Following is a statement from U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-9) regarding the president’s address to a Joint Session of Congress tonight:

“Our economic recovery is still stalled and unemployment has leveled off at an unacceptably high level. Spending even more of taxpayers’ dollars is not going to jumpstart this country’s sagging economy; taxing our way to prosperity won’t work, either.  Americans remember all too well the empty promises of lower unemployment and job creation made two years ago by this administration. Stimulus spending does not work and the government should be focused on things like cutting spending, reining in out-of-control regulations, developing American energy resources, opening new markets for American goods, and fixing our broken tax code.  In the last nine months, we have passed a litany of bills in the House, all of which the Senate refused to bring up, that would create jobs and restore confidence in our economy.  I will continue to encourage my Democratic colleagues in the Senate and the president to take action on job-creating measures already passed by the House so that we can get Americans working again.  

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