Dennis Kucinich-Why I'm Voting 'Yes'

[kpete]

Published on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
Why I'm Voting 'Yes'

by Dennis Kucinich
The following are the prepared remarks offered by US Rep. Kucinich today regarding his plans for the upcoming health care vote:

Each generation has had to take up the question of how to provide for the health of the people of our nation. And each generation has grappled with difficult questions of how to meet the needs of our people. I believe health care is a civil right. Each time as a nation we have reached to expand our basic rights, we have witnessed a slow and painful unfolding of a democratic pageant of striving, of resistance, of breakthroughs, of opposition, of unrelenting efforts and of eventual triumph.

I have spent my life struggling for the rights of working class people and for health care. I grew up understanding first hand what it meant for families who did not get access to needed care. I lived in 21 different places by the time I was 17, including in a couple of cars. I understand the connection between poverty and poor health care, the deeper meaning of what Native Americans have called "hole in the body, hole in the spirit". I struggled with Crohn's disease much of my adult life, to discover sixteen years ago a near-cure in alternative medicine and following a plant-based diet. I have learned with difficulty the benefits of taking charge personally of my own health care. On those few occasions when I have needed it, I have had access to the best allopathic practitioners. As a result I have received the blessings of vitality and high energy. Health and health care is personal for each one of us. As a former surgical technician I know that there are many people who dedicate their lives to helping others improve theirs. I also know their struggles with an insufficient health care system.

There are some who believe that health care is a privilege based on ability to pay. This is the model President Obama is dealing with, attempting to open up health care to another 30 million people, within the context of the for-profit insurance system. There are others who believe that health care is a basic right and ought to be provided through a not-for-profit plan. This is what I have tirelessly advocated.

I have carried the banner of national health care in two presidential campaigns, in party platform meetings, and as co-author of HR676, Medicare for All. I have worked to expand the health care debate beyond the current for-profit system, to include a public option and an amendment to free the states to pursue single payer. The first version of the health care bill, while badly flawed, contained provisions which I believed made the bill worth supporting in committee. The provisions were taken out of the bill after it passed committee.

more:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/17-9

[G_j]

1. thanks for posting

brings tears to my eyes.

[Mari333]

2. well, he was offered NOTHING in the form of a PO .

I was kind of hoping he had been offered some crumb. but nothing.
just strong armed.

and now the DLC takes over completely.

[Eric J in MN]

5. I was hoping he got an improvement to the bill, too.

But he didn't.

[Mari333]

8. yes. pretty damned sad, thats all.

methinks he will regret this.


hopefully he wont back down on the neverending corporate occupations and warmongers.

[Whisp]

3. Thank you Dennis, I will always love you

You are the one that made me pay attention to pollitics (well you and that filthy Chimperor). And to those here who call you names and look down on you I say, fuck the hell off.

Dennis may not be your cup of tea but to do what is done to him here is what the turd repugs do on other sites. Dennis' messages are usually pure and uncompromised and that is what I like about him. I knew he didn't have a chance in the primaries but it was so important that he participate and speak his mind (but the media and his so called peers squelched him however they could because he speaks too openly).

*hugs to you and your lovely wife.

[Matariki]

4. I wish we had more representatives like Dennis Kucinich

thanks for posting this, I wouldn't have seen it otherwise and it was good to read.

[tavalon]

6. He got strong armed. This is very sad, indeed.

The only time this administration finds it's strength, it's used for bad.

[frebrd]

10. +1

[DonCoquixote]

7. I may have often disagreed with Dennis

But I always respected him, and today, he showed why he deserves respect.

My hope is, that he runs for Senate, because sadly, as long as he remains in what has become the "house of commons", his influence will be magrinalized. We need him in the Senate to counteract the Joe Liebermans and Mary Landrieus.

[ProSense]

9. "If my vote is to be counted, let it now count for passage of the bill"

In the past week it has become clear that the vote on the final health care bill will be very close. I take this vote with the utmost seriousness. I am quite aware of the historic fight that has lasted the better part of the last century to bring America in line with other modern democracies in providing single payer health care. I have seen the political pressure and the financial pressure being asserted to prevent a minimal recognition of this right, even within the context of a system dominated by private insurance companies.

<...>

If my vote is to be counted, let it now count for passage of the bill, hopefully in the direction of comprehensive health care reform.

Kucinich decided to vote on the progressive side of history.

[earth mom]

11. I am disappointed with Dennis down to my very core. No more support for him from me.

I feel like I did when Pelosi & Conyers took impeachment off the table-stabbed in the back. :(

[Romulox]

12. RETRACTED: " I would not support the bill unless it had a strong public option"

:hi:

[951-Riverside]

13. No, you're voting yes because the President knows your dirty little secrets Mr. Kucinich

This is blackmail nothing more.

[PufPuf23]

14. DK fought for the People and far from endorses the HCR Bill

but is sadly realistic that health care as a civil right is not going to happen now in America.

cut to last paragraphs of DK's statement>>

I know I have to make a decision, not on the bill as I would like to see it, but the bill as it is. My criticisms of the legislation have been well reported. I do not retract them. I incorporate them in this statement. They still stand as legitimate and cautionary. I still have doubts about the bill. I do not think it is a first step toward anything I have supported in the past. This is not the bill I wanted to support, even as I continue efforts until the last minute to modify the bill.

However after careful discussions with the President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Elizabeth my wife and close friends, I have decided to cast a vote in favor of the legislation. If my vote is to be counted, let it now count for passage of the bill, hopefully in the direction of comprehensive health care reform. We must include coverage for those excluded from this bill. We must free the states. We must have control over private insurance companies and the cost their very existence imposes on American families. We must strive to provide a significant place for alternative and complementary medicine, religious health science practice, and the personal responsibility aspects of health care which include diet, nutrition, and exercise.

The health care debate has been severely hampered by fear, myths, and by hyper-partisanship. The President clearly does not advocate socialism or a government takeover of health care. The fear that this legislation has engendered has deep roots, not in foreign ideology but in a lack of confidence, a timidity, mistrust and fear which post 911 America has been unable to shake.

This fear has so infected our politics, our economics and our international relations that as a nation we are losing sight of the expanded vision, the electrifying potential we caught a glimpse of with the election of Barack Obama. The transformational potential of his presidency, and of ourselves, can still be courageously summoned in ways that will reconnect America to our hopes for expanded opportunities for jobs, housing, education, peace, and yes, health care.

I want to thank those who have supported me personally and politically as I have struggled with this decision. I ask for your continued support in our ongoing efforts to bring about meaningful change. As this bill passes I will renew my efforts to help those state organizations which are aimed at stirring a single payer movement which eliminates the predatory role of private insurers who make money not providing health care. I have taken a detour through supporting this bill, but I know the destination I will continue to lead, for as long as it takes, whatever it takes to an America where health care will be firmly established as a civil right.>> end of DK's statement

[AnOhioan]

15. Dennis caved on this one...

I will still support him generally but today was a disappointment. He should have stuck up for the people. But he let his loyalty to the Party trump his common sense.