases at or below the rate of inflation. He pointed to some teachers who are making "two, three, four hundred thousand and teaching one or two courses." Instead of asking taxpayers for more money, Brown believes it's time to "tax the endowments of these major universities who have billions and billions of dollars in tax-free money coming in."
Brown has frequently targeted the ACA on the campaign trail, and said Wednesday it would be a mistake to think "that the 'Obamacare' plan is the only plan and that's it." He noted that Massachusetts in 2006 developed the so-called "Romneycare" health reform legislation, which addressed many of the same issues that "Obamacare" did — including accepting pre-existing conditions and protecting people from catastrophic health care events — but at the state level. "Other states have developed those plans that are good for the state," Brown said. "We can do the same thing here, all the things that people care about and work for a plan that works for us, and quite frankly do it better and more efficiently."
He said the ACA, which Shaheen voted for, has created 18 new taxes and now has municipalities dealing with the "Cadillac tax," which will tax cities and towns that have higher-cost insurance plans. One of the provisions of the ACA, the Cadillac tax, which is slated to start in 2018, will tax any health care plans that cost more than $10,200 for an individual, or $27,500 for a family. Those plans will be taxed at a rate of 40 percent for the amount of the plans that are in excess of the spending limits. "It's going to crush our cities and towns," he said.
Brown also defended his decision to move from Massachusetts to New Hampshire to run in the U.S. Senate race, pointing to his family's deep roots in the state. If asked about it on the campaign trail, Brown said after he shares his New Hampshire roots with voters, the conversation quickly moves to other topics. "We're not talking about my birthplace anymore or where I'm from, we're talking about where we're going," Brown said.
He also repeatedly pointed to the fact that he was the Senate's most bipartisan senator — a Congressional Weekly study reported he voted with his party 54 percent of the time in 2011 — while Shaheen voted with President Barack Obama 99 percent of the time. "As I said earlier, what you see is what you get," Brown said about himself.
He emphasized the need to send representatives to Washington who could reach across the aisle, even on tough social issues, without "demonizing" their opponents. "At the end of the day, we have to be able to look at each other and say 'you know what, I don't agree with you, but let's go grab a beer and talk about the things we do agree on,'" Brown said. "That's me."
On other issues, Brown said:
• He's agreed to a total of five debates with his GOP opponents and wants to debate Shaheen "every week at least" if he wins the primary.
• Social Security and Medicare are not sustainable in the long term and down the road — though not for anybody who is retired now or will be in the near future — means testing is something "that should be on the table."
• The federal government "shouldn't be mandating things ... without providing proper federal funding," when asked about the Environmental Protection Agency's push to have area cities and towns build new wastewater treatment plants.