WASHINGTON (8 October) - U.S. Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-Fla.), representing Florida’s 9th Congressional District, today issued the following statement regarding the state of Florida’s economy. At 10.7 percent, the state's most recent jobless rate was up from 6.5 percent the same time last year and at a 34 year high. The Tampa Bay area has been particularly hard hit with the current unemployment rate now topping 11 percent:

"Simply put the Obama Administration's stimulus has failed to create the job growth which it promised. In February, the White House predicted that the stimulus would create over 200,000 jobs in our state through the end of 2010. In fact Florida is on the wrong track to meet that projection having shed roughly 150,000 jobs since February. Any economic stimulus bill must focus on creating jobs and providing tax relief, not runaway government spending.

“The best way to encourage economic growth is to allow taxpayers to keep more of their own money to spend. We should be enacting fast acting tax relief which would create jobs and lower the tax burden on working families and small businesses.”

NOTE: The White House's February 2009 projection of the number of jobs that would be created by the 2009 stimulus law (through the end of 2010) does not compare favorably with the actual change in state payroll employment through August 2009 (the latest state-by-state figures currently available).  Florida lost 150,000 jobs between February and August 2009.