Rep. Dennis Kucinich Addresses NWroots in Seattle from David Goldstein on Vimeo.
This is the second half of Congressman Dennis Kucinich's speech at NWroots last Saturday. The full video is linked above. For those of you who'd rather read than watch the video, part one of the speech is transcribed here.
When I read that some of our friends in Washington are ready for a grand bargain that would include reducing Social Security benefits [hisses]...that's right...but think about this, Social Security, no one disputes it, it's rock solid through the year 2037 without any changes whatsoever. I mean a crisis that is suppose to happen in 26 years, or in 2085, that's not a reason to reduce benefits, they can simply raise the caps if they are concerned with having enough money, or, prime the pump of the economy, get people back to work and that's a way you increase the income that Social Security relies on through taxes.
Where are you going to get the money? Here's where you get the money. Wall Street didn't have any trouble getting money for bailouts. They didn't have any trouble –banks – getting money from the Fed, quantitative easing, QE1, QE2, it ends up with the Fed creating money out of nothing, right? And giving it to the banks, who park the money at the Fed, gain interest on it, and have a reserve of money to be able to do mergers and acquisitions.
In 1913, the Federal Reserve was created and that essentially privatized the money part of the country. Article I, section VIII of the Constitution provides that Congress has the power to coin money. And, what's happened is, that we have let private banking essentially run the economy for their own interests. What has to happen is we have to put the Fed back in the Treasury and give the government the ability to invest in our own country again so we can create the money to create the jobs. There's no magic to this. So it's not as though our fate is out of our control.
We can have jobs for all, healthcare for all, education for all, retirement security for all, but we have to change our priorities. And we have to make our country one which is grounded in the principles of social and economic justice. And that is where you come in, because, all across this country, people are waiting for voices to speak out on a regular basis. Because the world and our country are so interconnected, the ideas of any one of you has the chance to change everything. Any one of you.
I began as an activist in the City of Cleveland. I tested this capacity to change things, by working with others to save public parks that were about to be turned into shopping areas. Or working to save a fire station or libraries. And then later on as Mayor of Cleveland saving a municipally owned electric system from a take over by a giant utility. And then later on helping to save a steel mill that was scheduled to be closed. Or helping to save a community hospital. You develop a capacity to be able to change the outcome. And that's why we are here. We are here to change the outcome. To use our talents and abilities. To use our soul, our passion, and pour them in to circumstances where through a projection of our awareness, and our heart, we are present to be able to create something new.
Thank you.