Kucinich gets rousing support from Steelworkers union

[The Sushi Bandit]

National health insurance, cancel NAFTA, impeach Cheney, repeal Patriot Act positions get union leaders, members on their feet.

CLEVELAND, OH - Ohio Congressman and Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, the only card-carrying union member among the Party's Presidential hopefuls, drew thunderous, standing-ovation support from about 900 members of the United Steelworkers Union this afternoon as he laid out his plans to guarantee health insurance coverage for all Americans, cancel trade agreements that have eliminated millions of jobs, repeal a federal law that allows the government to intrude into union activities, and proceed with the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney for "lying us into the war in Iraq."

Click here to view video.

"No other candidate even comes close to taking these kinds of positions," said Kucinich, considered to be one of the prime architects of a plan that resuscitated the steel industry in Cleveland. He is also the only candidate who has called for the repeal of NAFTA, the repeal of the so-called "Patriot Act," and the establishment of a national health insurance plan that eliminates for-profit insurance companies, health care providers, and pharmaceutical firms from the health care equation.

"One of the great frauds in this election – among a few – is over the issues of health care," Kucinich told the union members. Referencing Michael Moore's new movie, "SiCKO," which promotes a not-for-profit health are system, Kucinich, without naming names, noted that some other Democratic candidates are "promising" a "universal health care plan" that, in effect, merely provides government subsidies to private insurers "to cover a few more people."

"How in the world can anyone who would call themselves a Democrat throw in the lot with the private insurers and say, 'I'm sorry, I can't challenge them.' ?"

"You're looking at the one person running for President who's ready, right now, to challenge those insurance companies … and to get the for-profit insurers out of the health care business … and reclaim the health care of the people of this nation … to give you back your power at the bargaining table … to make sure that no one has to go broke" paying for medical costs.

He also criticized, but not by name, other candidates who have either voted for or supported foreign trade agreements such as NAFTA, or who have proposed "fixing" those trade agreements to stem the loss of millions of American manufacturing jobs.

"You can't fix NAFTA," Kucinich said. "You have to repeal it and start over." Any candidate not willing to take that position should not be taken seriously, Kucinich argued.

Addressing a specific issue about lop-sided trade policies and the growing trade deficit with China, Kucinich offered a common childhood recollection of digging an ever-deeper hole in the backyard. He turned it into an analogy: "If you dig it deep enough, you're going to get to China," he recalled hearing as a child.

"We're there," he dead-panned to the amusement, appreciation, and applause of the crowd.

Dramatic changes in trade policies would help create an "American manufacturing policy where the maintenance of our steel, automotive, aerospace, and shipping is seen as vital to our national economic security, our national defense."

Kucinich also drew rousing support when he proposed the repeal of the Patriot Act, which was approved by other Democratic Presidential candidates in the Congress. Not only does the law permit unprecedented surveillance and probing into citizens' private lives, it also permits "prying into labor unions' records," Kucinich said.

On a related point, Kucinich said that labor unions expect their leaders to be held "to the highest standards." So should the highest elected officials in the nation.

"I believe that if you have a vice president of the United States who lied to get this country into a war, he ought to be impeached," Kucinich said, as the crowd once again stood in support.

"He ought to be removed from office. No commutations. No pardons," the candidate said, as the approving crowd virtually drowned out his words.

[driver8]

1. I love that man.

He definitely knows what is important to the people of this country and what is needed to get us back on track.

[The Sushi Bandit]

2. Me too!!

[LWolf]

3. I love this one:

"How in the world can anyone who would call themselves a Democrat throw in the lot with the private insurers and say, 'I'm sorry, I can't challenge them.' ?"

It just highlights, for me, all the ways in which our current political "leaders'" and "candidates'" words don't reflect their actions.