Sen. Scott Brown, the freshly seated Republican senator from Massachusetts, says he would like to help revise the health bill.
Vice President Joseph Biden swore Brown in at 5 p.m. Thursday, and Brown then appeared at a brief press conference that was aired in C-SPAN 3.
"I'm hopeful that there will be bipartisan negotiations," Brown said. "I've always believe that everybody deserves a basic form of health care."
But the bills passed by the House and Senate would not be good for Massachusetts, because they would require Massachusetts to subsidize the Medicaid program in Nebraska, Brown said.
"We need to go back to the drawing board and try again," Brown said.
In the Senate, supporters of a bill normally need 60 votes to keep opponents from filibustering, or stalling by engaging in endless rounds of debate. Brown is now 1 of 41 Republicans in the Senate, and Republicans view him as a barrier against Democrats being able to get bills to the Senate floor with no Republican support.
When asked whether he was willing to cast the deciding vote needed to let a bill proposed by the Democrats get to the Senate floor, Brown said he would consider voting for any bill that he felt was good for Massachusetts, no matter who proposed it.
Brown emphasized his ability to work with Democrats, and he said he has worked with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., on many projects.
"Bottom line, there needs to be more communication between both parties," Brown said. "I have always crossed party lines to solve problems."
Brown also said that he would like to see Congress use a more open process for making decisions, and that he is concerned that the United States is living beyond its means.
But Brown said he believes the best way to create jobs and help the economy would be to create an across-the-board tax cut, such as a cut in payroll taxes.
"People are just fed up," Brown said. "They want some kind of relief."
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