Brown, Warren Spar Over Taxes, Women's Rights in 3rd Debate

Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts went after Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren on taxes in a debate on Wednesday night as Warren tried to tie Brown to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, the Boston Globe reported.

During their clash in Springfield, in the oft-ignored western part of the state, Brown criticized Warren, a Harvard Law School professor, on her tax policy.

“The one thing we can’t be doing right now, in the middle of this 3 1/2-year recession, is by taking more money out of people’s hard-working pocketbooks and wallets and giving it to the federal government,” Brown said, according to the Globe. “They’re like pigs in a trough up there. They just take and take and take and take.”

Warren opened by trying to cast Brown as hostile to women.

“He has gone to Washington and he has had some good votes,” she said, “but he has had exactly one chance to vote for equal pay for equal work. And he voted no. He had exactly one chance to vote for insurance coverage for birth control and other preventive services for women. He voted no. And he had exactly one chance to vote for a pro-choice woman, from Massachusetts, to the United States Supreme Court. And he voted no. Those are bad votes for women. The women of Massachusetts need a senator they can count on, not some of the time, but all of the time.”

It was the third of four debates between the candidates in a tight race for Brown’s seat, which previously was occupied by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy.

One recent poll had Brown with a 4-point edge over Warren, with a 4.4 margin of error. Another poll had Warren ahead by five.

Warren repeatedly tried to link Brown with Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, according to the Globe.

“You know, he [Brown] raises the same old argument that there will be more than $700 billion taken out of Medicare. That’s the same playbook that Mitt Romney used a week ago tonight,” Warren said. “It was wrong then, it’s wrong tonight.”

She also said: “I just want to say, I’m really glad to support President Obama as commander in chief and I don’t want to see Mitt Romney in that job.”