This morning, executives from Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs answered tough questions from Senators about conduct detailed in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s civil lawsuit. This comes on the heels of yesterday’s GOP obstruction in the Senate, where every single GOP Senator voted to block debate on much-needed Wall Street reform.

It’s not just Republican Senators who are afraid to have a discussion about Wall Street reform.

As many of you know, last week, Alexi's late father’s community bank, Broadway bank, was closed and sold to MB Financial.  While Alexi hasn’t worked there in nearly half a decade, seeing his father’s dream come to an end has made him want to work even harder to get to the U.S. Senate and fight for all of those affected by this recession.

Republican Congressman Mark Kirk, who's running for the Senate seat once held by President Obama, adds himself to the long line of Republicans who was against stimulus  -- before being for it.  Congressman Kirk's flip-flopping is no joke for Illinois families who have paid the price of typical Washington politics for far too long.

At a closed event in a federal courtroom today, Kirk called for $25 million in stimulus funds to increase corruption investigations.

Let’s, for a moment, remember where we all were ten years ago.   

In 2000, America was entering the 21st century with a potent sense of optimism.  The economy was thriving.  There were 20 million new jobs. The budget was in surplus.  There was broad prosperity at home and a fragile, but sustained peace abroad. 

I remember the excitement and energy there was on college campuses, in small businesses, and in our communities — how much hope there was for the future.  

It's no secret that corporate special interests have far too much control over our elections and our federal policy.

And we all know that we won't change Washington until we change the people we send there. In the race for the Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama, there's only one candidate who's backing up his promise of reform with action.

Unbelievable.

For 17 days now, Republican Congressman Mark Kirk has refused to talk about his promise to "lead the effort" to repeal the health care reform bill President Obama signed into law. It's been 17 days since he was caught at a closed-press GOP fundraiser calling President Obama a "one-termer" and vowing to repeal the bill (Listen to audio of Kirk's comments here).