WASHINGTON – Congressman Connie Mack (FL-14) issued the following statement today after the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the nation’s unemployment rate reached 10.2 percent in the month of October, an increase over September’s rate of 9.8 percent. Approximately 190,000 jobs were lost in October.

Mack said:

“For months, we’ve seen the unemployment numbers steadily rise, despite the Obama Administration’s attempts to “stimulate” the economy with more spending and more regulation. In fact, ever since the so-called “stimulus” plan was enacted in February, nearly three million private sector jobs have been lost.

“The people of Southwest Florida are hurting, and the Obama Administration’s economic policies have failed the American people. We know that the failed policies of the 1970s – with record debts and stagflation – are not going to solve our economic problems. We can’t spend our way to prosperity, and we can’t keep printing money to get back to prosperity, either.

“Instead of trying to ram through a massive government takeover of our health care system, the Obama Administration should instead focus its energies on implementing free-market solutions that will revitalize our economy and allow the private sector to create jobs. Less taxing, less spending, less government and more freedom are the true path to prosperity and security.”

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