Kucinich on Sept 2nd

Floor Statement of Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich: The Supplemental for
Katrina
Saturday, September 03 2005 @ 08:24 AM PDT
Contributed by: Peggy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 2, 2005
12:20 PM CONTACT: Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Doug Gordon (202) 225-5871

Floor Statement of Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich:
The Supplemental for Hurricane Katrina

WASHINGTON - September 2 - Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) gave the
following speech today on the House floor during a special session to
provide relief money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina:

"This amount of money is only a fraction of what is needed and everyone here
knows it. Let it go forward quickly with heart-felt thanks to those who are
helping to save lives with necessary food, water, shelter, medical care and
security. Congress must also demand accountability with the appropriations.
Because until there are basic changes in the direction of this government,
this tragedy will multiply to apocalyptic proportions.
The Administration yesterday said that no one anticipated the breach of the
levees. Did the Administration not see or care about the 2001 FEMA warning
about the risk of a devastating hurricane hitting the people of New Orleans?
Did it not know or care that civil and army engineers were warning for years
about the consequences of failure to strengthen the flood control system?
Was it aware or did it care that the very same Administration which decries
the plight of the people today, cut from the budget tens of millions needed
for Gulf-area flood control projects?

Countless lives have been lost throughout the South with a cost of hundreds
of billions in ruined homes, businesses, and the destruction of an entire
physical and social infrastructure.

The President said an hour ago that the Gulf Coast looks like it has been
obliterated by a weapon. It has. Indifference is a weapon of mass
destruction.

Our indifferent government is in a crisis of legitimacy. If it continues to
ignore its basic responsibility for the health and welfare of the American
people, will there ever be enough money to clean up after their
indifference?

As our government continues to squander human and monetary resources of this
country on the war, people are beginning to ask, 'Isn't it time we began to
take care of our own people here at home? Isn't it time we rescued our own
citizens? Isn't it time we fed our own people? Isn't it time we sheltered
our own people? Isn't it time we provided physical and economic security for
our own people?' And isn't it time we stopped the oil companies from
profiting from this tragedy?

We have plenty of work to do here at home. It is time for America to come
home and take care of its own people who are drowning in the streets,
suffocating in attics, dying from exposure to the elements, oppressed by
poverty and illness, wracked with despair and hunger and thirst.

The time is NOW to bring back to the United States the 78,000 National Guard
troops currently deployed overseas into the Gulf Coast region.

The time is NOW to bring back to the US the equipment which will be needed
for search and rescue, for clean up and reclamation.

The time is NOW for federal resources, including closed Army bases, to be
used for temporary shelter for those who have been displaced by the
hurricane.

The time is NOW to plan massive public works, with jobs going to the people
of the Gulf Coast states, to build new levees, new roads, bridges,
libraries, schools, colleges and universities and to rebuild all public
institutions, including hospitals. Medicare ought to be extended to
everyone, so every person can get the physical and mental health care they
might need as a result of the disaster.

The time is NOW for the federal government to take seriously the research of
scientists who have warned for years about the dangers of changes in the
global climate, and to prepare other regions of the country for other
possible weather disasters until we change our disastrous energy policies.

The time is NOW for changes in our energy policy, to end the domination of
oil and fossil fuel and to invest heavily in alternative energy, including
wind and solar, geothermal and biofuels.

As bad as this catastrophe will prove to be, it is in fact only a warning.
Our government must change its direction, it must become involved in making
America a better place to live, a place where all may survive and thrive. It
must get off the path of war and seek the path of peace, peace with the
natural environment, peace with other nations, peace with a just economic
system."