COLLINSVILLE - Standing with working men and women from Southwest Illinois, U.S. Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias highlighted his job creation program while criticizing his opponent for supporting the failed economic policies that contributed to the region's high unemployment rate and rewarded companies that shipped jobs overseas.

"Nothing is more important right now than creating the next generation of good-paying American jobs, especially here in Metro East," Giannoulias said. "Unlike my opponent Congressman Mark Kirk, I have stood up to corporate special interests and Wall Street banks and helped save and create hundreds of Illinois jobs."

Giannoulias' comprehensive economic plan calls for tax breaks for small businesses that add jobs, a payroll tax holiday for workers making up to $75,000, and the closing of tax loopholes that reward companies that send jobs abroad to countries such as China and India. It also would extend the first-time homebuyer credit to make purchasing a home more affordable.

Giannoulias would offset the costs of these job-creating tax incentives by eliminating nearly $200 billion in tax loopholes used by corporations that ship American jobs overseas. Giannoulias noted that his Republican opponent, Congressman Mark Kirk, has voted to extend tax breaks for those very corporations and voted against the first-time homeowner tax credit.

"Mark Kirk and I have very different views on the economy," Giannoulias said. "He supports the failed Bush economic policies and budgets of the past, including tax breaks for those who ship American jobs overseas. "Mark Kirk and the failed politics of the past got us into this economic mess. I have a plan to lead us to a more promising future."

Along with supporting George Bush's failed economic policies and budgets that drove our economy to the brink of collapse, Kirk opposed Wall Street reform after taking millions from special interests representing the banking and financial industry. In contrast to Kirk, Giannoulias is the first U.S. Senate candidate from Illinois to refuse corporate PAC and federal lobbyist money and supported reining in Wall Street's abuse. 

Giannoulias' record of standing up for Illinois workers speaks for itself. He helped saved 600 jobs at the Hartmarx factory in Des Plaines by threatening to pull the state's $8 billion investment portfolio from the company's main creditor, Wells Fargo, after the Wall Street bank threatened to close the plant and liquidate the jobs.

As State Treasurer, his Employment Illinois program helped create hundreds of jobs across that state by depositing money into banks that agreed to loan to small businesses at reduced rates.  

Meanwhile, Kirk has voted repeatedly against extending unemployment benefits for unemployed workers. He also opposed raising the minimum wage while voting six times to raise his own pay as a congressman. 

"Illinois families can trust that I will fight every day to keep their jobs here in Illinois while Congressman Kirk will only continue to support the failed Bush policies that have led to jobs bleeding out of the United States to countries like China," Giannoulias said. "Illinoisans now more than ever need leadership they can trust, not more of the same typical politicians like Congressman Kirk, who take corporate special interest money hand over fist and then vote their way every single time."