Warren, Brown spar on spending, contraception

Republican Sen. Scott Brown (Mass.) and Democrat Elizabeth Warren traded barbs on two policy issues consuming Capitol Hill on Tuesday, just as a new poll showed the two in a dead heat in their Senate race.

Brown released a new radio ad touting his support for a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution and decrying the nation's $15 trillion deficit.

"If you bundled and stacked the debt into $1 bills, you could easily go to the moon and back — twice. Yet, there are still those who argue for more government spending paid for by higher taxes and borrowing," Brown says in the ad, part of a series of "radio reports" Brown is producing for his reelection campaign.

Just in case the nuance was lost, a Brown aide emailed to point out that the comment was aimed squarely at Warren.

"Budgets reflect our values as a country," Warren told The Hill in a statement. "The President put forward a balanced approach that gets serious about spending cuts, but that also invests in our future and makes sure that millionaires and billionaires don’t get an unfair advantage."

But Warren also launched an offensive of her own, telling the Washington Post she was shocked that Brown was supporting an attempt by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to allow employers to opt out of providing their employees with services they find morally or religiously objectionable.

The move is an attempt to override President Obama, who has offered a compromise that would shift the cost of covering contraception from religious organizations (such as universities and hospitals) to insurance companies. Republicans have rejected that compromise as insufficient.

“This is an extreme attack on every one of us,” Warren told the newspaper. “It opens the door to outright discrimination. It would let insurance companies and corporations cut off pregnant women, overweight guys, older Americans, or anyone, because some executive claims it’s part of his moral code."

Brown's campaign reacted by calling it elitist to dictate how religious people should act or behave, and said that by supporting a religious conscience exemption, Brown was following in the footsteps of former Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).

"She wants to use the power of government to force Catholics to violate the teachings of their faith. That is wrong," Brown said in a statement.

Warren and Brown are fighting for the seat Brown won in a 2010 special election to replace Kennedy, who held the seat for more than four decades until he died while in office.

Earlier Tuesday, a WBUR poll showed Warren with 46 percent compared to Brown's 43 percent — within the margin of error.

This post was updated at 7:39 p.m.

Listen to Brown's ad:

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