Gerlach Blasts Liberal Attack Ad

Pennsylvania Congressman Jim Gerlach, a moderate Republican targeted by a far-left advocacy group for not supporting the Obama stimulus plan, fires back in this press release issued by his office today:

Despite President Obama's call for changing the tone in Washington, liberal interest groups have reverted to their old, partisan tactics in a radio advertising campaign targeting Congressman Jim Gerlach (PA-6th District) for standing with taxpayers and voting against the largest spending bill in U.S. history.

"President Obama stood on the steps of the Capitol on Jan 20 and pledged to usher in an era of unprecedented bipartisanship in which all ideas about turning around the economy and putting Americans back to work would be considered," Gerlach said. "It was hailed as a refreshing call to change politics-as-usual in Washington. However, as soon as I and other members took a stand and expressed serious philosophical differences with a bill crafted solely by House Democrat leadership, the Democrats unleashed their allies to pressure lawmakers by spending $200,000 on political ads running on radio stations in several congressional districts, including mine. That is not the politics of change; it’s more politics as usual. And at a time when we need to be working together to stem job losses and stabilize our financial system, it's inexcusable."

"While the details of the conference committee report cobbled together behind closed doors have not been released, I remain opposed to any bill with massive new spending on items that do nothing to immediately put people back to work and simply increase the size of government and continue piling up debt that our children and grandchildren will be forced to pay off."

My constituents understand that spending $2 billion for our national parks or $45 million for fish passage barriers and ATV trails are unlikely to make sure workers receive paychecks instead of pink slips, Gerlach said.

He added the same goes for spending $600 million for new cars for federal employees and $44 million for repairing the building housing the Agriculture Department.