Kucinich changes stance on health care, will vote yes

US lawmaker Dennis J. Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, dropped his long-standing opposition to President Barack Obama's health care reform plan, saying he will vote in favor of the bill.

Speaking at a news conference in the Capitol, Kucinich said "I've decided to cast a vote in favor of the legislation. If my vote is to be counted, let it count now for passage of the bill, hopefully in the direction of comprehensive health care reform."

Kucinich made the announcement as he voted against an earlier version of the bill. The longtime congressman, however, stressed that he was still dissatisfied with key parts of the plan.

Meanwhile, President Obama described the turnabout as "a good sign," saying that he had thanked Kucinich for his decision to vote yes on health care.

Kucinich made an effort to explain influential factors in making his new decision, saying, "We have to be very careful that the potential of President Obama's presidency not be destroyed by this debate."

"Even though I have many differences with him on policy, there's something much bigger at stake here for America," he added.

Kucinich's decision to switch his vote comes as Republicans are still against the sweeping reform bill, arguing that it is the biggest government takeover of healthcare.

President Obama needs to round up 216 votes to secure the bill's passage as the vote is expected to be taken at the end of the week.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121080§ionid=3510203.

Kucinich plans to force vote on US withdrawal from Afghanistan

For congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Afghan President Hamid Karzai's announcement Tuesday that his country would need the US's military support for another 10 or 15 years seems to have been the last straw.

The outspoken House representative says it was Karzai's statement that prompted him to draft a resolution calling for a House vote on the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"We shouldn't be there another 15 to 20 months, let alone 15 to 20 years," Kucinich told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "When I'm in my district talking to people, nobody has come up to me and said we need to be in Afghanistan for the next 15 to 20 years. They do say we need jobs, we need to protect our basic industry, we need education, we need to protect retirement security. I'd like to see us start taking care of things here at home."

Kucinich is circulating a letter (PDF) among congressional colleagues asking them to co-sponsor his resolution.

My bills, which would trigger a timeline for a timely withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Pakistan, invoke the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and are intended to secure the Constitutional role of Congress, as directly elected representatives of the people, under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, to decide whether or not America enters into war, continues a war, or otherwise introduces armed rorces or material into combat zones.

Despite the president's assertion that previous congressional action gives him the authority to respond to the attacks of September 11, 2001, a careful reading of the Authorization of Use of Military Force (AUMF) makes cleat that the AUMF did not supersede "any requirement of the War Powers Resolution" and therefore did not undermine Congress' ability to revisit the constitutional question of war powers at a later date.

“We cannot afford these wars. We cannot afford the loss of lives. We cannot afford the cost to taxpayers. We cannot afford to fail to exercise our constitutional right to end the wars," Kucinich said in a statement circulated among reporters on Wednesday.

Kucinich told the Plain Dealer he expects his resolution to land at the House International Relations Committee early next year. If the resolution is voted down, he will ask to have it moved back to the floor of the House -- a maneuver that earlier this year allowed him to debate the impeachment of former Vice President Dick Cheney on the House floor, the Plain Dealer notes.

During a visit by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Kabul on Tuesday, President Karzai told the Pentagon chief that Afghanistan would need the US's help in security matters for 10 or 15 years going forward. President Obama's plan to start withdrawing troops in July 2011 has sparked concern in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan that the Taliban could sit out the surge and attack a pared down force in 18 months' time.

"For 15 to 20 years, Afghanistan will not be able to sustain a force of that nature and capability with its own resources," Karzai told a news conference. "We hope that the international community and the United States, as our first ally, will help Afghanistan reach the ability to sustain a force."

Source: RAW Story.
Link: http://rawstory.com/2009/12/kucinich-vote-withdrawal-afghanistan/.

Kucinich: Afghan war, threat to US national security

Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich has severely reprimanded US President Barack Obama for sending additional troops to Afghanistan.

Kucinich said in a statement on Thursday that extending the Afghan war would destabilize the United States at home.

"We are deeply in debt. Our GDP is down. Our manufacturing is down. Our savings are down. The value of the dollar is down. Our trade deficit is up. Business failures are up. Bankruptcies are up," his statement read.

The US president earlier on Tuesday announced plans to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan in his new war strategy.

"The war is a threat to our national security. We'll spend over $100 billion next year to bomb a nation of poor people while we reenergize the Taliban, destabilize Pakistan, deplete our army and put more of our soldiers' lives on the line," the Ohio congressman said.

"Meanwhile, back here in the USA, 15 million people are out of work. People are losing their jobs, their health care, their savings, their investments, and their retirement security. $13 trillion in bailouts for Wall Street, trillions for war; when are we going to start taking care of things here at home?"

The new US troop surge would put more than 100,000 American forces in Afghanistan at an annual cost of about $75 billion.

The US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost 768.8 billion dollars and by the end of this fiscal year (October 2010) the price tag will approach one trillion.

Aside from the huge cost, the controversial wars have inflicted a high human death toll mostly on the civilian population of Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The people of Afghanistan don't want to be saved by us," Kucinich said on the House floor Wednesday.

"They want to be saved from us. Our presence and our Predator drones kill countless innocents, creating more US enemies and destabilizing Pakistan," he added.

Congressman Kucinich has long been a critic of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, repeatedly calling for withdrawal of troops.