December, 10 2009, 01:05pm EDT
Kucinich Challenges Linking Unemployment Benefits to War Spending: 'War Spending Will Cost 2 million Jobs'
WASHINGTON
Following a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today released the following statement:
"According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the sharp increase in war spending is taking up a greater portion of our Gross Domestic Product, which will cost the U.S. about two million jobs because such spending 'is a direct drain on the economy, reducing efficiency, slowing growth and costing jobs.' Contrary to popular assumptions, massive spending for war does not create jobs. It costs jobs. War spending is capital-intensive, not labor-intensive. War creates unemployment.
"The current plans to make extension of unemployment benefits contingent on Congress passing a war spending bill raises serious questions about basic decency and common sense.
"We are telling people that as long as we are at war, they will get their unemployment benefits. And, of course as long as we are at war, there will be more people unemployed.
"Instead of unemployment benefits, people need work. Instead of war, people need work. War drives up our deficit. War takes away money from job creation. War results in unemployment. War is a weapon of mass destruction."
Dennis Kucinich is an American politician. A U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1997 to 2013, he was also a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in 2004 and 2008.
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