Hartzler offers thoughts on stimulus anniversary

Former Rep. Vicky Hartzler, a Republican candidate for the Fourth District Congressional seat currently held by Democrat Ike Skelton, issued the following statement on the anniversary of the first stimulus package:

"When Ike Skelton voted to borrow and waste almost $800 billion, our liberal congressman joined with President Obama and Speaker Pelosi in making a promise to America. Here was their promise for their reckless and destructive plan -- that unemployment would peak no higher than 8 percent, and then decline briskly. Most people in the Fourth District were skeptical of this ultra-liberal scheme, and with our unemployment rate almost 2 points higher, their fears were realized. It has failed. We know something the congressman never knew, or forgot at some point in his 34-year career in Congress: We can't spend ourselves rich. Missouri families can't do it. Nobody can do it. How could Nancy Pelosi, Ike Skelton and President Obama not know that?

"First, Congressman Skelton needs to admit to suffering families and the deeply worried businesses on every Main Street in this district that he was wrong about the stimulus deficit spending. Missourians know that history proves that government does not create jobs, small businesses do.

"Second, we must change course. We must do this immediately. We must lower taxes on job creators, put the brakes on Skelton's reckless spending spree, draw the line against any more job-killing taxes, and start providing what Americans expect, which is a government with common sense that we can afford."