Brown to deliver GOP weekly response

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- US Senator Scott Brown will deliver the response to President Obama’s weekly address tomorrow, a further sign of his rapid rise within the Republican Party.

Both addresses are likely to focus on health care at a key time, when the issue appears to be heading down the final stretch on Capitol Hill and both parties are making some of their closing arguments.

Earlier this week, Brown railed against the Democrats’ health care plan, criticizing them for considering using a budgetary reconciliation process to approve the overhaul. That process would require a majority vote instead of the 60 needed to overcome the expected Republican filibusters.

“I was sent here in a message almost, to the administration and people up on Capitol Hill that the American people expect us to do better,” Brown told a conference of the National Association of Health Underwriters on Tuesday. “You’re going to basically ram through something that is really unpopular and is clearly not good for the people in my state.”

Obama delivers the weekly address each Saturday, and the Republican leadership chooses someone to provide the response. Brown has taken an usually public role for a newly-elected US Senator, already campaigning in Arizona for US Senator John McCain in the former 2008 presidential nominee’s bid for a fifth term.

Aides say Brown’s address will also include some of his legislative priorities, such as jobs and the economy.

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.