Kucinch Takes on a New Cause -- The Constitution

About a hundred people listened to Congressman Kucinich in the assembly hall on the campus of the Phillips Exeter Academy. It was largely a receptive crowd and when Exeter resident Bill Hennessy raised the issue of President Bush’s extensive use of signing statements, Kucinich was right there with him.

CUT do you agree with me that these signing statements are a direct assault on the constitution?// Yes.

Signing statements are the opinions the president attaches to a bill when he signs it. President Bush has used them more than any other president, in many cases to say he interprets the new law in such a way that suggests he does not feel bound by it. For Kucinich, this practice and the lead up to the Iraq War are grounds for impeachment, a remedy he is already pursuing against the vice-president.

Kucinich says the country has drifted towards monarchy and hence, his latest campaign.

CUT the constitution requires three branches of government. The congress’s failure to challenge the president essentially wipes out the legislative branch. It makes the legislative branch worse than a rubber stamp but a docile slavish adherent to administrative force.

Kucinich now holds regular conferences on the constitution aimed at stirring a grassroots movement to pressure congress to, in his view, stand up for its own interests.

The congressman still talks extensively about a single-payer health care system. He says the savings in administrative overhead and eliminating the profits of insurance companies would go a long way toward paying for it – and some government studies do say there would be overall savings. But while he sees a much larger role for government in health care, Kucinich has added a new dimension – the importance of personal responsibility.

CUT We need to create a health consciousness in this country that has to do with the choices that we make and the things we put into our bodies. We don’t have total control but we do have some control.

Kucinich says he is writing a bill that will encourage more individual initiative to stay healthy. His views on another dimension of private life emerged during a discussion of drug costs. A man in the audience told how his wife was just diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. Her prescribed treatment includes one particular drug.

CUT The cost of one shot is 10,000 dollars. Now that’s obscene to me.

Kucinich took this as an example of the tension between private enterprise and the common good.

CUT I’m not opposed to people making money. It’s a fine American way. However, if you’re making it on health care, there’s got to be a limit on what people can be expected to pay.”

Kucinich was asked in several ways, how he would pay for his various proposals, whether they were to rebuild the country’s infrastructure or spur development of energy sources to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He said he takes a different approach to government spending. Instead of borrowing money, the government should just print more and deal with the inflationary effects through taxes.

CUT to take profits out of the system

These views are hardly in vogue in America. But Kucinich told his listeners, if they like his ideas, there is something they can do.

CUT help us

For NHPR News, I’m Jon Greenberg.