It's time for voters to connect the dots

Mark Kirk is very smooth. But we, as his constituents, have an obligation not to accept his words but to look at his record.

Mr. Kirk shows a policy of anti-regulation and protection for corporate America while time and time again voting for stricter rules on individuals.

He voted against the Mortgage Reform and the Anti-Predatory Lending Act. Shouldn't he be protecting his constituents from fraud and misleading information?

He just voted against the Foreclosure Prevention Act. He has voted against extension of unemployment benefits for millions of out-of-work Americans.

Make no bones about it--this recession is a direct result of the policies of Mr. Kirk and the administration.

The lack of transparency in the mortgage market has resulted in millions losing their homes and jobs.

They can no longer "shop till they drop," and the family structure has been devastated by the anxieties such policies have caused.

The domino effect leaves us with increased crime and boarded up neighborhoods.

Mr. Kirk is also silent on the usury rates, once illegal and considered a sin, now compounding ever upward and leaving in its wake millions of Americans drowning in debt.

This same policy of deregulation and lack of transparency, along with his call to privatize and deregulate most everything, from Medicare and Social Security, to the war and its hired mercenaries, has also allowed the financial industry to repackage its sub-prime mortgages and sell them all over the world as AAA investments to unwary buyers including you and me.

As a result, we are now in a severe recession, and just as the Great Depression was caused by de-regulation and disdain by corporate America for the worker, this Republican administration and its lap dogs are putting us in the exact same position.

That's a failed policy. No great democracy has ever existed without a strong middle class, which Mr. Kirk, by his votes is helping to destroy.

We need change. We need balance. We need to be our own advocates and question our representatives again and again on the issues.

We need to tell Mr. Kirk that calling for fiscal responsibility is nonsense until we stop bleeding billions and billions for this war.

We need to plan for the future of our democracy with sacrifices by each and every one of us, no exceptions, if we are to rebuild this great nation.

Sharon Sanders

Northbrook