On the Brink of Default; Take the Argument to the American People

Floor Speech

Mr. KUCINICH. Here is how we can take a couple steps back from the brink of a default.

First, raise the debt ceiling until December 31, 2012, without its being contingent on cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, or increases in taxes, or cuts in taxes, or cuts in spending. The attempt to resolve all of these issues at once as the moment of reckoning arrives was never a good idea. It guarantees that the people we were sent here to represent will lose either in the details of a rushed grand bargain or through the consequences of default.

Take the debate to the American people in the next election. Ask the American people if they want cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, increases in taxes, what kind of cuts in spending, what kind of jobs, programs.

For those who say, ``well, that's what we were sent here to do,'' claim your victory. You've come here and you've changed the terms of the debate. You lose the debate if America defaults. You win if you bring this debate into every district in America in the 2012 election.

When you go home, people will thank you for being able to focus America's attention on these fiscal issues, but you may be surprised to learn that the American people did not want us to burn down the house in an argument over the height of the ceiling.

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