August 10, 2012 — U.S. Senator Scott Brown tells members of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce that he respects them as risk-takers who make the economy grow. He spoke Aug. 8 at a Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce event at the Hyannis Golf Course.
In less than three years, Scott Brown has gone from being an obscure Massachusetts state senator to representing the commonwealth in the U.S. Senate. On Aug. 8, he was back in the Bay State telling Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce members what’s wrong with Washington and what’s right with their entrepreneurial souls.
“You who take enormous risks,” he said, “personal risks to build businesses have been attacked. You will never hear me demonize you as job creators.”
Washington, said Brown, doesn’t understand that business people want “regulatory and tax certainty” from the government so they can go about building the economy.
Brown said the national debt, which was at $11.95 trillion when he went to Washington in 2010, “is about $16 trillion now. We’re borrowing 42, 43 cents on the dollar. If you ran your business like the federal government, you would not have a business.” He supports a balanced budget amendment.
While getting the debt under control “is our biggest challenge,” Brown said, he has been “chipping away” at economic change, including support for the “hire a hero” veterans employment bill and other measures he says are designed to ease the burden for employers and workers both.
The senator said he recognized the importance of tourism to the region, and drew laughs when he wondered whether congratulations or expressions of sympathy was the right response to the Cape’s spate of shark sightings.
Closely tied to tourism is the fishing industry, which Brown called his “number one issue along with veterans and the economy.” The main problem, he said, is a “lack of trust between the fishing industry and the government.”
Read the full story in the Barnstable Patriot