By Patrick Donges
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-981441.mp3
Pittsfield, MA – Republican junior Massachusetts U.S. Senator Scott Brown kicked off his "jobs tour" at the ballroom of the Country Club of Pittsfield Wednesday afternoon.
Before Brown arrived, Michael Supranowicz, president and CEO of the Berkshire County Chamber of Commerce, said he hoped Brown would address the hyper-partisan atmosphere in Washington punctuated by the recent debt ceiling debate.
"Right now I think the business community is concerned that (they) don't seem to be getting anything done but bickering."
What Supranowicz called bickering, credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's called, "brinksmanship," in their statement explaining last week's downgrade of U.S. credit from AAA to AA+.
Speaking for just over 25 minutes, Brown addressed the downgrade and what he referred to as the "partisan rancor" in Washington almost immediately.
"Last week we got a huge wake-up call. And a lot of finger pointing, a lot of blaming; it's this party, it's that party, it's everybody's fault. Well, let's just start with the fact that it's everybody's fault."
"The question is; where do we go from here?"
His answer to that question was unclear. While calling for, "regulatory, tax, and business certainty," Brown proceeded to discuss two issues under consideration by Massachusetts state lawmakers, a proposed gas tax hike and a recent licensing decision by the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.
Brown served in the state's legislature for over 10 years, but has little influence over state policy from his seat in Congress; here he talks about the ABCC policy changes, which were postponed earlier this week pending statewide hearings.
"That industry creates 40,000 jobs. Those are real jobs; from truck drivers and brewers, all the way down to, the top to bottom."
He did make comments regarding some specific policy positions, namely support for the approval of pending trade agreements with Columbia, Panama, and South Korea and a stance against increased taxes, the latter of which he said was shared across party lines during the debt ceiling debate.
"None of the proposals that the president, (House Speaker John) Boehner, or Harry Reid actually put forth included any revenues. It's a job killer in the middle of a 2 1/2 - 3 year recession."
Along with job creation Brown also repeatedly referred to his bi-partisan approach in Washington.
In the last several weeks he has been criticized for what has been characterized as a lack of specific policy proposals during the debt ceiling debate. Here he describes his role during those negotiations.
"I did what a lot of other Senators of goodwill did; we banged away at our leadership and forced them to come to grips with where we were and what we were doing and stop with the rhetoric and actually look at a bi-partisan, bi-cameral bill."
While touting a record of bi-partisan cooperation, he also criticized the actions of Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as a possible cause of gridlock.
"The leader files a bill, he immediately moves for cloture, and then he doesn't allow any amendments and then they vote and then they say, Why didn't you support it?' Because none of us, Democrat or Republican, could have our amendments heard."
"We're getting into this ideological partisan bickering that's not doing anything positive. Me and others, we're not going to play that game."
Last Sunday, Massachusetts senior U.S. Senator John Kerry took a similar tact on NBC's "Meet the Press," dubbing S&P's credit decision the, "Tea Party downgrade," while also calling for partisan cooperation. Here Brown answers the question of why there isn't more public talk of bi-partisanship, even within his own delegation.
"You'd probably have to ask John about his thoughts on that but I know; instead of blaming the messenger we should probably just start solving the problem."
Brown closed by offering assurance that there are those in the Senate working towards bi-partisan solutions to jump start the economy.
"There are hard working, honest, dedicated people trying to push our leaders into making the right choices, and that's what I'll continue to do."
Brown's tour is scheduled to stop in Mansfield tomorrow morning, where he will highlight his legislation to lift a tax on medical device manufacturers included as part of the federal healthcare reform plan.