It is no coincidence that the most memorable line from Monday’s Brown-Coakley debate involved health care. Scott Brown indignantly asserted, “it’s the people’s seat,” in response to the following question:
If this bill fails, it could well be another 15 years before we see health-care reform efforts in Washington. Are you willing under those circumstances to say, I’m going to be the person, I’m going to sit in Teddy Kennedy’s seat and I’m going to be the person who’s going to block it for another 15 years?
Brown is indeed prepared to be that person. In fact, he promised as much during another debate that took place last week in Springfield, Massachusetts:
I can stop the health care bill as the 41st senator … why would we go and subsidize the failure of other states – not only would we be paying for our plan, we’d be paying for everyone else – and look at the back door deals – I think people have lost confidence …
Brown is not, however, as pure as the driven snow on health reform. Like that other Massachusetts Republican, Mitt Romney, his hands bear the stains of “universal health care.”
While he opposes the [Senate] bill, the state senator voted in 2006 in favor of a Massachusetts universal health care bill that has largely been the model for the Obama legislation.
Romneycare is no success story. In fact, it has been called the Big Dig of health reform, which is no compliment in Boston. And Scott Brown bears some responsibility for that mess.
In other words, Scott Brown is a typical New England Republican, a mixed bag. But he’s better than any Democrat on the big issues: the war on terror, the economy, taxes, etc.
And, on health care reform, he’s no Ted Kennedy—-thank God.
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