TYRONE - The economy added 93,000 jobs last month, but what concerns Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tom Smith is that "four times that amount quit looking for work."
With the nation's unemployment rate at 8.1 percent and the number of new jobs at a minimum, Smith said, "We've got to get this economy moving. .... The American people deserve it. The American people need it."
Smith and his large blue campaign bus rolled Friday into the parking lot of Reclamere Inc., 905 Pennsylvania Ave., Tyrone.
Article Video
The company provides data security services and its founder, Joe Harford, along with company's 28 workers greeted Smith, himself a self-made businessman who spent his working life in coal, farming and trucking.
Smith, who is opposing Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Casey in the Nov. 6 election, focused on job growth and his efforts "to restore the American Dream."
For the last couple of days, the Smith campaign has been campaigning across the state emphasizing the need for a balanced budget, fewer government regulations that are oppressing business start-ups and growth and the need to develop our domestic energy sources from oil to coal to natural gas.
Smith proposes a simplified tax code, one to replace the present 700,000-page code, and a flat tax.
He also stressed the need to take steps to save Medicare and Social Security for future generations.
"It's time for America to live within its means. It is time to live within a balanced budget," Smith said.
Smith is recommending that government live within a budget that is no greater than 20 percent of Gross Domestic Product.
He was confident that Medicare and Social Security can be reformed, preserving those programs as they are for the older generation, but making sure they are protected for the future.
Smith lashed out at the 10,000 new regulations he said have come down from the government since President Barack Obama took office. He said it has costs business millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs.
He called for a renewed atmosphere in which free enterprise and competition will thrive.
Harford said he agrees with Smith's focus on jobs and supports the candidate.
Tom Brown of State College came to Tyrone to hear Smith.
"We need to have people who work for a living go into politics," he said as he discussed Smith's background as a worker and businessman.
Lois Kaneshiki, a Blair County Republican Party committeewoman and president of the Republican Women's organization, called Smith "an excellent candidate."
She supports his position that regulations proposed through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are discouraging business development and "killing our ability to get power to our citizens."
Mirror Staff Writer Phil Ray is at 946-7468.
