Akin charge: McCaskill received $60 million in stimulus money

(From the Todd Akin campaign)

Today there are new revelations of an additional $20 million in taxpayer money going to Claire McCaskill's businesses. This brings the total in taxpayer money that has gone to McCaskill's businesses to roughly $60 million in the six years she has been a Senator. The previous $40 million was reported by the Associated Press. Thenew $20 million was identified by the National Legal and Policy Center, a non-partisan, non-profit ethics watchdog group.

The $20 million identified today is from two programs that were created by the stimulus bill, a bill that Claire McCaskill was intimately involved in creating. These two new programs resulted in $20 million going to the Missouri Tax Credit Fund, L.P., a business reported on Claire McCaskill's financial disclosure statements and one which her husband, Joseph Shepard, is deeply involved in. McCaskill claimed in 2009 that she went through the stimulus "line by line" cutting funding from the bill, but she left these two new programs in the bill which resulted in $20 million going to her businesses. McCaskill issued a press statement in 2009 saying that the stimulus would put "a little extra cash" in the pockets of Missouri families. We now know that it did put at least a little extra cash in the pockets of Claire McCaskill.

"This is yet another revelation that Claire McCaskill is getting rich off of taxpayers," said Todd Akin. "One in six Missourians is living below the poverty line, and 23 million Americans are looking for work, but Claire McCaskill is getting rich off of taxpayers. McCaskill's businesses have received roughly $60 million in taxpayer money in six years. That's $10 million for every year that McCaskill has been a Senator. Now we know how McCaskill can afford a private airplane and a million-dollar home. She is profiting off of big government, so it makes sense that she would vote for the stimulus bill, Obamacare and $6.9 trillion in new debt. McCaskill has voted 50 times to raise taxes and supports President Obama's tax increases that will go into effect in January 2013."

Full report from the National Legal & Policy Center.