Linda McMahon Response To State Of The Union
"I Have Been A Business Person For A Long Time; I Know A Marketing Campaign When I See One, And Tonight’s Speech Was Little More Than A Public Relations Effort To Give An Out-Of-Control Washington An Image Makeover."
West Hartford, Conn. — Tonight, President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon issued the following statement in response:
"The American people tonight heard another rousing speech from the President focused in part on a ’spending freeze’ and job creation. While the speech received plenty of applause from Members of Congress, little in the speech gives me confidence that Washington understands how sustainable, private sector jobs are created or that it is ready to make the tough decisions needed to get our economy back on track and our fiscal house in order.
"Nearly a year ago, Congress passed a flawed $787 billion stimulus bill built on the faulty premise that growing government and feeding government bureaucracy would keep unemployment from reaching eight percent. Today, unemployment is 10% and the number of new private sector jobs created as a result of the stimulus is negligible. At the same time, the price tag of the so-called stimulus has ballooned by $75 billion to reach $862 billion.
Far from being fiscally responsible, the ’spending freeze’ proposed tonight reduces non-defense discretionary spending for Fiscal Years 2011-2013 by a smaller amount than what was proposed in the budget submitted by the President last year. It will reduce next year’s budget by $15 billion at most, which represents a 1 percent cut in spending; however, this ’spending freeze’ comes just 42 days after Washington rammed through a 12% increase in spending. And the proposed budget freeze will have no impact on $862 billion in stimulus spending, funding for a second $150 billion stimulus, and the nearly $900 billion health care bill that was resoundingly rejected last week by the voters in Massachusetts.
I have been a business person for a long time; I know a marketing campaign when I see one, and tonight’s speech was little more than a public relations effort to give an out-of-control Washington an image makeover. If Washington is serious about fiscal responsibility, it will put in place a real and immediate spending freeze on the remaining portion of the stimulus, table a second planned stimulus, use all of the paid back and unspent TARP funds to pay down the federal debt and put the brakes on its budget-busting health care reform initiative.
The American people are frustrated and angry about record unemployment and skyrocketing deficits, and instead of solving problems, Washington is just making things worse. According to the Congressional Budget Office, Washington is on pace to run an aggregate deficit of nearly $6 trillion in the coming decade. It is on track to double today’s $12.4 trillion federal debt in five years and triple it in 10 years. For the foreseeable future, our country will be borrowing inordinate amounts of money just to make the interest payments on borrowed money.
Families and small businesses understand what Washington still doesn’t get: we cannot continue to spend money we don’t have on things we can’t afford.
I’m running for Senate because Connecticut needs leadership in Washington who can put our country back on track by putting people back to work, end the Washington culture of endless spending and mounting debt, and keep our country safe and secure against a very real threat from terrorists.
Career politicians have failed us. It’s time for something different.
###
For more information, contact the Linda McMahon for Senate Press Office, 860-244-2010.