Senator Scott Brown Discusses Repeals, Cuts At U Of L

Republican U.S. Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts visited the University of Louisville Monday.Brown won a special election earlier this year to replace the late Ted Kennedy and broke the Democrats' supermajority in the Senate. In a speech at the McConnell Center, Brown said he was elected to, among other things, fight President Barack Obama's agenda."A whole host of things led to me being the 41st Senator," he said. "I'm still the 41st Senator. Mr. Leader, you know that. But so is every other Republican."Brown said he hopes for more moderate legislation now that the GOP has gained more seats in the Senate and control of the House."Now we got some people. Now we can really go and start to work on these initiatives that were passed. And there are a ton of provisions within them that can be done better or fixed better or eliminated altogether, and that's what we're going to try to figure out," he said, specifically referring to the healthcare overhaul and the financial reform bill, the latter of which he supported.Brown's speech also focused on reducing spending and keeping taxes at their current levels. When asked where spending cuts should be made, he said that could be determined through a thorough review of all government programs."There are a lot of programs that are just obsolete and we need to get them lean and mean. And where other programs need money to do better, great," he said. "But to list some specific ones, right now, that's not something I'm going to do, but I think we need to highlight the issues I just referred to."