CHICAGO – With 31 days until the presidential election, Rainbow PUSH Coalition has increased its efforts to register voters. During the past week, they registered 2090 people in the Chicago area.

Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., founder and president of Rainbow PUSH Coalition, opened the international broadcast of Saturday Morning Forum with a call and response chant, “Say: ‘I must register and vote’, ‘register and vote’.”

Rev. Jackson said the next president must correct the financial crisis on “your street and Wall Street.” This week the $700 billion bailout plan was passed by Congress in an attempt to get banks to start lending to each other again.

“This bailout doesn’t include a plan for the 6 million homeowners in foreclosure,” Rev. Jackson said. “When you lose your home, your neighbor’s home loses value, so really, at least 42 million homeowners are suffering. It is time to look at what happens and where we go from here. Where is the hope for the people who lose their homes?”

In his sermon, Rev. Jackson preached about the “middle class” and “working class”, referring to the terms as “buzz words.”

“Jesus said, ‘I preach the Gospel to the poor and to heal the brokenhearted.’ The working class is the working poor who don’t have health care; the unemployed poor who are looking for jobs that are no longer there; the fixed-income poor who have some money but --with $4 a gallon gas, and $4 a gallon milk-- they struggle to make it through the week.”

In this election year, Rev. Jackson encourages all eligible Americans to vote and vote early as a response to our economic downturn.

“In America, we believe a business owner has the right to be ambitious,” he said, “but what happens when you run into greed? There should have been congressional oversight to protect the public from individual and corporate greed.”

Before the broadcast, Rev. Jackson appeared on FOX News with Neil Cavuto live from Rainbow PUSH Coalition national headquarters, saying there is a need to restructure loans not repossess homes.

“Approaching your lender and trying to restructure your loan simply is not enough,” he told the reporter. “Homeowners are not asking for a bailout; they just want loans they can afford. We are experiencing individual greed without checks and balances and the enforcement of fair lending laws.

Saturday Morning Forum airs live on the WORD Network Saturdays at 10 a.m. CST.

The Rainbow PUSH Coalition is a progressive organization devoted to protecting, defending and expanding civil rights to improve economic and educational opportunity. The organization is headquartered at 930 E. 50th St. in Chicago. To learn more, please visit www.rainbowpush.org or call (773) 373-3366. To arrange an interview with Rev. Jackson, please call the numbers listed above.