Clinton says DFL candidate Clark has appeal for Republicans

Clinton, Clark
President Bill Clinton showed his support for Tarryl Clark, the DFL candidate for Congress in Minnesota's 6th District, at a rally in Blaine on October 24, 2010.
MPR Photo/Nikki Tundel

Former President Bill Clinton says the economic policies championed by GOP Congresswoman Michele Bachmann will not create new jobs or reduce the deficit.

Clinton made his remarks at a Union Hall in Blaine Sunday night, where he stumped for Democrat Tarryl Clark. She's running against Bachmann for the U.S. House seat in Minnesota's 6th District.

Clinton said Bachmann and other Republicans' push to make tax cuts permanent for the top 2 percent of earners does not make economic sense. He said it's inefficient to give people with a lot of disposable income more money because they won't spend it. He said Clark understands the necessary solution.

"It is far more efficient to give the money to small business, to green energy, to manufacturing, to young people to go to college, to workers to get trained for new jobs. That will grow the economy," Clinton said' "She is right, her opponent is wrong."

Clinton said Clark is a Democrat who could appeal to Republicans.

"I was just thinking that if we lived in normal times, but we could bring back all the great Republicans from the past, every Republican from Theodore Roosevelt to Dwight Eisenhower would be voting for her in Washington," he said.

More than 500 people waited about three hours to see Clinton, who was running late after several campaign appearances in Michigan.

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