Financial Bill Update:

“It includes safeguards to help prevent another financial meltdown, ensures that consumers are protected, and it is paid for without new taxes,’’ Brown said, adding, “further reforms are still needed to address the government’s role in the financial crisis.

Unfunded Unemployment

The unemployment measure would have cost $34 billion – Sen. Brown opposed it as there was no funding source to pay for it – http://bu.tt/hz

Financial bill…

Over the July recess, I will continue to review this important bill. I remain committed to putting in place safeguards to prevent another financial meltdown, ensure that consumers are protected, and that this bill is paid for without new taxes.”

Republican Brown outpolls Dems Obama & Kerry in Mass.

FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty:

If this doesn’t set off huge warning bells for the Democratic Party, it should:
Newcomer Republican Senator Scott Brown is more popular in Massachusetts than top Democrats, like Pres. Obama and Sen. John Kerry. We’re talking about Massachusetts here… the liberal bastion of politics where the late Ted Kennedy held his senate seat for nearly five decades.

A new Boston Globe poll shows that 55 percent of Massachusetts residents have a favorable view of Brown, who’s been in Washington for only five months. 18 percent view him unfavorably…

Compare that to Pres. Obama, who gets a 54 percent favorable rating in Mass. And 41 percent unfavorable. Or the state’s other Senator, John Kerry, who has been in the Senate for years – he gets a 52 percent favorable rating… and a 37 percent unfavorable rating.

The poll also shows support for Brown runs deep; with majorities of Republicans and Independents… and a plurality of Democrats – viewing him favorably. Continue…

Bill can’t bank on Senator Brown’s support

Financial regulations overhaul faces hurdle | Legislation seeks to rein in abuses
By Matt Viser
Globe Staff / June 26, 2010

WASHINGTON — Bleary eyed House and Senate negotiators produced an overhaul of financial industry rules early yesterday that would give the government broad powers to regulate Wall Street and protect consumers from unscrupulous lenders, but Democrats enjoyed only a fleeting celebration before Senator Scott Brown, a Massachusetts Republican, said he was withholding support, citing $19 billion in new bank taxes inserted at the last minute.

Brown’s ire over the levy on big banks and hedge funds, which he said would be passed on to consumers, highlighted the difficulties Democrats will face getting the compromise legislation passed in the Senate. Brown and several other Republicans provided crucial support for passage of an earlier Senate bill.

The $19 billion in new taxes would be imposed on large institutions over five years, and the money mostly would be used to pay for costs of increasing regulation over 10 years. It also would pay for $1 billion in federal bridge loans for unemployed homeowners facing foreclosure.

The taxes were tacked onto the legislation during a marathon, 20-hour negotiating session which ended with a final vote at 5:39 a.m. yesterday — just five minutes before dawn.

The legislation cleared a conference committee along party lines, with House conferees voting 20 to 11 and Senate conferees voting 7 to 5. If Democrats can engineer final passage in the House and Senate, President Obama is hoping to sign it into law by July 4.

“I was surprised and extremely disappointed to hear that . . . new assessments and fees were added in the wee hours of the morning by the conference committee,’’ Brown said in a statement yesterday. “I’ve said repeatedly that I cannot support any bill that raises taxes.’’

Brown did not declare outright opposition, however, saying he and his staff were continuing to study the 2,000-page bill. He did win other provisions that he had made conditions of his support, including a key exemption that would apply to MassMutual and provisions allowing banks such as State Street Corp. to invest up to 3 percent of their capital in securities markets. Continue…

On energy ‘very excited’ about working with Obama

By Drew Angerer, AP 

Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., says he told President Obama he wants to work with him on climate change but can’t support a carbon tax.

So how did that meeting between Republican Sen. Scott Brown and President Obama go?

 The Massachusetts senator, who won a special election shocker earlier this year to grab the seat held for nearly five decades by Democratic icon Ted Kennedy, told reporters who caught up with him on Capitol Hill afterward that the discussion did center on climate change. Brown ix-nayed one of the ideas that the president has been pushing hardest: a tax on carbon pollution.

“I told him I am not in favor of a national energy tax,” said Brown.

Even so, Brown said he told Obama that he’s “very excited about working with him” on plans to move the nation to alternative forms of energy. “People want to conserve; they want to get off the dependence on foreign oil,” he said.  Continue…

Critical Of President, Sen. Brown Makes First Oval Office Trip

By Bob Oakes and Jess Bidgood

Published June 16, 2010  UPDATED 1:07 PM

Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., questions witnesses during a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. (AP)

BOSTON — Ahead of an Oval Office meeting with President Obama Wednesday, Sen. Scott Brown told WBUR he was underwhelmed by the president’s Gulf oil spill address, and that he and many of his Senate colleagues want to see the federal government step up — and speed up — its efforts to contain the spill and revive affected coastline.

They don’t expect him to put on a wetsuit and go down and plug the hole,” Brown said. “People want him to put everybody in a room, come up with the best people in the world to try and solve this problem and then get at it, and there’s been too much delay in this regard.”  – Sen. Scott Brown

Brown was not informed of a precise agenda for the meeting — scheduled at Mr. Obama’s request — but he’s ready to talk about the BP oil spill and related energy issues.

It’s been speculated in Washington that Mr. Obama wants to ask Brown — in person — to support changes to U.S. energy policy, which he alluded to in Tuesday’s speech. Brown has supported the president before — most famously by casting a decisive vote that allowed jobs legislation to move through the Senate.   Continue…

Celts in six

I predicted the Celts in six. I’m excited for them, I’m excited for Boston, for the Celtics for the entire team. I obviously know a few of them…Ayla’s participated many times singing the National Anthem for them and it’s been exciting. The last game was breathtaking and I’m going to be watching with some colleagues down here”

Protect jobs and the environment

I understand the real concerns that we share as a nation when it comes to protecting our environment, but we should do it in a way that does not hurt our chances to improve the economy and put people back to work.

While many of my colleagues have argued that giving the EPA the ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions is the answer to our energy problems, I disagree. This action would give an unelected and unaccountable government agency the power to impose restrictive and damaging carbon dioxide regulations that will drive up energy prices and hurt job-creating small businesses in our country.

Groups trying to politicize this issue will say that this resolution is an attack on the Clean Air Act. But the EPA is looking to dramatically expand its powers into new areas. The bottom line is that we cannot have every restaurant owner or small farmer worried about the costs of complying with new carbon dioxide emissions restrictions. This is why I am supporting Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s resolution to oppose these costly new EPA regulations.

As I continue meeting with Massachusetts residents and small business owners, they all say the same thing: “We need to get this economy moving again.” For that to happen, America’s businesses need the confidence to invest in new opportunities. What Bay State businesses don’t need is the federal government arbitrarily passing down restrictions that would dramatically restrict their potential for growth by saddling them with higher costs.

Our national unemployment rate is hovering near double digits and Massachusetts energy prices keep going up. No matter how you feel about Cape Wind, there is no arguing that the cost of electricity generated by this particular project comes at a high premium. The billions of dollars in extra costs will be passed on to Massachusetts ratepayers. Now is not the time to further increase energy prices, add to administrative costs for businesses, and create massive new layers of government bureaucracy.

Furthermore, imposing this regulation of emissions is something that will affect every aspect of our economy and every American. We cannot allow these decisions to be made by an unelected bureaucracy; this is an issue that deserves a full debate in Congress.

There are ways to renew our national commitment to cleaner sources of energy without breaking the back of our economy. That includes encouraging greater energy efficiency in our homes, vehicles and offices. It means significant investment in developing additional sources of natural gas and allowing for new nuclear power generation.

We must also foster the development of renewable sources of energy. We should pursue incentives and logistical assistance to encourage our automotive fleet to move away from oil toward natural gas, efficient battery technology, and other low carbon transportation fuels. It means more funding for basic research into the energy breakthroughs of tomorrow, such as algae-based fuel.

What is clear is that we need to tap the entrepreneurial spirit of America to address these significant issues. Massachusetts is home to some of the world’s top technology leaders, companies and institutions and we should explore tax cuts and other efforts that directly encourage them and leaders in other states to find new, cost effective solutions. We have great potential to transition to a nation focused on clean energy, and we must act, but we must do so in a way that maximizes potential job benefits.

This is not a political issue. It is our responsibility to find an approach that promotes economic growth and sustains environmental stewardship for future generations. What we must not do is open the door to unnecessary regulation that makes it harder for businesses to compete.

Scott Brown

Obama Tells Graduating Class, ‘Don’t Make Excuses,’ Drawing GOP Taunts

Foxnews.com

President Obama delivers the commencement address for Kalamazoo Central High School in Kalamazoo, Mich., on June 7. (AP Photo)

Don’t point fingers. Don’t make excuses. Don’t pass the buck.

That was the advice President Obama gave to a graduating high school class in Michigan Monday night — advice that sent off an irony alert among Republicans who accuse the president of having “spent his tenure” doing exactly that.

Obama offered his guidance during the commencement speech at Kalamazoo Central High School.

“Don’t make excuses. Take responsibility not just for your successes, but for your failures as well,” he told the graduates. “The truth is, no matter how hard you work, you won’t necessarily ace every class or succeed in every job. There will be times when you screw up, when you hurt the people you love, when you stray from your most deeply held values.

“And when that happens, it’s the easiest thing in the world to start looking around for someone to blame. Your professor was too hard, your boss was a jerk, the coach was playing favorites, your friend just didn’t understand. We see it every day out in Washington, with folks calling each other names and making all sorts of accusations on TV.”   Continue …