Brown Comments On Ever-Rising Unemployment

Statement

Congressman Henry E. Brown, Jr. (R-SC) made the following statement today after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate rose to 9.8% and 263,000 more Americans lost their jobs in September:

"Almost eight months have passed since the signing of the so-called stimulus bill and my constituents in South Carolina continue to be laid off and families are struggling to make ends meet.

At the time of its passage, unemployment was rising and our economy was falling into recession. My republican colleagues and I were unable to support the stimulus plan as it was full of wasteful spending and contained only a small amount of the necessary infrastructure and job creation provisions to stimulate our failing economy and get hundreds of thousands of unemployed Americans back on their feet.

And we were right.

We were told by the Administration that unemployment would not rise above eight percent with the stimulus, but as we all know, national unemployment is now at 9.8 percent.

In my home state of South Carolina, a state where unemployment is nearing 12 percent, my constituents are crying out for a responsible and realistic economic recovery plan, not the deluge of spending and government takeovers that we have witnessed the past several months.

As we hear the news today that that 263,000 more Americans are out of work, we are reminded of the absence of strong fiscally responsible leadership. The type of leadership that is needed to give our economy the jump start it so desperately needs.

Republicans continue to propose better ways to rebound our economy in the forms fiscally responsible health care reform, energy policy and budget legislation and we vow to continue promoting this agenda in order to achieve our number one goal of getting Americans back to work."

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