Sun-Sentinel columnist Stephen Goldstein
Stephen Goldstein of the Sun-Sentinel of south Florida
Columnist
Stephen Goldstein
A heartland maverick
Published October 29, 2003
Dennis Kucinich should be the next president of the United States -- and you should help elect him. In fact, someone with his populist views should always be in the White House.
Last Thursday, during his campaign stop in Miami, I asked the Ohio congressman what special messages he had for South Floridians. His answers should appeal to Republicans, Greens, Independents, Democrats, rich and poor, voters of every age. He's the harbinger of a new Progressive era in America.
"People associate the sun with health; they follow it to Florida to have a better quality of life, but that's deteriorating," Kucinich laments. "I'm the only one running who has submitted a plan for universal health care -- including long-term care, prescription drugs, dental, vision and mental health coverage. When long-term care is needed, everyone -- rich and poor -- is put at risk."
As president, he said he would propose "Enhanced Medicare for All," a single-payer system that would eliminate for-profit insurers. "In their health-care costs, South Floridians are now paying for executive salaries, stock options, corporate profits, lobbying expenses," he contends. Kucinich likens America's health insurance system to a Las Vegas casino -- with naive gamblers' believing that "the house" doesn't always win. He's outraged that insurers have rigged things -- and it's "costing more to play." (He had just come from meeting with a group of supporters whose deductible has skyrocketed to $1,000.) "Health-care coverage shouldn't be a gamble, but a sure thing."
Retirement security, investment security, and pension security -- these are three other unique planks in Kucinich's platform. Keenly aware of the gutting of South Floridians' retirement funds after recent stock-market frauds, he would establish a Federal Bureau of Audit to "police" Wall Street.
"We need more regulation," he insists. "Public companies should not be able to lie to investors." He would change the bankruptcy law so that pensioners' claims had to be satisfied before those of banks, and would keep companies from "stealing pension funds." "The Social Security Trust Fund is rock solid until 2041," he adds, so he's against privatizing it, and "would roll back the age for collecting full benefits from 67 to 65."
Pick any issue and Kucinich has a principled perspective on it. He rallied opposition to the Iraq war, voted against it, and led the push to deny W.'s $87 billion funding request.
Contending that NAFTA and WTO have "spurred a $418 billion trade deficit, costing 525,000 U.S. jobs," he would replace them with "fair bilateral trade agreements conditioned on workers' rights, human rights and environmental protections." He opposes the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas.
The only presidential candidate who voted against the Patriot Act, he would repeal it: "The attorney general has been handed unfettered power to wiretap, search, jail and invade our most sacred right to privacy." He would protect a woman's right to choose. For his views on everything from the environment to Cuba, go to www.kucinich.us.
Kucinich represents the soul of America, a heartland maverick fighting for the public interest over corporate greed -- and he's got scars to prove it. He's lost battles, but won wars.
In 1978, a year after he was elected Cleveland's mayor at 31, he stopped an Enron-like takeover of the city's electric company. The city's banks pressured him to do it, because they had a financial interest in the private corporation that would have bagged a monopoly -- and zillions -- from the deal. So, when Kucinich refused, the banks retaliated by putting the city in default -- and helped throw him out of office. Ultimately, he was vindicated. In 1998, the Cleveland City Council honored him for "having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system."
Kucinich is not a lesser-of-two-evils candidate. You don't have to hold your nose when you vote for him. I said he should be the next U.S. president; I didn't say he would be. That's up to you. To support his campaign, call 561-969-1530 or the statewide office at 352-271-4414, or go to www.florida4dennis.org or www.Kucinich.us. Call national headquarters toll-free at 866-413-3664. Menace Washington: Elect Dennis.
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