Brown gave a speech castigating Warren for proposing to raise taxes and calling her a "jobs destroyer." Warren responded that Brown supports tax breaks for the wealthy, while opposes tax cuts for the middle class.
This is an updated version of a story posted at 1:52 this afternoon.
U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., addresses an audience during a meeting of the South Shore Chamber of Commerce, in Randolph Tuesday. The Massachusetts Republican said he's trying to keep taxes low to help businesses grow, while portraying Warren as a "jobs destroyer" who favors a heavier tax burden. More politics news
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Brown spoke to around 500 people at a South Shore Chamber of Commerce luncheon at Lombardo’s, a function facility in Randolph.
The core of Brown’s speech was his attacks on Warren. “Professor Warren's eagerness to increase taxes is what makes her a jobs destroyer. My message to you is hold on to your pocketbooks and wallets and get ready,” Brown said.
Warren responded by tying Brown to the Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates. “Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and Scott Brown have all made clear what side they stand on,” Warren said, speaking to reporters at a Quincy construction site. “They have supported tax breaks, tax subsidies, special loopholes for the wealthiest individuals and the biggest corporations. And they have opposed tax cuts for middle class families.” Ryan’s controversial budget is now a central theme in the presidential race – though Brown has said he opposes some features of it.
One major point of contention between Brown and Warren is the renewal of the Bush era tax cuts. Warren wants to extend the Bush tax cuts for the lower and middle class, but not for those making over $250,000 a year. Brown has said he will not support raising taxes on anyone.
Brown argued that is a fallacy perpetuated by Warren that keeping the Bush tax cuts in place represents a tax cut and eliminating them does not represent a tax raise. “When tax rates go up, that’s a tax hike any way you slice it. And that’s exactly what Professor Warren wants,” Brown said.
Warren said it is important to lower taxes on the middle class. “But I believe that the wealthiest individuals and the biggest corporations can afford to pay their fair share,” she said. “All that we’re asking is that they pay what they paid during the Clinton years, which were pretty darn good years for the top of the economic ladder.” Warren accused Brown of “holding hostage” tax cuts for 98 percent of families and 97 percent of small businesses in order to give bigger tax cuts to the wealthy.
Brown also continued to attack Warren for comments she made that “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own.” Warren had argued that factory owners rely on government for roads and public education. Brown said for Warren to “downplay individual initiative as nothing more than a byproduct of big government is to fundamentally misunderstand our free enterprise system.”
“Professor Warren’s twisted logic dictates that because businesspeople take advantage of government services, then they owe ‘a hunk’ of their success back to the government in the form of higher taxes,” Brown said. “Forget about the rather large ‘hunk’ they already pay.”
Warren made her point by speaking at the Quincy town brook relocation project – a construction project funded partly by stimulus money received under Obama. “Scott Brown says it is more important to protect billionaires, it’s more important to protect big corporations that haul money overseas than it is to make investments right here in America, investments that create a future for cities like Quincy,” Warren said.
Warren said the U.S. is falling behind China, which is “giving their businesses a long-term comparative advantage” through investment in infrastructure. (The last time Warren compared the U.S. to China, she took flak from several conservative editorial boards including The Boston Herald, which wrote, “How did China — one of the world’s most repressive regimes — get to be your role model?”)
Brown also claimed Warren would support $3.4 trillion in higher taxes over the next decade. “Her proposal for new taxes would represent the largest tax hike since World War II,” he said. Warren called that number “made up.”
According to the Brown campaign, the $3.4 million includes several policies Warren supports: the “Buffett rule,” which would increase taxes on millionaires; ending tax breaks for oil companies and hedge fund managers; Obama’s health care reform law, which uses some tax increases to pay for an expansion of access to health insurance; freezing student loan interest rates and paying for it by increasing the payroll taxes collected from certain corporations; and others.
But the calculation also includes a so-called “war tax” – which the Brown campaign calls the amount requested in the Department of Defense 2013 budget to fund overseas contingency operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Warren has been more vocal than Brown about bringing troops home from Afghanistan. (Brown, who served in Afghanistan, supports Obama’s troop drawdown plan but would not publicize a withdrawal date. Warren has said it is time to bring the troops home as quickly as possible.)
Warren’s most specific tax proposals to date came when she told the Boston Globe that she would cut subsidies to oil and gas companies; cut agricultural subsidies paid to producers; pass the Buffett rule; not extend the Bush tax cuts on those making over $250,000; return the estate tax to 2009 levels; and cut waste, for example by streamlining the use of information technology.
Brown on Tuesday advocated for “broad tax reform that does away with special loopholes, simplifies the entire tax code, and lowers rates to get this economy growing again.” He did not say which loopholes he would do away with or what the lower rates would be. Previously, Brown has said he is open to eliminating tax loopholes and deductions, but only as part of comprehensive reform that lowers tax rates overall. Brown did not take questions after his speech.
Brown also warned of “Taxmageddon” – a confluence of tax policies that, without congressional action, could result in several tax increases on Jan. 1. At that time, the Bush tax cuts are scheduled to expire, and increases in the capital gains tax, dividends tax and estate tax will go into effect. Brown said Congress should do whatever it takes, including potentially a special session of Congress, to avoid “Taxmageddon.”
Democratic Party Chairman John Walsh responded to Brown’s speech by saying that Brown, Ryan and Romney all “come from the same framework.” “They’re on the side of big oil, big banks and billionaires. They’re going to ask the middle class and small business owners to pay for it,” he said.
Carol Bulman, CEO of Jack Conway Realtor in Norwell, and an independent voter, said she has not decided who to vote for, but she appreciated Brown speaking to business owners and “trying to protect every dollar we earned.” “He seems to be on the side of business owners,” she said.