WASHINGTON - November 18 - Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) issued the following statement today on the Budget Reconciliation bill that will cut over $50 billion in vital domestic priorities while funding endless war and tax cuts to the super wealthy:

"This is a dark day for this institution. With the Gulf states devastated by hurricanes, hundreds of thousand homeless and displaced, with poverty on the rise, with the number of uninsured Americans on the rise, with the price of college tuition on the rise and with our economy leaving millions of working Americans behind, this Congress has the audacity to cut over $50 billion dollars in vital domestic priorities while fully funding the war in Iraq and tax cuts to the super wealthy.

"If a budget is a statement of priorities for a nation, this budget bill speaks volumes about the misplaced priorities of this Congress.

"This budget chooses war over education, tax cuts over health care, special interests over need of the nation and rich over poor. This budget bill attempts to balance the deficits caused by the war in Iraq and the tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans squarely on the backs of poor and working class Americans.

"Our nation cannot sustain the path laid out by this bill. With this bill, Congress is turning its back on hundreds of millions of people in favor of an extreme ideology. We can and must do better."

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