Brown Says Obama Must Advance His Agenda
Business Journal Daily – YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said President Obama needs to do more to advance his agenda in Congress.
The special senatorial election Tuesday in Massachusetts, won by Republican Scott Brown for the seat held by Ted Kennedy until his death last year, deprived Democrats of the 60th vote needed to overcome filibusters, a potential obstacle to legislation favored by Obama and the Democrats.
Obama, Brown said during a conference call Thursday in advance of the president’s visit today to Lorain County, “has to be specific when he comes to Congress,” whether he’s proposing health care legislation or a jobs bill.
“We want to wrap up health care as soon as we can,” he said. While losing the 60-vote supermajority “obviously makes it more of a challenge” to pass legislation, there are still “57, or 59, Democrats, depending on how you define it, that the voters overwhelmingly voted for in ‘06 and ‘08,” meaning they “still have expectations of us,” he said.
“Once we wrap up health care, and we need to do it as quickly as we can and do it right, it’s all about job creation, whether it’s the energy bill or financial modernization or directly a jobs bills.”
