What is Kucinich's Economic Plan?

[mkregel]

His site has none and I don't think I've ever seen him give a straight answer other than "more schools."

New schools are great and all, and I think we need them but that's not how you rebuild an economy. The US, on all levels, is saddled with a ton of debt and until we can manage it, there will be no major growth.

[FlashHarry]

1. Whatever it is...

...it'll be done by 'executive order.' ;-)

[mkregel]

2. Greeeeaaaat.......

and you will see our Government deadlock worse than it did in the mid-nineties

3. His plan is similar to FDR's

http://kucinich.us/issues/issue_economicjustice.htm


above is his statement on the economy.
below is his statement on energy policy.

Thanks to advances in renewables, there are fewer technical obstacles to energy independence for our country. There are many political obstacles -- but the oil, auto and electric utility corporations won't be directing energy policy in a Kucinich White House. I will spur research and investment in "alternative" energy sources -- hydrogen, solar, wind and ocean -- and make them mainstream. Clean energy technologies will produce new jobs. We can easily double our energy from renewable sources by 2010. And we can soon have hybrid and fuel cell cars dominating the market. When I was Mayor of Cleveland, I defended public ownership of utilities; when I'm President, I will expand it.

As a peace advocate, I will launch a major renewables effort because then Middle East oil fields will not loom so large as strategic or military targets. As an environmentalist, my view is always holistic and global: a Kucinich Administration will launch a "Global Green Deal" -- a major initiative to use our country's leadership in sustainable energy production to provide jobs to Americans, to reduce energy use here at home, and to partner with developing nations to provide their people with inexpensive, local renewable energy technologies. As a citizen of Planet Earth, I want this project for the same reason I will sign the Kyoto climate change treaty -- because we need it for our children and our grandchildren.


and here is his stance on trade


"The restoration of the rights of workers in America and throughout the North American continent will begin when we repeal NAFTA. NAFTA has spurred a $360 billion trade deficit, costing 363,000 high-paying jobs, most in manufacturing. This is called free trade. But where is freedom when jobs are lost? Where is freedom when industries threaten to move out of the country unless wages are cut? Where is freedom when the right to bargain collectively is crushed? Where is freedom when a union is broken? Where is freedom when you can't make a mortgage payment? Where is freedom when you can't send your children to college? An economic democracy is a precondition of a political democracy. Where is freedom?

"NAFTA has attacked federal laws meant to protect worker rights, human rights and environmental quality principles. It is time to repeal NAFTA.

It is time to reclaim state and local sovereignty which NAFTA has usurped. No NAFTA, no Fast Track. No more back track on democracy. No more back track on workers' rights. No more back track on human rights. No back track on the bill of rights.

"I oppose fast track. I represent Cleveland, Ohio, a steel producing community, which is fighting valiantly to save 3200 steelworker jobs and to protect the benefits of tens of thousands of retirees.

Fast track is a barrier. Fast track brought us NAFTA. It prohibits amending trade agreements. We could not amend NAFTA Chapter 11, which grants corporate investors in all NAFTA countries the right to challenge any local, state, or federal regulations, which, those corporations say, hurt their profits.

"The sovereign authority of all governments is at stake. Taxpayer dollars are at stake. A NAFTA case brought by a foreign owned steel fabrication company is trying to overturn "Buy America" laws that require using American steel in highway projects. NAFTA allows foreign owned companies to challenge our Constitution, our Congress, and our rights to enact American laws.

"This would have a catastrophic impact on steelworkers; causing loss of US jobs. American taxpayers are financing the fight for democracy all over the world while our trade laws undermine our democracy here at home.

"I oppose fast track, to protect democracy and to protect American jobs."

[AnAmerican]

5. Damn repeater.....ya beat me to it.

:)

[Teacher4dean04]

14. Please pardon my ignorance

I read DK's statement on the economy, and it left me with a couple of questions. He says he would have the government lend money to states and cities for public projects...sounds good! But what about states that are required to have a balanced budget, and cannot work in the red (Nevada is one, and I don't know how many other states are not allowed to spend beyond their means). Under this provision, would these states not be allowed, per their constitutions, to borrow the money? Are cities in these states also bound by that law?

I'm looking for serious replies please, this was in no way meant as an attack to DK's plan.

16. I don't know

It's a technicality that the state would have to deal with and I'm certain they would, especially for no interest money from the feds. I don't know that there are that many states with this amendment. My question to you would be what are they doing now, as there are very few states that aren't in the red and I don't think Nevada is one of them?

[AnAmerican]

4. This will be my last reply to you.......

as I see you are not as interested in plugging your own candidate as tearing down another. That being said, this is from DK's page, I seriously doubt you have ever been to it.


"I see an America where the economy works for everyone because everyone is working. I see a new horizon in this country where there is no such thing as an acceptable level of unemployment. Nearly 9,000,000 Americans are unemployed. Millions more are not being included in the official count. Average wages are falling. People are taking pay cuts to keep their jobs. The unemployed and the employed alike are experiencing a falling standard of living. The middle class aspirations of many are being dashed."

"Where the private sector fails to provide jobs, the public sector has a moral responsibility to do so. People want work, not welfare. And while there ought to be welfare for those unable to work, there ought to be work for those who are able to work and who want to work. And there is enough work to do."

"I see a newly rebuilt America. I see a new horizon where America provides a means to have massive public works to rebuild our cities, our water systems, our public transportation systems, our schools, our parks, our public energy systems. Nearly $150 billion is needed over 20 years to repair and provide for adequate wastewater treatment systems. Another $120 billion is needed for drinking water systems. We need a new financial mechanism to get money to cities and states to begin rebuilding and to put America back to work."

"The federal government can give cities and states loans for
infrastructure programs to be repaid over a period of 30 years, at zero interest. This will boost economies and spur private investment. A Federal Bank for Infrastructure Maintenance would administer a program of lending $50 billion per year to state and local governments. The money comes from an innovative adaptation of the normal money supply circulation activity of the Federal Reserve Bank.
The cost to the American taxpayer is simply the cost of the interest on the loans."

"It is up to the Democratic Party to be the advocates for economic progress for all the people."

[mmm]

10. Please keep responding

There is, of course, much more to the Kucinich Economic Plan.
And it is all good. People need to start learning the specifics on their own.

[Prodemsouth]

6. Carter 2 if we are lucky

if not worse. Cleveland was a joke. the butt of jokes when he was mayor. Sorry, but that is what friends who are loyal Dems living in Cleveland tell me.

[mmm]

7. Please give us specifics...

your post is idiotic.

[AnAmerican]

9. Cleveland's bad image.....

stemmed from long before DK was Mayor. To blame him for all of Cleveland's woes in the 60's and 70's is just plain foolish.

11. here is what Kucinich says about it

AS CLEVELAND MAYOR, KUCINICH’S FIGHT TO SAVE PUBLIC POWER A Profile in Political Courage...and Vindication

Having been elected to Cleveland’s City Council at age 23, Dennis Kucinich was well-known to Cleveland voters when they chose him as their mayor in 1977 at the age of 31. He was elected mayor on a promise that he would not sell off or privatize the beloved and trusted city-owned power system, though Cleveland was deeply in debt.

Cleveland Magazine offered this summary: “Kucinich refused to yield to bankers who gave him a choice: Sell the Municipal Light System to the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. or the city will go into default. The mayor said no.”

When Kucinich refused to sell Muny Light, the banks took the unprecedented step of refusing to roll over the city’s debt, as is customary. Instead, they pushed the city into default. It turned out the banks were thoroughly interlocked with the private utility, CEI, which
would have acquired monopoly status by taking over Muny Light. Five of the six banks held almost 1.8 million shares of CEI stock; of the 11 directors of CEI, eight were also directors of four of the six banks involved.

By holding to his campaign promise and putting principle above politics, he lost his re-election bid and his political career was derailed. But today Kucinich stands vindicated for having confronted the Enron of his day, and for saving the municipal power company. “There is little
debate,” wrote Cleveland Magazine in May 1996, “over the value of Muny Light today. Now Cleveland Public Power, it is a proven asset to the city that between 1985 and 1995 saved its customers $195,148,520 over what they would have paid CEI.”

When Kucinich re-launched his political career in the mid-1990s, it was on the strength of having saved public power. His campaign symbol was a light bulb. “Because he was right!” was his campaign slogan when he won his seat in the state senate in 1994. The slogan that sent him to Washington two years later was “Light Up Congress.”

In 1998, the Cleveland City Council issued a commendation to Dennis Kucinich for "having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system."

[ott]

8. trickle up economics

What a concept, huh? Invest in what will grow. Growth = prosperity.

http://www.kucinich.us/issues/issue_economicjustice.htm

It's nice to see more joining the bandwagon of those on DU rabidly afraid of Kucinich. Yes, very good. Excellent.

[AnAmerican]

12. Great line at the end Ott

and great image as well (lol)

[mmm]

13. Good Post!

Growth = Prosperity!
Kucinich is the one. I have seen the light.

15. you know what the great thing about supporting kucinich is?

I have a reply to every accusation and I'm not embarassed by a single thing he says or any of his positions. He's awesome!

[ott]

17. It is nice isn't it?

What I like is I only have to learn the maybe 2% of the issues he's not in sync with me on... The other 98% we're in agreement. So much less research and memorization that way.

Disinformation is a different story. River fires, Clinton impeachment, Cleveland default totally out of context, stuff like that I've had to learn to debunk... I'm sure there will be others, all part of the "game," I guess. A shame more people can't take it seriously.

[deek]

20. simply stated

Too good to be true???

[SyracuseDemocrat]

18. i think kucinich wants

more investments in our infrastructure to help get the economy moving again.

[MaverickX]

19. Deficit spending..

Not balancing the budget, no middle class taxcuts.

[Mairead]

21. When people are asked

whether they want a tax cut, they naturally say Yes. But when they're asked if they want more services even if it means raising taxes, they also say Yes. This is a consistent finding. Look up the polls done by U/Chi.

The message in that is that people want value for money. We're all fed up with the tax-us-to-give-to-the-corporations paradigm. Nobody is willing to be taxed so that people who already have too much can have even more, but most people are willing to be taxed for the sake of things that benefit us: healthcare, education, jobs, infrastructure, world peace, and kindness toward others.