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MEDIA — Pat Meehan, the Republican candidate for the 7th Congressional District, held a press conference Tuesday to mark Tax Freedom Day and pledged to cut government spending.

Sheltered under a small tent in the rain in the Plum Street Mall as fewer than a dozen people stood by — mostly aides and party faithful — he pointed out that Tuesday was the day on which the average Pennsylvanian begins earning money for themselves and families after working the first 103 days of the year to pay various taxes.

“For the first 103 days of this year, those same Pennsylvanians, average Pennsylvanians, have been working to pay the taxes to the federal, the state and the local governments,” he said.

Nationally, Tax Freedom Day was April 9 for a total effective tax rate of 26.9 percent of the nation’s income, “but here in Pennsylvania we actually have a higher burden,” Meehan said.

“The state has the 11th latest tax freedom day in the country,” said Meehan, a former Delaware County district attorney and U.S. Attorney in the Bush administration.

This means that the average American works an average of 32 days of the year just to pay individual income taxes, Meehan said.

“While the fact that the first 103 days of this year were spent paying the cost of taxes is certainly a very sobering statistic, the major concern that I have about this day in particular is it doesn’t take into account the remarkably growing deficit, a budget deficit and our national debt,” Meehan said.

Within 10 years, the interest payments alone on the U.S. national debt will exceed the federal government budget for all nonsecurity related domestic discretionary spending, he claimed.

He cited the need to return fiscal responsibility in Washington and stop neglecting the tough financial decisions. Meehan said he supports a balanced-budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution

“Now in order to prevent the huge tax increases in the future, we need to implement fiscal responsibility in Washington, D.C.,” he said.

Meehan accused his primary Democratic opponent, state Rep. Bryan Lentz, D-161, of Swarthmore, of being “unwilling to hold the line on spending during his tenure in the Pennsylvania Legislature.

“Most notably, Lentz’s vote for a state budget that would have increased state spending by $1 billion and raised taxes on Pennsylvania residents and businesses in already difficult economic times,” Meehan said.

Lentz gave the following rebuttal to Meehan’s remarks:

“Once again, Pat Meehan has his facts wrong. The budget we passed out of the House was a ‘no tax’ budget and every budget I have ever voted for as a legislator has been balanced.

“The budget that Meehan is complaining about did continue the state’s investment in education, which has helped school districts in Delaware County like the Upper Darby School District, which received millions of dollars in additional aid.”