The lesser and the greater senator on tax-cuts . ..

[MBS]

local Boston NPR station, WBUR
http://www.wbur.org/2010/11/16/brown-taxes

audio at the the link. Here's an excerpt of the text article.
Brown spoke to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. Something (everything?) about him just makes me gag.

Brown was comfortable and passionate about lowering corporate taxes. He slapped the podium as he spoke about limiting government regulation.
The case of the expiring tax cuts presents Brown with another potentially tricky vote. He’s toeing the Republican line but representing a blue state.

“I can’t go back to Washington later today and start working again on fluff when we should be focusing on the very important things that can get our country and get our state moving again!” ( :crazy: -ed.)

But it wasn’t until after the speech, only when asked, that Brown carefully stated his position on the Bush-era tax cuts for individuals. Those are due to expire at the end of next month.
“I’m not going to get into hypotheticals,” he said, “but the so-called Bush tax cuts, if they expire, it’s an automatic tax increase for everybody. And in the middle of a two-year recession, it’d be a job killer.”

Democrats agree to a point. They want to extend the tax cuts for the lower- and middle-class, but not for households making more than $250,000 a year. Massachusetts’ senior U.S. senator, Democrat John Kerry, says that would cost the government too much revenue.

After Brown’s speech, one of his former colleagues in the State House, Democratic Rep. Tom Conroy, compared Brown’s support of President Bush’s tax cuts to President Reagan’s economic strategy.
“Trickled-down economics hasn’t been proven,” Conroy said. “It’s not there, it’s not worked in the past 30 years. And Scott just keeps proposing it.”

Others in the audience disagreed. Chamber member Laura Pelligrini says it will hurt the economy to raise taxes on the wealthy.

“I’m not that immersed in all the details of the tax cuts, but I think it all goes hand in hand,” she said.

[karynnj]

1. Shouldn't Senator centerfold be careful speaking against "fluff"?

It would have been nice had the BG or one of the radio stations would have noted that Brown voted against the Small Business Act, that is a jobs bill - and one that sounds like what the Republicans could have supported. In addition, he vote against the summer jobs and TANF amendment that both create jobs.

But, this article has at least one sentence that defines Brown as a pretty run of the mill Republican - "Brown was comfortable and passionate about lowering corporate taxes. He slapped the podium as he spoke about limiting government regulation."

Our problem is that the RW echo chamber is getting their talking points praising Reaganomics into people's heads - this woman should be embarrassed to say:
“I’m not that immersed in all the details of the tax cuts, but I think it all goes hand in hand,” she said.

[Blaukraut]

2. You have to hand it to the lesser one: He's learned his talking points

"tax increase in recession is job killer". I hear his cohorts spout this line at verbatim all over the cable shows and elsewhere. This is why repubs always win the message war. Before long, polls will show people in favor of permanently extending all tax cuts so those kindly rich 'small business' people have the extra cash to create the jobs they neglected to create in the last 8 years (in which they also had the extra cash).

How do they want to pay for them?.....crickets......

It gets really interesting when they pull out the old canard: "It's not the government's money, it's the people's money, and they should get to keep it". If you follow that logic, you necessarily arrive at a government without funds for anything. I'd like to know how they propose to run such a government. If they're so hell-bent on saving taxpayers money and making government smaller, why don't they start by quitting their taxpayer funded government job? Freaking hypocrites. :puke:

[Mass]

3. More comparison between our two senators, once again not in favor of Brown

You would think that, as the father of two daughters, Brown would have a position on this issue.

http://boston.com/community/blogs/on_liberty/2010/11/scott_brown_support_paycheck_f.html

Unfortunately for women in Massachusets, the ongoing wage gap between them and men doing the same job makes this difficult economic time even worse than it has to be.
...

Senator John Kerry is a co-sponsor and strong supporter of the bill, but Senator Scott Brown has not yet announced his support.
...

I guess the talking points are not yet available.