Kirk working for corporate America

It's really not surprising that Congressman Mark Kirk voted to block a critical extension of unemployment benefits for millions of out-of-work Americans that would give them an average of $300 a week for 13 weeks after exhausting their regular 26 weeks of benefits.

After all, even if his words don't tell the whole story, his votes do. In an economic recession caused by his administration's distaste for regulation and transparency, millions of Americans have lost their homes and/or jobs. While seeing no problem with the Bush administration's desire to have us shop 'til we drop or encouraging people to take out deceptive mortgages they can't afford, Mr. Kirk is silent or votes "nay" on rules restricting these abusive policies by the credit card and mortgage industries. He has voted time and time again to ease the tax burden on corporate America and the wealthy while voting to make life more restrictive and painful for the individual.

The U.S. jobless rate has now jumped to 5.5 percent in May from 5 percent in April, the largest monthly increase since 1986. In May, an additional 49,000 Americans became unemployed, totaling 325,000 from the beginning of the year. Untold thousands have lost their jobs through attrition while the CEOs walk away with hundreds of millions in salaries and undeserved benefits, yet Mr. Kirk begrudges the unemployed worker a reasonable extension of benefits. His argument has and will continue to be that we must be fiscally conservative. When asked to explain this discrepancy in view of the black hole expenditures for the Iraq "war" and the complete lack of accountability of its funding, he sort of sidesteps the issue with some glib response.

And if anyone has any doubts about Mr. Kirk's real stance on these issues, one has only to look at his voting record since 2001.

Richard Harris

Riverwoods