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Dennis Kucinich: Why Is It We Have Finite Resources for Health Care but Unlimited Money for War?

 Why Is It We Have Finite Resources for Health Care But Unlimited Money for War?
Dennis Kucinich, OpEd News

Friday 06 November 2009

Washington - Following a statement on the Floor of the House of Representative, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today made the following statement:

“Why is it we have finite resources for health care but unlimited money for war?

“The inequities in our economy are piling up: trillions for war, trillions for Wall Street and tens of billions for the insurance companies. Banks and other corporations are sitting on piles of cash of taxpayer's money while firing workers, cutting pay and denying small businesses money to survive.

“People are losing their homes, their jobs, their health, their investments, their retirement security; yet there is unlimited money for war, Wall Street and insurance companies, but very little money for jobs on Main Street.

“Unlimited money to blow up things in Iraq and Afghanistan, and relatively little money to build things in the US.

“The Administration may soon bring to Congress a request for an additional $50 billion for war. I can tell you that a Democratic version of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is no more acceptable than a Republican version of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Trillions for war and Wall Street, billions for insurance companies... When we were promised change, we weren't thinking that we give a dollar and get back two cents.”

Dennis Kucinich is a congressman from Ohio and a 2008 presidential primary candidate. http://kucinich.us/

  

Comments

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Why is it that this man

 Sat, 11/07/2009 - 17:09 — mysterioso (not verified)
Why is it that this man doesn't get more attention? He seems to be out in front on so many issues and the press ignores him. Obama made such huge mistakes in choosing his "aids" in the white house. Kucinich would have been perfect as his chief of staff. Giethner and the rest of those banking bums should go and Obama should bring in Kucinich, Weiner and more who really fight for the citizens and not the banks and insurance companies.

Kucinich is one of the few

 Sat, 11/07/2009 - 17:55 — sharonsj (not verified)
Kucinich is one of the few people in Congress to tell the truth so of course the mainstream media makes fun of him. I despise the Repubs and now I've learned to hate most Democrats. Where have they been for decades while people were dying without health care? And why are they suddenly concerned now? I have a feeling that this current bill is for the benefit of the insurance companies instead of being real reform.

from a marketing perspective

 Sat, 11/07/2009 - 18:11 — Anonymous (not verified)
from a marketing perspective his last name is hard to say if he changed it to casey he would get more free pr

it would be really great to

 Sat, 11/07/2009 - 18:18 — Anonymous (not verified)
it would be really great to know from behind the veil of ignorance exactly why someone thinks all that money needs to go to protect us from faceless villans by keeping us in involved with endless wars HASN'T ANYONE READ ORWELL LATELY? Oceana is the place of the endless war, constantly requested billions for, so the government keeps pepole in=tow Obama must have somehow learned of whatever this dense entity is beneath the mask of oz and perhaps it scared him too not the endless war against the faceless enemy but the negative, hateful, threatening mechanism that controls such chimera he must have seen it --- I remember thinking at one point he feared for his life, suddenly, the poor man he's love, pure love, but I think he wasn't prepared for certain risks associated with bucking that system a certain risk an unnamable risk it will not take an obama America unwilling to fight its own wars internally will have to allow itself to collapse like a circus tent bled to death the way repubees would like it and the republicans will find one god to give their money to, the bankest of the banks and then they will eat each other's children and we will feed them to ours

The major corporate

 Sat, 11/07/2009 - 19:07 — Bubba (not verified)
The major corporate interests and the military-industrial complex seem firmly in control as elections come and elections go. The mass of us are left to argue and distract ourselves over abortion, gun control, climate change, etc, while the big boys just do their thing. I just wish I were a long-live alien sociologist studying Earth so I could see how this eventually plays out.

It's very painful to

 Sat, 11/07/2009 - 19:52 — Anonymous (not verified)
It's very painful to consider why Kucinich doesn't get more attention. I personally think it would take a massive spiritual revolution.

Thank you Dennis. I ask that

 Sat, 11/07/2009 - 20:26 — radline9 (not verified)
Thank you Dennis. I ask that question everyday. The out of control spending by the Pentagon is making us into a third rate nation.

Simple! There's more money

 Sat, 11/07/2009 - 20:38 — trisha (not verified)
Simple! There's more money to be made from killing foreigners so Corporate America can profit from access to their resources and markets than there is in saving American lives.

Several have asked why

 Sat, 11/07/2009 - 23:09 — Anonymous (not verified)
Several have asked why Kucinich does not get more attention. Simple, our corporate controlled media and congress are not about to let that happen. The economy has three main sectors: military-industrial complex, prison-industrial complex, and financial fraud. To attack the first is to be unpatriotic and not "supporting the troops". To attack the second is to not support "law & order' and "public safety". To attack the third may get one called a "marxist", "socialist". Meanwhile the Wall St. "welfare queens" are laughing all the way to the bank, with our money. Also laughing are insurance, big pharma, corporate agriculture and big oil.

Honestly, the most

 Sat, 11/07/2009 - 23:09 — Anonymous (not verified)
Honestly, the most ridiculous question in recent memory. I want Kucinich to threaten Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, threaten the Pentagon, threaten the status quo. There's an appropriate street term for this wimp/congress enabler. ( You know which one I'm referring to. )

More than anyone Dennis

 Sun, 11/08/2009 - 00:43 — Rex Ozone (not verified)
More than anyone Dennis speaks for us, all of us. His clarity has been a model for Grayson and deserves the greatest of respect by any American concerned with constitutional and democratic values. The military industrial/corporate complex rules, however and the latest incursion into an unnecessary theatre is in Columbia where the pentagon report details the need to address "anti-American" governments in the region. Any who offer their citizens healthcare may qualify, I guess, but particularly Venezuela and Bolivia who have delivered the democratic practice better than we have in the past decade. I saddens me that our people are no more than the third world chattel in the eyes of the government more concerned with the health-care of insurance companies and wall street than they are about their citizens...and even their soldiers, pawns of this mad game of domination in a world soon to be overwhelmed by climate disaster and subsequent health crises.

I've posted the link to this

 Sun, 11/08/2009 - 02:14 — Friend in Miami (not verified)
I've posted the link to this on my Wall in Facebook, and now will urge others to take similar steps to share this more widely, to the benefit of the reading, thinking public.

To 17:09 — mysterioso. In

 Sun, 11/08/2009 - 15:41 — Zbigniew Zancriewicz (not verified)
To 17:09 — mysterioso. In a sense, if you go back and re-read your own post and ponder it, you have answered your own question. I realize that you were being rhetorical with your "Why...". When the people in this country finally wrap their minds around the fact that NONE of this is about 'Weeda Peeple', but rather about career politicians and all of the people (other than us) that are getting rich from politics, government and war, then there may be something that we can do about it all. If we WILL do something is another story! We sheeple are fat, stupid, and ready for a shearing and the fire - pass the mint jelly please!

To 02:14 — Friend in

 Sun, 11/08/2009 - 15:46 — Zbigniew Zancriewicz (not verified)
To 02:14 — Friend in Miami. Are you assuming that all of the 72 thinking people in the U.S. public will view your Facebook entry? The sheeple barely know how to spell let alone think. Recently, there was an open call for people to appear on the Jaywalking segment on the Jay Leno Show. They were overwhelmed by the greater than 100 million responses in the U.S. If you have EVER seen that show's segment, you will understand my reference.

next theater of war for USA

 Sun, 11/08/2009 - 19:53 — Anonymous (not verified)
next theater of war for USA Armed Forces is Southamerica,Congress has just approved tens of millions of $ to upgrade Palanquero Air base in central Colombia,more coffins are waiting its tragic cargo, the Air Force plans long range air missions to fight "antiUSA governments in the region. For all purposes Colombia is now, an invaded country,ruled by the Pentagon.

This is the first time I

 Sun, 11/08/2009 - 21:26 — Archer (not verified)
This is the first time I have posted anything on any site on the internet. I wonder how much more of this crap the American people will put up with before we get past the complaining part and finally decide it's way past time for some action. My father used to say, "if you keep rattling the chain of that six hundred pound gorilla, he's going to reach out and grab you". Dare I hope that people will finally get fed up and do something?

Change we can believe in has

 Sun, 11/08/2009 - 22:51 — Rabbit (not verified)
Change we can believe in has become: Brother can you spare a dime?

Great article. Although why

 Sun, 11/08/2009 - 23:12 — noone (not verified)
Great article. Although why is every one still calling this a war? Everyone knows that the KILLINGS are all about oil, from the beginning. Dennis is the real change we needed elected. But do you recall the time when he was ousted of a presidential debate on tv. Wonder why!

Finally someone in Congress

 Mon, 11/09/2009 - 00:04 — ZeeBruce (not verified)
Finally someone in Congress with the balls to state the obvious. We can "afford" $3 trillion for the continued occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq but we cannot "afford" 1/3 that amount for the American worker. We can afford $4 trillion for the bailout of the banks, insurance companies, and hedge funds so that the wealthy elite can still afford their home in the Hamptons but we cannot "afford" 1/4 of that amount for the health care of the American worker and his family. The $1 trillion also assumes the continuation of the present laissez faire system of health care that makes it twice as expensive to get medical treatment in the USA as in any other industrialized country. Instead of outsourcing manufacturing jobs to China and Malayia maybe it is time to start outsourcing medical care to India, and Mexico, Thailand, and Argentina, where the majority of Americans are already traveling for elective surgery to both save money and get a higher quality of care.

What is remarkable is that

 Mon, 11/09/2009 - 02:28 — John L.Opperman (not verified)
What is remarkable is that among all of congress and this (as well as ALL previous) administrations, Kucinich is the ONLY one that consistently speaks plain ordinary common sense. Otherwise it would seem quite commonplace to oppose the wholesale thievery, destruction, and murder our corporate government inflicts on the world, our earth, and speak for peace, justice, and equality for all. But among the weak and greedy, a common man stands tall. ~John L.

Instead of being "of, by and

 Mon, 11/09/2009 - 02:30 — Anonymous (not verified)
Instead of being "of, by and FOR the people" and giving us the promised "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," we have a federal government (plus too many states) that is giving us constituents death, surveillance and the futile pursuit of adequate paying jobs. As Michael Moore shows, capitalism is based on greed and exploitation so, as previously stated, big bucks can be accrued from aiding the war industry even if some of the profits must pay off Congress to keep the no-bid and cost overruns making those obscene profits. Would that we had a whole legislative body with Dennis Kucinich's ideals! I was one of the handful who voted for him in the primary--he has been consistently correct, not just a good talker like the winner.

Have you recently read the

 Mon, 11/09/2009 - 16:25 — Anonymous (not verified)
Have you recently read the Declaration of Independence? It so elegantly states what needs to be done . . . again.

Dennis Kucinich is a true

 Mon, 11/09/2009 - 17:00 — Pat M (not verified)
Dennis Kucinich is a true American hero. He speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves and stands up for what is right whether it is popular or not. Health Care reform without a single payer option isnt worth the paper it is printed on and will just line the pockets of the same crooks and thieves that this bill is supposed to reform. It is too big of a political price to pay for the Democrats, for too small a pay off. They should have grown some balls and done it right the first time.

Honestly, Anon. on 11/7 at

 Mon, 11/09/2009 - 20:56 — Frances in California (not verified)
Honestly, Anon. on 11/7 at 18:11! "From a Marketing perspective"?!!! Are you the last to realize that "Marketing Perspectives" are why America is in such a mess? Marketing perspectives are all about dumbing down so that a name like Kucinich; 3 syllables . . . I don't know, maybe that's two too many for some. Also, he doesn't need "PR"; he needs media coverage. Everyone who is sick of the lies - and that includes a great deal of "marketing" - knows who Kucinich is.

Dennis Kucinich is truly

 Thu, 11/12/2009 - 07:25 — Anonymous (not verified)
Dennis Kucinich is truly great! We can't say enough good things about him. I just hope he knows that he is highly respected. One payer health care should have been a given and I wonder if we didn't get it because we don't have good news reporting. We need independent, in-depth, investigative reporting. The people need to hear and see the plight of people losing their homes, their jobs, living on the streets, going hungry, filing for bankruptcy and dying due to lack of healthcare. People need to see the destruction of families and homes and hardships that we have caused in these wars. Maybe then one could truly make informed decisions in determining policies.