April, 12 2010, 07:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Laura Bonham, PDA Communications Coordinator
Laura@pdamerica.org, (435) 336-2123
Tim Carpenter, PDA National Director
Tim@pdamerica.org, (413)-320-2015
Kucinich Asks Colleagues to Vote No on Funding Escalation
WASHINGTON
In an audio podcast recorded by Progressive Democrats of America,
Congressman Dennis Kucinich commits to voting No on the upcoming war
supplemental spending bill, which would fund a 30,000 troop escalation
of the war in Afghanistan with $33 billion.
Kucinich urges his colleagues to vote no. He
stressed that this needs to be a firm commitment to vote no, regardless
of what useful measures are packaged into the bill to make it more
attractive. ($2.8 billion in aid to Haiti is expected.)
Kucinich urges all Americans to lobby their
representatives in Congress to join him in committing to voting No.
On March 10th, Kucinich forced a vote on the
House floor on a bill that would have ended the war. He says in this
podcast that the 65 votes in favor of ending it have made a big
difference. Included among those 65, perhaps most notably, was
Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, who may now lead the
effort to fund the escalation of a war he voted last month to end. See: https://kucinich.us
Listen to the audio here: https://blog.pdamerica.org/2010/04/the-agitator-voices-of-pda-episode-5/
A whip list of congress members committed to
voting No and to speaking out publicly is being maintained at https://defundwar.org
Congressman Kucinich also discusses his vote
on healthcare, the ongoing efforts for state-level single-payer systems,
a form of which passed in the Vermont Senate on Wednesday. Kucinich
stated his intention to continue pushing for federal legislation to
remove blocks to state healthcare provision created by the Employee
Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). He also discusses questions of
working inside and outside a political party. See: https://kucinich.us
Also on the podcast, following Congressman
Kucinich, is Bill Hendrick, longtime activist and PDA-endorsed
Democratic candidate for Congress in California's 44th District, east of
Los Angeles.
Hedrick came within 4,000 votes of unseating a
Republican incumbent in 2008 and is now engaged in his second campaign.
Hedrick discusses his motivations, which include ending the current
wars, shifting resources to human needs, and alleviating poverty in his
wealthy district. See: https://hedrickforcongress.com
Progressive Democrats of America was founded in 2004 to transform the Democratic Party and U.S. politics by working inside and outside of the party by working to elect empowered progressives and by building the progressive movement in solidarity with with peace, justice, civil rights, environmental, and other reform efforts. For more information about PDA, please see PDAmerica.org.
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