Congressman Dennis Kucinch spoke about health care legislation this past Friday evening on MSNBC's Ed Shultz Show. You may watch the interview by visiting http://kucinich.us/in....

Shortly after appearing on MSNBC, Congressman Kucinich called into our Health Care for All Meet-up and spoke with Minnie Ruffin, Mercedes Binns, Karen Smith and myself about the current health care legislation in the House of Representatives. On the call, Congressman Kucinich said at this time, he will vote "NO" on the House Health Care bill (formally 3200) unless significant changes are made, and urged everyone to call their Representatives on Monday and ask that they put the Kucinich State Single Payer Amendment back in the bill (please visit www.congress.org to find your representative on the web). (To read a letter sent to Speaker Pelosi asking for the Kucinich Amendment to "be included in the Manager's Amendment of H.R. 3962", please visit http://www.kucinich.h...)

When asked about the Weiner Amendment, Congressman Kucinich said that he hopes the Weiner Amendment is not voted on, since there has been no debate on it; and the Congressman doesn't wish to see any piece of legislation voted on when it has not been debated.

Congressman Kucinich also said that even though there is huge support for single-payer health care, single-payer was taken off the table right away and there was never any discussion on it. The Congressman went on to say that the current bill has been rushed through Congress, while people have not been informed of the consequences.

Congressman Kucinich said that in the beginning, the public option would have insured up to 149 million people (about 1/3 of the country) but that number has been reduced to 11 million; and went on to say that the current bill will help the government save money but won't help the people save money. Congressman Kucinich said that the people will pay a premium, co-pay and detectable, but that there is no control over rates. The Congressman quoted, I think from the Bible, "that which is crooked cannot be made straight".

The Congressman said that the "insurance companies have set the table, welcome to dinner! You wanna know what they're having for dinner? They're having us for dinner!"

Congressman Kucinich said that due to the mandates, $70 billion in new business will be given to the insurance companies; and that by requiring people to buy insurance, the burden has been shifted onto the people.

Congressman Kucinich said that you can't separate insurance companies from their money, and that the serious problem is that the system is not being responsible to the needs of the people.

The Congressman said that insurance companies are big winners. However, he doesn't wish for failure unless the failure would cause them to wake up.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich will be here in Atlanta, Georgia, on Monday, November 2nd, chairing a Domestic Policy Subcommittee Hearing entitled Examining the Continuing Crises in Residential Foreclosures and the Emerging Commercial Real Estate Crises: Perspectives from Atlanta.