Candidate boasts progressive race
Originally published in Ka Leo Hawaii
Candidate boasts progressive race
By Emily Apatov
Ka Leo Contributing Writer
October 21, 2003
More than 400 students, professors and citizens gathered Sunday to listen to congressman and democratic 2004 presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.
Speaking next to a banner that read, "Universal Health Care: Kucinich," Kucinich focused on issues ranging from health care and education reform to foreign policy.
Kucinich said America remains the only industrialized nation that does not provide national health care. To him, 40 million Americans without health care is an intolerable and that a solution is to provide Enhanced Medicare for all. Privately delivered health care should be publicly financed.
Kucinich also discussed plans to divert funds from what he calls unnecessary national security programs such as national missile shield, weapons in space and forth generation nuclear weapons. Military budget cuts would finance his progressive agendas.
Benji Davis, a University of Hawai`i at Manoa student who supports Kucinich said, "The United States military budget is nearly as big as that of the 191 other countries put together."
Kucinich also said he would fully fund college education for 12 million students by reversing the $1.5 trillion in tax cuts afforded to high income families. He plans to improve education by encouraging students to think more critically rather than having them be "another age of test takers."
"Investing $500 billion to rebuild schools, roads, bridges, ports and sewage, water and environmental systems will do more to stimulate our economy than tax breaks for the wealthy," he said.
"Where is it written that war is inevitable?" he asked, adding that national security can be achieved through cooperation with other countries.
He said he would work to withdraw from the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organizations (WTO) and support newer and fairer trade agreements benefiting working citizens.
Kucinich was applauded for voicing concerns relevant to the lives of people who are economically challenged and politically disenfranchised. He intends to institute universal child care in response to the concerns of lower-class women who face costs of $5,000 to $7,000 per child per year of care. He is a "pro-choice" candidate who promised his judicial appointments will reflect his own attitude that this right is essential to genuine gender equity in society.
He also supports the dispensation of equal and complete legal equity for lesbian and gay citizens at the federal level. He would grant them the right to marry and enjoy economic provisions associated with marriage. Unlike President George Bush, Kucinich supports the right of gays and lesbians adopting children.
"It's time to tell the world that we wish to be their partner in peace, not their leader in war," read Kucinich's campaign advertisement. It also suggests, "to look out upon the world for friends, not enemies. Time to counter the control of corporations over our politics, our economy, our resources and mass media. Time for those who have much to help those who have little by maintaining a progressive tax structure. Most of all, it is time for America to again be the land where dreams come true because the government is on the side of its people."
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