Scott Brown: I’m Voting No On The Ryan Plan

Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown announced today that he would be voting against the Ryan Plan:

GOP Sen. Scott Brown (Mass.) said Monday he won’t support Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget when it comes up for a vote in the Senate.

Brown, a centrist who is running for reelection in 2012, said that Ryan’s plan helped jumpstart a necessary debate, but that its Medicare reforms go too far.

“While I applaud Ryan for getting the conversation started, I cannot support his specific plan — and therefore will vote ‘no’ on his budget,” he wrote in a Politico op-ed.

“Our country is on an unsustainable fiscal path,” he added. “But I do not think it requires us to change Medicare as we know it. We can work inside of Medicare to make it more solvent.”

Brown follows centrist GOP Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), who announced last month she will not vote for the plan.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is expected to hold a vote soon, possibly this week, on the plan. The plan is expected to fail, but Reid has said it could elucidate divisions within the Republican Party.

Indeed it has.

FILED UNDER: Congress, Deficit and Debt, US Politics, , , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Chris says:

    Smart move by Brown. Cutting Medicare/Medicaid divides those Tea Party voters who would be more apt to take across the board cuts to all programs than to those these workers have paid into their whole lives.

    Rand Paul spending cut plan looking better every day – cut the bureaucracy. Cut the agencies. Cut defense. Entitlements last, and perhaps as a %age of an across the board cut that all programs must take. Turning these programs over to smart MBAs looking to skim nickels and dimes from your grandpa and grandma makes little sense to a populace who, rightfully, doesn’t trust elected officials or the corporate elite to look out for their best interests.

    This also validates Newt’s comments on Meet the Press, by the way. He’s a blowhard, but he was right on this one particular issue.

  2. hey norm says:

    This guy may be your Republican nominee…

  3. wr says:

    Would have been a smarter move if he hadn’t announced last week that he’d be proudly voting FOR the Ryan plan.

  4. Ummm wr, please give us a link for that

  5. michael reynolds says:

    Tea Party? I’d like to introduce my friend, Reality. Reality, meet Tea Party.

  6. Ed, Watertown MA says:

    What a weasel Scott Brown is.

    Over the weekend, while marching in a Memorial Day parade in Newton, MA, Brown refused to shake hands with the Mayor of Newton Setti Warren because Warren is running in the Democratic primary for Senate. Here’s the WBZ-TV report:

    http://www.youtube.com/user/ScottBrownReality

    Keep it classy, Scott Brown!

  7. Loviatar says:

    Ummm wr, please give us a link for that

    Stance lands Brown in Medicare debate

    h/t DK

  8. wr says:

    Here you go, Doug:

    http://articles.boston.com/2011-05-17/news/29552907_1_budget-plan-budget-bill-medicare

    This misses some of the fun. First he said he would be proud to vote for the bill. Then, when his constituents started objecting, his press people put out a statement saying that what he really mean was that he’d vote ON the bill, although he didn’t know which way.

    All in all, embarassing at every turn.

  9. Franklin says:

    http://www.youtube.com/user/ScottBrownReality

    In my opinion, that video doesn’t show what it purports to show.

  10. daveinboca says:

    Hmmmm….. THe GOP finally got one shape-shifter like Arlen Specter out of the Senate and another POS just like him shows up to take his place. Brown is another hack politico just trying to get re-elected. I hope this creep gets busted in November, 2012 & sent back to the MA legislature where his Peter Principle says would be the right level.