By Boston Herald Editorial Staff Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Massachusetts voters have to ask themselves a serious question before they head to the polls next week: Are they content with the current state of affairs in Washington?
Are they content with a sweeping health care bill, now being negotiated behind closed doors by principals from only one political party? (So much for a new era of bipartisanship promised by our president.)
And are they prepared for the impact that bill will have on the health care industry in our own state, where we already insure 97 percent of our population?
Are they prepared for the devastating impact of $500 billion in Medicare cuts, both on our citizens and on our hospitals?
But there is far more that is going wrong these days in D.C. than just the health care fight. There has been a similar rush to “fight global warming” with policies that would tax us back to the Stone Age.
There was that $787 billion “stimulus” bill that didn’t stimulate much of anything unless you count sending the unemployment rate to 10 percent. Oh, but it sure did “stimulate” the federal deficit, which hit a record $1.4 trillion.
Well, the voters of this state have the power to change that next week. Sometimes one vote can make a difference - especially if it’s one vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
If you love what’s going on in Washington, well, then by all means vote for Martha Coakley. She’s a perfectly nice person, and she won’t make a dime’s worth of difference in the balance of power in Washington.
But if you’re not happy with the status quo, if you think the way business is being conducted on Capitol Hill today is a disgrace and an affront to taxpayers, then you probably agree it’s time for a change.
Scott Brown can single-handedly deliver on that kind of change and the Herald is pleased to endorse his candidacy in the race for U.S. Senate.
Brown talks about being the “41st senator,” adding to Republican ranks and depriving Democrats of the “supermajority” which has allowed them to ride roughshod over the nation’s agenda. But he would go to Washington as his own man - and as ours, beholden to no one, except Massachusetts voters.
Brown is a social moderate in the Weld/Cellucci tradition, who considers Roe vs. Wade “settled law.”