Weekly Scott Brown-d Up, Week of 4/20/12
Weekly Scott Brown-d Up, Week of 4/20/12
Sun, Apr 22, 2012 1:57 PM EST
Cross-posted from the ProgressMass blog.
Welcome to the “Weekly Scott Brown-d Up.” Last week wasn’t an especially good week for our Republican junior Senator, Scott Brown. This week wasn’t any better for him.
The big event kicking off the week was the U.S. Senate’s vote on the Buffett Rule, which, very simply, would ensure a minimum effective tax rate of 30% on millionaires and billionaires. One can understand that the Mitt Romneys of the world could find the measure objectionable, given that Mitt Romney paid less than 14% in taxes, probably a lower rate than many of us paid. Nevertheless, Scott Brown had a very clear choice before him. He could either vote for tax fairness and for making sure that millionaires and billionaires pay more of their fair share; or, he could side with his Wall Street benefactors over Massachusetts middle class families.
Moderate Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins joined almost every Democratic member of the U.S. Senate in a majority vote in favor of the Buffett Rule and in support of tax fairness. However, in a U.S. Senate in which the Republican minority filibusters legislation at a historic rate, blocking so much widely supported legislation from proceeding, a majority vote doesn’t matter. With that, Scott Brown joined his right-wing Republican colleagues in, once again, filibustering an extremely popular piece of legislation. In the choice between Massachusetts’ middle class families and Wall Street’s hedge fund millionaires, Brown stood with the Wall Street millionaires.
Of course, Scott Brown knew he was casting a very unpopular vote. Brown’s very weak defense of his bad vote included every excuse in book:
More:
http://bluemassgroup.com/2012/04/weekly-scott-brown-d-up-week-of-42012/