Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG have all been bailed out with taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars.  The Feds stepped into broker a deal for Merrill Lynch.  Lehman Brothers is being bought up by a British bank. Now we hear that Goldman Sachs may be on the brink of a similar collapse.  All this is happening as our economy struggles with declining real wages, higher unemployment, record deficits and more foreclosures.  For eight years under the Bush/Cheney Administration, economic policy favored financial giants and the nation’s wealthiest citizens while the prosperity gap has continued to widen.  Now, as these corporations struggle, we are all left to handle the fallout.

Economic policy under the watch of right wing ideologues like Peter Roskam has gutted oversight of our financial markets and has favored corporation special interest over the American people.  Unfortunately, our politicians have been forced to learn the hard way – and at our expense - that what is good for Wall Street is not always good for America.

It is my firm belief that we need leaders in Congress who will say no to corporate handouts and yes to oversight and accountability.  We should not allow our country’s well-being to be tied up in financial gambling by a few reckless CEOs.

As these once mighty institutions fall, Congress must make sure that the rest of us don’t go down with them. The collapse of so many financial institutions over the last year makes clear that Bush’s scheme to privatize Social Security, for example, would have been disastrous for our nation’s seniors.

Now is the time to reshape our economic priorities to reward the hard work and ingenuity of the millions of Americans who drive our economy.  We should be giving tax relief to the middle class and lessening the tax burden on small businesses rather than subsidizing the corporate special interests who have been so generous to Bush and my opponent, Peter Roskam.

My opponent has been the voice of big business in Congress for too long.  Peter Roskam has taken more than $180,000 from the securities and investment industry alone.  I believe politicians should answer to American citizens, not corporations.

To turn our economy around, we need to tell the Administration and their enablers in Congress that their policy of handouts without oversight just doesn’t cut it. On November 4th, Americans have the opportunity to cast their ballots and cast a vote for change. It is time to send a loud message to Washington that while the corporate special interests can give campaign contributions, they can’t vote.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 2:45 pm and is filed under Politics, Economy/Budget, Campaign .