[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12464]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   ON THE BRINK OF DEFAULT, TAKE THE ARGUMENT TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

  (Mr. KUCINICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  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.

                          ____________________