Democracy Now interview with retiring Rep. Dennis Kucinich (2 videos)

[alp227]

PART ONE (transcript): As President Obama meets with congressional leaders at the White House in a last-ditch effort to reach a budget deal, we speak to outgoing Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich about the so-called fiscal cliff. If an agreement is not reached in time, $600 billion in automatic spending cuts and tax increases will go into effect on January 1. But the tax increases would not necessarily be permanent -- the new Congress could pass legislation to cancel them retroactively after it begins its work next year. "We've been going in the wrong direction," Kucinich says. "Why haven't we been talking about stimulating the economy through the creation of jobs? We seem to accept a certain amount of unemployment as being necessary for the proper functioning of the economy, so that for corporations it will keep wages low. That is baloney. We are creating our own economic vice here that is entrapping tens of millions of Americans."

PART TWO (transcript): DemocracyNow.org - Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio is serving his last week in Congress after eight terms in office. Since 1997, Kucinich has been a leading progressive voice on Capitol Hill, known for actions including the bringing of articles of impeachment against George W. Bush for the invasion and occupation of Iraq, voting against the USA PATRIOT Act, advocating for ending the war on drugs, challenging U.S. warfare from Afghanistan to Libya, and pushing for single-payer healthcare to replace the patchwork, privatized U.S. system. Kucinich ran for president in 2004 and 2008 with a vow to create a Department of Peace. "The two-party system is failing the American people," Kucinich says. "We have to look at the culture of violence that we have in America ... and build a culture of peace."

[red dog 1]

1. Kucinich For President in 2016.

[MrMickeysMom]

2. How interesting that you posted this hours and hours earlier only to get a few responses...

What Dennis Kucinich has been saying all these years, especially leading up to the off-budget war of aggression in Iraq, based on PNAC's plan and Bush administration's lies becomes more evident each passing day.

Whatever he does, I hope that much of DU has an understanding of what is going on. It would be nice if it were a struggle between both parties, but it clearly ISN'T.

We have to be the America we are supposed to be and CHANGE THE DIALOGUE. Look at what has become the controlled message today.

Does anyone actually BELIEVE we should be bickering of the fiscal cliff when they've COMPLETELY gotten off goal for the United States?

Who the FUCK is running this country and what the conversation should be about is the only message we should be sending Washington. I'm getting tired of doing the same dance over and over, and CAN YOU IMAGINE after all the years of work Kucinich has done, what he's STILL trying to impart in the last DAY of his term?

TIME TO WAKE UP!

[xtraxritical]

3. Vote a straight Democratic ballot and save the USA.

[sabrina 1]

4. No democrat would ever vote to cut SS benefits. So we will know who is

a Democrat, like Kucinich about whom there is no doubt, and who is posing as a Democrat should this deal go through. This will definitely expose the pretenders and they have been warned that the people will no longer support pretend Dems. No more donating time and money to Wall St lobbyists pretending to be Representatives.

[limpyhobbler]

5. kick/rec