Allentown – As U.S. Senate candidate and former small business owner Pat Toomey kicks off the third day of his four-day long bus tour across Pennsylvania, he will share his vision for creating jobs through ending the bailouts and runaway Washington spending, reducing taxes for workers and job creating businesses, and lowering health care costs by making insurance companies compete with each other to the people of Armstrong, Butler, Allegheny, and Washington Counties.

In contrast, Congressman Sestak promised that his $787 billion stimulus bill would keep the national unemployment rate at 9% (Sestak press release, 02/14/09).  Instead, the nation’s unemployment rate soared far past 9%, while Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate climbed from 8% to 9.3% as of last month.  Meanwhile, Pennsylvania taxpayers will be forced to foot the bill for Sestak’s spending spree with higher taxes.

Armstrong County:

Cost of the stimulus for residents of Armstrong County: $177,995,563

Current unemployment: 9.7% – only .3 percentage points lower since Sestak voted for the stimulus and still above the national average.

Butler County:

Cost of the stimulus for residents of Butler County: $484,513,311

Current unemployment: 7.8% – an 8.3% increase since Sestak voted for the stimulus.

Allegheny County:

Cost of the stimulus for residents of Allegheny County: $3,196,511,865

Current unemployment: 8.3% – a 23.8% increase since Sestak voted for the stimulus

Washington County:

Cost of the stimulus for residents of Washington County: $544,049,785

Current unemployment: 8.5% – a 7.5% increase since Sestak voted for the stimulus

“As I travel across Pennsylvania, I will share my plan for creating jobs through reducing the deficit, implementing job-creating tax cuts, and eliminating big-government obstacles to small business growth,” Pat Toomey said.  “I believe we can achieve a booming recovering if we institute the right kind of policies and stop the fiscally irresponsible path Washington is taking our country down right now.”