Cox Slams Hoekstra on Spending

A press release from Mike Cox's campaign.

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Pete Hoekstra Should Stand By His Record of Out-of-Control Spending
Congressman Needs to Take Responsibility for Support of $850 Billion Wall Street Bailout; Raising the Debt Ceiling; and Supporting Earmarks

LIVONIA, MI— Mike Cox 2010 Campaign Manager Stu Sandler today called on Pete Hoekstra to take responsibility for increasing annual spending by $1 trillion, repeatedly voting to raise the national debt ceiling, voting for the $850 billion Wall Street bailout and voting for earmarks including grants to ACORN, the Bridge to Nowhere, museums and aquariums and hundreds of other pork barrel projects costing taxpayers billions during his 18 years in Congress.

“Michigan families are fed up with the outrageous spending, taxing and borrowing forced on them by Washington, D.C.,” said Sandler. “It is unbelievable that Pete Hoekstra refuses to admit his fault and continues to blame others. Michigan voters deserve to know the truth about Hoekstra’s record on spending and how he is responsible for increasing the national debt by trillions. His inability to commit to a no-tax pledge or release plans for specific spending cuts in state government further shows Pete is committed to bringing Washington’s out-of-control tax and spend practices to Lansing.

Last week, Cox lauded the earmark moratorium committed to by U.S. House Republicans but Cox lamented that the measure was long overdue.

After that moratorium, Hoekstra stated- “The American people are tired of out-of-control government spending, taxing and borrowing.” Hoekstra failed to mention that he supported 12 consecutive federal budgets that increased the budget by over $1 trillion, supported hundreds of earmarks or that he over the last 12 years he cast five votes to raise the debt ceiling, including a 2008 vote to raise the debt ceiling to over $11 trillion. Hoekstra also failed to mention the dozens of individual earmarks he has supported, including an $878,000 earmark in 2007 to support catfish genome research in Alabama, $1 million in 2006 for an aquarium in Connecticut, $200,000 in 2007 for the Lobster Institute in Maine and $250,000 in 2007 for a shellfish research institute in New Jersey.

“Pete Hoekstra is directly responsible for the out-of-control spending in Washington,” Sandler continued. “It is too late for Hoekstra to put the genie back in the bottle. Hoekstra is pretending to be the taxpayers’ best friend, but his rhetoric does not match his record as a trillion dollar spender.”

Mike Cox was the first gubernatorial candidate to take the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) no-tax pledge whereas Pete Hoekstra has refused to take the ATR pledge or commit to not raising taxes.

Cox is the only candidate for Governor to release a comprehensive 92 point plan to put Michigan back to work, including proposals to cut billions of dollars out of the state budget, cut taxes on job providers and families by $2 billion, reform education, make government more transparent and revitalize our cities. The plan is available at www.mikecox2010.com.