WASHINGTON - November 5 - Following a statement on the Floor of the House of Representative, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), co-author of HR 676 with Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), today made the following statement about the House health care plan:

"The Book of Ecclesiastes says ‘To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven... a time to plant, a time to reap.'

"Many years ago, people in states across America planted the seeds of single payer health care. Those seeds have spouted and borne fruit where powerful state citizens' movements exist to create not-for-profit health care. This led to passage of an amendment to the Health Care bill which protected the rights of states to pursue single payer. Unfortunately that amendment was taken out of the bill, and we must try to get it into the conference report.

"While the state health care movement is strong, the national single payer movement is still growing. It has resulted in the Conyers Bill, HR676: Medicare for All. The bill has 87 cosponsors, a significant number, but no where near enough to bring the bill to the floor where it would face certain defeat.

"To those who want a stand-alone vote on single payer now, I want to ask this question:

"Is this a time to plant or a time to reap? What fruit will be borne from a tree that has received no light and no water in this Capitol?"