Kucinich press releases

[eridani]

Thought I'd keep them all in one thread--

For Immediate Release
Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Kucinich: Administration's Social Security 'Crisis' is Their Latest WMD Campaign

Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) issued the following statement on the Administration’s plan to cut benefits and privatize Social Security:

“There they go again. Once again this Administration is deliberately misleading the public by creating a false crisis. The Administration's campaign to convince the American public of a 'crisis' in Social Security is a mirror image of their phony campaign to convince the American public of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.

"The Social Security Trust Fund is not only secure, but will run a surplus for decades. No other government or corporate entity can say the same thing. The only real danger Social Security faces is the $2 trillion willful destruction planned by this Administration.

“The White House not only wants to privatize Social Security, but also cut retirees benefits. A cut in benefits is not necessary and retirees cannot afford a cut in benefits. No one is cutting the cost of food, rent, electricity, gas, oil, or property taxes.

"The White House's 'bold' initiative on Social Security is a 'bold' violation of public trust."

-- 30 --

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/oh10_kucinich/050111ss.html

[Radical Activist]

1. I like that he brought up WMD's

The press acts like Bush has never lied and pretend that the admin has credibility. Its as though they have no memory.

[genius]

2. This should also be posted in the Gen disc: politics so the other can see

how great our guy is.

[elshiva]

3. Kucinich is my hero! Yay!

[no name no slogan]

4. He's correct again, as always

It's funny that this whole topic comes around every few years or so: SS is running out of money, it will soon be insolvent, people in their 20s will never get to draw SS retirement benefits, etc.

It seems we keep re-fighting this same stupid battle every four years or so, and always against the same people: the corporate fund managers who can't wait to get their greedy hands on the billions of $$ in the public trust.

Thankfully Dennis is still here, telling it straight, and hitting back as hard as they hit him. GO DENNIS!

[eridani]

5. Kucinich on Iraq elections

http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0126-07.htm

Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) today said that Iraqi elections, to be held on Sunday, will be a farce. In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and John Negroponte, the United States Ambassador to Iraq, Kucinich cites a total absence of international election monitors in Iraq for Sunday's elections. The closest international monitors will get to Iraq on Sunday will be Amman, Jordan.

In the letter, sent today, Kucinich states,

"It is clear, in just five days before the Iraqi elections are to be held, that it will be impossible to conclude anything about the extent to which corruption, voter intimidation or outright fraud will mar the results. The exercise will regrettably be a farce. The results will have no recognized legitimacy whatsoever, and surely do not merit association with the United States' notions of democracy.
"The elections will not yield certifiable results due to the pitifully small number of election observers, and the total absence of international election observers from the process. Indeed, according to the Washington Post, this is the first transitional election in the past two decades that will not have international election observers touring polling stations. As you know, international monitors have independently observed and evaluated elections throughout the world and have helped to point out when they are fraudulent and when they are legitimate."

[eridani]

6. Social Security and missing 9 billion

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/oh10_kucinich/050210ss1min.html

Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) today brought forth a new case against the Administration’s so-called Social Security reform plan by exposing the precipitous drop in future retiree benefits implicit in the Administration plan to switch from wage indexing to price indexing.

In a speech this morning on the House floor, Kucinich said:

“Social Security benefits have increased over the years because they long have been calculated to wage increases, which on the average go up 3.6% a year. So Social Security benefits increase with rising wages. The Administration wants to change all that. They want to index Social Security benefits based on a price index, not wages.

“As a result, millions of future retirees will see their future Social Security benefits reduced as much as 40%. Because prices do not increase as fast as wages.

“Let me give you an example. If you began working in 1959 and retired in 2003, at age 65, under wage indexing, your benefits rise with rising wages, you would get $1158 a month. Under price indexing, your benefits would be frozen, you would get only $701 a month. So it would be a 40% cut in benefits with price indexing, and a person would lose $100,000 in retirement benefits over a lifetime.

“Why the switch to price indexing? Because, the privatization of Social Security will create an additional budget shortfall. The Administration is going to have to borrow money to set up private accounts. The shortfall is going to be for 45 years, and the Administration is going to have to borrow $15 trillion dollars.

“They are going to get the money off the backs of America’s retirees. It is wrong, say no to privatization, no to price indexing.”

Kucinich added that while much attention has been focused on private accounts, price indexing, once understood by both the media and the American people generally, will create such an uproar that it will jeopardize not only the Administration’s plans, but could create great political risk for members supporting the plans

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/oh10_kucinich/050208iraq9b1min.html

Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) gave the following speech today on the House floor:

“Prior to invading Iraq, looking for weapons of mass destruction, this administration looked the other way at illegal shipments of Iraqi oil to Jordan, Syria and Turkey, which earned at least $8.5 billion for Saddam Hussein's regime. Now the administration cannot account for an additional $9 billion from Iraqi oil proceeds which was supposed to go to help the Iraqi people.

“While Congress busies itself about how $2 billion was illegally diverted to Saddam from the U.N.'s Oil-For-Food Program, it would also be instructive to find out why it was apparently administration policy to let Saddam Hussein earn four times that amount through illegal oil shipments.

“Before Congress gives another $80 billion for the war in Iraq, the American people would find it instructive for Congress to ask what happened with the unaccounted-for $9 billion which also came from Iraq oil proceeds.

“Madam Speaker, before the war, Iraq was about oil. As the war continues, it is about billions in unaccounted-for oil revenues which the U.S. had custody of, responsibility for; and now nobody knows nothing.”

[eridani]

7. No to more war money

http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0215-04.htm

WASHINGTON -- February 15 -- Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) issued the following statement today on the Administration's request for an additional $82 billion mostly for the war in Iraq:
"Congress should reject the Administration's latest request. From day one, this Administration has misled the public and the Congress about this war.

"We were told there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, there were none. We were told we would be greeted as liberators, we were not. We were told Iraq reconstruction would pay for itself, it has not. And, we were told the Administration had a plan to win the peace in Iraq, they do not.

"The Administration's entire case for the war has now been debunked, Iraq is on the verge of a civil war, and the Administration still refuses to admit any mistakes. American troops and American taxpayers are footing the bill for a war that was never needed, and a war that is counterproductive to the security interests of our nation.

"Congress should not serve as a rubber stamp of this Administration's failed policies. Congress should reject this Supplemental request, along with the Administration's failed policy in Iraq, and work to bring our soldiers home."

[eridani]

8. Against $81 billion

http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0316-16.htm

WASHINGTON -- March 16 -- Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH), a leader in the House of Representatives against the war in Iraq, issued the following statement today on the $82 billion Supplemental Appropriations Bill:

"Before we issue another $82 billion for operations in Iraq, to continue a failed policy in Iraq, we must address the greater picture: The Administration has been morally corrupt in its handling of every aspect of the Iraq war, from the very beginning to the present.

"Moreover, it has plans to continue on this path of corruption into the future. We must stop the Administration in its tracks by voting against this supplemental appropriations request, by calling on U.N. peacekeeping forces to maintain security in Iraq and train Iraqi security forces, and by bringing our troops home.

"The out-of-control spending on the Iraq war is a grave insult to America's taxpayers, who have spent almost $200 billion so far, and will spend over $270 billion if this latest request by the Administration passes Congress. $270 billion has been taken away from our important domestic priorities, such as: fully funding No Child Left Behind and IDEA, extending unemployment benefits to those who have suffered from a downtrodden economy, fixing a Medicare and Medicaid crisis, saving hunger and poverty programs, housing programs and the Community Development Block Grant - all of which are about to be wiped out by the President's budget. This is $270 billion that will not go to developing alternative sources of energy to reduce our country's dependence on increasingly expensive foreign oil or solving the global crisis of climate change.

"Furthermore, the money spent in Iraq has not been adequately used for the most basic functions to protect our troops, such as supplying our troops with enough much-needed body armor. Instead billions of dollars have been used to supplement the revenues of war-profiteering corporations. These corporations have used their ties to the U.S. government to win no-bid contracts and have then overcharged the U.S. government - and the American taxpayer - for their services.

"In this whole racket of recklessly spending billions of dollars - U.S. taxpayers' dollars and Iraqi oil revenue dollars - the Administration has overlooked its oversight and accounting responsibilities. Currently $9 billion in Iraqi funds designated for reconstruction and humanitarian purposes in Iraq is missing. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) managed these funds when they disappeared.

"Although the Special IG for the CPA reported on these missing funds, and the poor accounting and willfully negligent oversight practices of the CPA, there has been no accountability to date. No official Congressional Committee yet held a hearing. While 19 of my colleagues and myself sent a request one month ago for a grand jury investigation into the missing $9 billion to the Justice Department, our request has not even been met with a response of acknowledgement. And the Administration has the gall to ask for more money to mismanage.

"When will be put a stop to this? Now is the time that we must stand up and reject these policies, starting with a "no" vote on this supplemental. The U.S. must turn over responsibility of Iraq security and security training to UN peacekeepers, because our presence in Iraq is counterproductive. We must begin a phased and orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops. The U.N. must assume responsibility over reconstruction and reparations. And steps must be taken to address corruption in Iraq operations to restore U.S. moral authority for the United States and the world."
###

[eridani]

9. US Has Long-Term Plans To Stay In Iraq

http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0414-06.htm

A new Congressional Research Service (CRS) report commissioned by Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH), and released today, shows that the United States is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in the construction of "long-term" bases in Iraq.

The report, requested in December, and completed this week, states that since 9/11, the Department of Defense has received supplemental funding of over $1 billion for military construction in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Of the military construction funds, the report states, "some projects…suggest substantial U.S. investment to improve facilities that could be used for the longer-term." These long-term projects in Iraq include, $214 million for the Balad Air Base and $49 million for the Taji Military Complex.

"This report clearly indicates that, despite recent press accounts, this Administration has no plans to leave Iraq any time soon, and raises questions about whether permanent bases are being built," stated Kucinich. "The US military presence in Iraq is counterproductive, and the construction of 'long-term' bases in the country will only prolong the occupation and cause more US casualties. It is time for this Administration to be straight with the American people, and the Congress, and let them know their true intentions in Iraq."

The report, issued by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service, is the first congressional report that has identified specific locations in Iraq where the U.S. is possibly constructing a permanent military presence.

For a complete copy of the report please contact Doug Gordon at [phone], copies are also available at http://www.house.gov/kucinich.