The following press release was received from 16th congressional Democratic Party challenger Robert Abboud. He aims it at Republican incumbent Donald Manzullo.

CRITICAL MASS – MANZULLO SILENT AS ECONOMY COLLAPSES
Abboud Proposes Oversight Reform Package to Prevent Future Abuse

ROCKFORD – Democratic Challenger, nuclear engineer and small business owner Bob Abboud, lambasted his opponent Wednesday for supporting the deregulation and economic policies that are the cause of America’s current economic crisis.

Simultaneously, Abboud released his own reforms designed to combat the abuses allowed by over zealous deregulation, and the systematic weakening of American manufacturing through current U.S. tax and trade policy. Abboud sniped at this opponent, 16 year incumbent Don Manzullo, saying it has been the policies he has helped create and support that have directly put the U.S. economy behind the eight-ball.

“16 years of supporting tax and trade policies that reward companies for moving jobs and capital overseas, and 16 years of supporting the systematic deregulation of our financial system by Don Manzullo have directly contributed to this current economic disaster,” Abboud said. “It’s not that I believe my opponent doesn’t care about the economy. It is that he doesn’t have the first clue about how the economy works or how to fix it. He does not understand that manufacturing and construction provides the foundational wealth in the US economy. His policies have destroyed these jobs – the essential wealth generation mechanism in our community.”

Abboud cited more than an 11 percent and rising unemployment in Rockford – a rate twice the national average, the climbing number of foreclosures, the national debt and America’s struggling manufacturing industries as evidence to his opponents failure to protect America’s economic security. Capital is hemorrhaging out of the country at an unprecedented rate, hampering the ability of business to create new jobs and opportunity. He also warned that the situation will get much worse without immediate change in direction and policy.

“We just experienced the largest bankruptcies in American history, $2 trillion in government bailouts, a 500 point drop in the stock market that continues to fall, and Don Manzullo has nothing to say” Abboud said. “In a year when Americans are faced with their greatest challenges, devastating blows to their pensions and savings, the families and individuals of our communities haven’t been offered a single solution to any problem by their current Congressman. He won’t even show up to debate on television, and explain to people how this could have happened while he sat on the very committees overseeing these institutions.”

Abboud said that he will work with the President and the new Congress, hopefully with a President Obama, to implement new regulatory standards to prevent the further practices of predatory mortgage lending, and other sub-standard financial practices that have helped lead to the largest bankruptcies, and most severe credit crisis, in American history. He will make returning manufacturing and construction jobs to the 16th district his top priority.

“For the first time in American political history voters have a preview of what will continue to happen if we send Don Manzullo and more of the same people to Washington. Imagine if we had privatized social security, where would our seniors be now.” Abboud said. “Our families and our futures can no longer afford this type of poor leadership and failed policies. We simply cannot afford more of the same shipping our job overseas while Manzullo and his fat cat cronies get fatter. It’s time we start putting America First… For a Change.”