Brown Talks Healthcare at Steel Manufacturing Company

U.S. Senate candidate Scott Brown, R-NH, and his wife, former WCVB-TV broadcaster Gail Huff, toured Charles Leonard Steel Services, a small construction materials plant on Pembroke Road, and met with its owners and employees to check out the plant and discuss the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

The candidate met with Charles Fenderson and Leonard Severini, the co-owners of the plant, members of their families, and a number of welders and other employees that make steel products, brackets, railings, fencing, and materials for staircases.

Fenderson explained the process and some of the items constructed at the plant while Severini spoke about some of the markets they did business in.

After the tour, Brown spoke about the need to take action against the terrorists in Syria, and attacked both U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, and President Barack Obama, for failing to show leadership on the issue. He was asked about Shaheen’s New Hampshire Jobs First campaign tour – where she is visiting state businesses and attacking Brown for being a supporter of “Big Oil, Wall Street, companies that outsource.”

Brown stated that what businesses needed was not bailouts but for government to get out of the way so that they could create jobs. He also swiped back at Shaheen’s lack of support from small business organizations.

“It’s easy to talk about small business but look at her record,” he said, adding that she had received low ratings in the past from organizations like the National Federation of Independent Business and the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council.

On healthcare, Brown stated that the business mandate that would be implemented after the election would raise costs “dramatically” on those companies that already provided healthcare to their employees. He noted that Charles Leonard paid for 50 percent of the employee’s healthcare and their costs were expected to rise by another 20 percent next year.

“I was there when (Shaheen) voted against every single opportunity to vote for businesses like this to keep the great plans they offered their employees,” Brown said.

On top of the high corporate tax rate and regulations, the government was making business more difficult, he said.

Fenderson and Severini said they were supporting Brown because of his opposition to the Obamacare.

“We support Scott in his effort,” Severini said. “I think we really need an opportunity to take control of healthcare in this country and get the numbers affordable.”

Fenderson added that he thought Brown, along with U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, would make a great team in Washington, D.C.