Sen. Brown criticizes Obama’s handling of health-care issue

The senator also said the town-hall meetings have been unproductive.

YOUNGSTOWN — President Barack Obama “hasn’t spoken frequently enough and clearly enough” about health-care changes, said U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a fellow Democrat.

If Obama had spoken with more frequency a month ago about the overhaul to the health-care system, the amount of misinformation about the proposal would be less now, Brown told The Vindicator during a one-hour interview Friday.

A bill dealing with health-care changes needs to be approved this year, said Brown, a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

“We’re not winning the debate on health care,” he said. “We need to do a better job.”

Brown had hoped a bill would have been signed into law before Congress recessed earlier this month.

“We’ve been told not to rush, but we’ve been working on this for years, and this particular bill [we’ve worked] intensely for several months,” Brown said. “We need to do it now. The impact of health-care costs on businesses and the economy is worsening.”

He now expects the bill to be finalized by the end of the year.

“If we’d have had a bill we could all go out and explain and had the president’s support in July, this misinformation wouldn’t have caught on like it did,” Brown said in critical statements about the president.

When asked about controversy with some town-hall meetings conducted by members of Congress about health care, Brown said he’s found such settings to be unproductive.

Brown had what he said was originally a health-care roundtable Wednesday in Columbus that became a town-hall meeting because of the response from constituents to the issue.

Brown said he rarely has town-hall meetings because several “people walk away mad,” and the discussions don’t change the minds of participants.

Also Friday, Brown said he is changing his policy on the secrecy of federal judicial candidates because of what a columnist/reporter for The Vindicator wrote about the subject.

Those who sought the appointment of a federal judicial position in Youngstown were promised anonymity by Brown’s office. Brown appointed U.S. Magistrate Benita Pearson to the job last month.

“We’ll put on the application that your name will be public,” Brown said. “This was the first time we ever did this. I agree that we should make the names public” in the future.

Brown visited the Youngstown Business Incubator in the city’s downtown Friday to tout his proposal to increase federal funds for business incubators and expand the number of communities eligible to receive funds.

This legislation is about extending the success of the Youngstown Business Incubator to other parts of the state and the country, Brown said.

Brown’s Business Incubator Promotion Act would make more communities in Ohio eligible to receive funds that support business incubators through the federal Economic Development Administration.

This bill would encourage the formation of business incubators in distressed communities to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, helping regions to create high-skill, high-wage jobs.

It would give EDA authority to award grants for the construction of new or expansion of existing business incubators, he said.

skolnick@vindy.com