Kucinich will fix our priorities

[dweller]

By Ben Cohen, 1/19/2004

MOST WOULD agree with this modest request of the next president of the United States: Please
waste fewer of our tax dollars on special interests and instead spend more on our schools, health
care, the environment, the poor, and the hungry at home and abroad.

There's only one candidate running for president who has a practical
plan to do this. That candidate is congressman Dennis Kucinich.

While all the Democratic candidates are infinitely better than
President Bush -- only Kucinich advocates changing the way our
government spends our tax dollars in order to reflect the values of
America's people. How we spend our money as a nation reflects our
values and beliefs.

Our nation's checkbook tells us that America's priorities are really
wrong -- and Kucinich is the one candidate bold enough to say so.

more

peace,
dp

[reprehensor]

1. I like him.

I don't think he got a fair shake, I don't think he will. I think that he is doomed because he is right.

As the Pentagon sucks the lifeblood our of the American body politic, Kucinich wants to stem the flow and make this a better country.

Pummeled endlessly by the media, the corporate drones believe that they must have a massive military to fight wars from previous decades, meanwhile, determined men with boxcutters make a mockery out of the world's most powerful Intel services.

Something is clearly wrong.

The powers that be definitely DON'T want Dennis in office. When Dean spoke out directly against media conglomerates, his fate was sealed. They jumped on him like a duck on a june-bug. He should have saved that viewpoint for later.

Dennis is outspoken, correct, and doomed.

It will take much education before America realizes that Imperialism is wrong.

[Newkleer]

2. Worst logic ever.

I'm sorry, I'm no economist, but this constitutes the worst logic ever. You're saying that total payout rank should mimic priority rank and I just don't buy that.

I really like driving my car. I mean I'm a serious car enthusiast. My car costs me $450 a month, not to mention about $100 in insurance, $50 a month maintenance, and about $100 a month in gasoline.

That means my priority of DRIVING costs me roughly $700 a month.

You know what I like for than driving? EATING! Sustenance keeps me alive! Without it I couldn't very well drive! Eating costs me $300 a month, on a really expensive month.

Lets recap.

Priorities: 1. Eating, 2. Driving
MS Money 2004 balance sheet: 1. Driving ($700), 2. Eating ($300)

So that violates your rule! How awful! Clearly I've made a mistake and I just don't have my priorities straight.

I use driving as a hyperbolic example, but if you are one of those anti-internal combustion engine people, then you can easily replace driving with any expensive hobby you might have. Clearly you would give it up for eating? Right? But you still spend more on it.

I do agree with you, that less money should be spent on special interest. I also agree that reforms are needed in several areas (especially education). But I do not expect that reforms mean more or less money, it can arbitrarily mean both. Don't be so simplistic to assume that our balance shit should mimic our priorities.

BHB

[LWolf]

3. I agree.

You offer the worst logic ever in rebuttal.

Because you are rebutting a phantom.

I didn't find anything in this article to suggest that "total payout rank should mimic priority rank."

Dennis doesn't anywhere suggest spending as much on education, or any other domestic priority, as on the pentagon. You need to take a look at Dennis' pie chart, lol. The largest slice by far goes to defense. That 15% cut still leaves defense with the biggest slice of the pie. And, guess what? That pentagon budget has grown by 13% under GWB already, according to Kucinich.

The metaphor of the car is the worst example you could offer.

I am not a car enthusiast. I don't really like driving. I like having the freedom to go where I need to go, so I have a car.

I don't have a car payment. Having a newer car isn't a priority. So I pay about $75 a month for gas, about $65 a month for insurance, and about $500 a year on maintenance, which works out to about $42 a month. About $180 a month to keep me on the road. I'm not sure how much I spend on food just for myself, since I feed more than one person, but I'll go with your $300 estimate. I spend slightly more than half of my food bill on transportation.

Leaving the rest of my money for other priorities, like health care, education (student loans), utilities, mortgage, home repair, etc.

[Newkleer]

4. Yes, yes

Assuredly, you can come up with some hobby or otherwise that you spend more money, monthly, than you do food. Maybe you don't, but I think you get my point.

A better argument against my assertion would be one of microeconomics vs macroeconomic, but, alas, thats not something I know much about.

Perhaps I am chasing a ghost, I inferred from the poster something that was clearly not entirely accurate.

But I still don't think throwing more money at education will fix our problems.

[Nadienne]

5. Teachers shouldn't get paid so much.

Buildings shouldn't get fixed. Students shouldn't get new text books, and they should be forced to eat cheap junk food in the cafeteria instead of real food.

I know that's not what you're saying, and I couldn't even tell you for sure if school systems are really that close to the crunch... But, two things: starve school systems of government funding, and corporations with agendas will fill the gap; secondly, the kids that are trying to get an education are tomorrow's leaders. Do you want them to be easily brain-washed, or do you want them to think for themselves? More money to education might not give them the ability to think for themselves... but it probably won't make them worse off.

Oh yeah, and Welcome to DU. :-)

[LWolf]

10. I can tell him/her for sure.

And I can tell you, it's hard to be civil while doing so.

Really that close to the crunch? Our budgets have been cut so far that we:

Have 900 students on a campus built to hold about 350. One bathroom. A playground so crowded that there is literally no path to get my kids from the classroom to the lunchroom.

use furniture that was thrown out by another district 12 years ago. It's not uncommon for desks and chairs to collapse under/on students.

Use a computer lab that is so old it takes the kids 15 minutes to log on. And we only get 30 minutes a week.

Have no administrator on campus 3 days a week. He's busy running committees at the district office that do jobs that used to be filled by paid workers.

Have assigned teachers to committees to run all district business that the admins aren't; I'm on 2 extra committees in addition to my full time teaching job myself. For no extra pay.

Have teachers working an extra hour before or after school to provide remedial classes in addition to their regular duties...for no pay.

Buy our own toilet paper and paper towels. And pencils. And paper. And art supplies. And rulers, protractors, glue, etc. And many books.

Use machines at home to make our own copies, because our allowed copy budget at school covers about 1/4 of what we need, and the damned thing is always broken anyway.

No longer provide bussing to or from school.

I could go on. But, now you know. How close to the crunch are we?

[Newkleer]

12. Some things....

I. Thanks for the welcome.
II. Sorry for debate on a non-debate board.
III. My concern, of course, is that more money won't solve the problem. I believe that certain schools in certain areas are in a crunch, but I think its a allocation problem instead of total volume problem.

[tinanator]

9. worst logic ever

Im a bigger enthusiast (20+ cars, could go on and on...) and I dont spend more than $500 a month on vehicles AND gas. Food on the other hand surely about $600 (counting beer, maybe much more; )
Now, who is being simplistic?

[Fovea]

6. In order for evil to succeed

it is only necessary for good people to do nothing.

If you are out there, wondering if supporting Dennis, while the right thing for you to do, is doomed.

Consider --

That peace will not create itself out of war.

That justice denied turns from ice to fire in the
soul of the wronged.

That freedom must be excercised, rather than
worshipped from afar.

If you read Dennis's policy, and realize its genius...
Try supporting it with a contribution, and your vote!

I believe that his is the single most important voice in the election. And that 2004 will grow into Kucinich's policies, as the full insult of Bush's adminstration starts rolling home in real time blowback.

[Nadienne]

7. Eloquent

And I agree.

[Fovea]

11. I find myself thinking of Arjuna and Krisha

and the debate over ethics in a war to preserve dharma.

And I have come to these conclusions

We did not stop the excesses of the right
in order to remain above the fray.
Some of our elected leaders in our party
became enthralled by these same funding
sources and fund seeking professionals.

In short, they became corrupt. If that were not so,
election reform would have worked to secure, make inviolate,
and entirely accurate the will of the people.
And in that environment, non voters were robbed of representation.
Too much of the process became cash and carry.

Now, no matter who the candidate is, though I hope it is mine, the real state of the union is pretty damned dismal. Whoever they are, I believe that they will have to embrace the wisdom of Kevin Phillips on concentration of wealth. They will have to embrace Dennis Kucinich's health care program, and education plan. They will need to re define what the Department of Defense is defending us from via preemptive war.

They will need an aggressive energy policy based on enabling the fundamental conversion from gasoline IC engines to fuel cell
ethanol, electricity, and other sustainable fuel sources. The future isn't just efficient. Without greater efficiency, there *is* no future.

And we need to actively rebuild a whole panorama of industries we were told to do without. And on the other side we should not be in the business of telling other nations what is in their best interest. We need to rejoin international diplomacy and law as an engaged leader, not a criminal embarrassment.

And we have no choice but to start this evolution in 2004. Because
is is already very late in the game. We are fighting for Dharma. Time for all those things Arjuna complained to Krishna of. For however long our illusions keep us apart, we will fight each other.
It is time to work our way back, to redeem our humanity.

It is time to lie to the masters of illusion. It is time to call coward's bluff. Now that the wealth we worked a dozen years to create is squandered, we must start anew, and deny the mono-culture economic model favored by the WTO. We must be a complete economy, or we will be slaves to whoever yanks the Chinese manufactured chains. Better to be a prosperous village than a teeming workhouse.

[dweller]

8. I posted this

as an endorsement from Ben Cohen of TrueMajority for Dennis Kucinich's campaign, and not as a point of debate. Had i wanted to debate the issue, i could have just as easily taken it into the GD04 forum and dropped it there for debate. This forum, and Editorials and Other Articles, i prefer to view as a 'library' of sorts. Where opinion, and issues can be read and self-analyzed and saved or discarded, much the way one would if in a real world library of political thought. If i were to disagree with the author of an article i read, i may want to take said author to task in a letter to the editor, or the publisher, or someone, but i wouldn't bother to write in the margin of the book/mag my opposing opinion anymore than i would rail outloud about it in the library real or virtual.

That said, for Newkleer i will offer up this as the only point of continuation of the discussion here.
http://www.e-tractions.com/truemajority/run/oreo


That is the stance Ben Cohen takes on the issue of economic priority and rank. The fact he endorses Kucinich is no suprise to me.
You are more than welcome to take the issue into the GD04 forum, post it there and defend your phantom. I generally prefer to avoid that area of discussion due to the rancor abundent there, and spend my time reading and analyzing what i discover elsewhere.

Oh and welcome to DU also. I hope you enjoy it here.

peace,
dp

edit: the link works now

[boobooday]

13. TIME FOR W TO GO HOME

Hello everyone,
I am new to the lists, but have been enjoying DU for quite a while.

I wrote a song about George W., and a bunch of my musician friends, and my producer hubby helped me put it together.

We call ourselves Citizen.

It's a positive song about how great it will be when W GOES HOME!!!

Please share as you wish! You can hear it at:

www.wgoeshome.com

Jeanette

[Sugarbleus]

14. I like Him a LOT... I like what he said about

schools and the ridiculousness of "testing". I might not go with him on every jot and tittle but he's my guy. He is bold, brave, and REFRESHING!

I think however, with all due respect, that he COULD use a "cosmetic" make over.
GO DENNIS!