Saturday, July 30, 2011

A politician who makes sense


Guess who said this on the floor of the United States House of Representatives last Thursday:

Here’s what we should do to avoid default.

Increase the debt ceiling with no strings attached.

Here’s how to get out of debt.

End the wars. Save a trillion in ten years.

Repeal tax cuts to the wealthy. Save another trillion.

Medicare for all. End the $400 billion in yearly subsidies for the health insurance industry.

Renegotiate trade agreements with workers’ rights, human rights and environmental quality principles.

Save millions of jobs and billions of dollars.

The Fed creates money out of nothing and gives it to banks.

Why should our country go into debt borrowing money from banks when we have the constitutional power to create money and invest in jobs?

We could have another New Deal, putting millions to work rebuilding America’s roads and transportation system.

We could have a “Works Green” administration where NASA’s the incubator of jobs designing and engineering wind and solar micro technologies for private sector manufacturing, distribution, installation and maintenance in millions of homes, saving money and energy and protecting the environment.

We are the United States of America, the greatest country on Earth.

We envision wealth. We don’t default.

We create wealth. We don’t default.

We build wealth. We don’t default.


Need some hints?

He was the 53rd mayor of Cleveland in the late 1970s.

He ran for president in 2004 and 2008.

He was the only Democratic presidential candidate in 2008 who voted against invading Iraq.

He’s pro-choice and anti-North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He opposes offshore drilling, privatizing social security and the death penalty and supports ending the War on Drugs.

He brought articles of impeachment against Dubya and Cheney.

The media poked fun at him for being a little guy (he’s 5’7”) and having a tall, hot, young wife and being a vegan and hanging out with Shirley MacLaine and admitting that he saw a flying object that he couldn’t identify one time.

Give up?

It’s Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH).

I don’t know why people don’t take him seriously. I’m not sure why he invites ridicule. Perhaps it’s because he’s threatening to those who like the status quo just the way it is. He speaks of real change, not Obama-change but true reform and realignment and improvement. The things he says appeal to me. He makes sense. I’m embarrassed that I, too, wrote the guy off and I’m saddened that voices like his are so easily marginalized in this flawed system we call American politics.

I hope his colleagues in the House were listening last Thursday.

1 comment:

  1. I admit to liking Kucinich. Heck, one of my best friends is 5' 2". And I agree with his voting record and his stands on issues. I also agree that the reason that he can't go anywhere is because he'll upset the apple cart.
    And I do wish that it was easier to post comments here.

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