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<div class="node-header"> <span class="submitted">Kucinich sounds like
Ron Paul?<br>
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Published on Friday, July 15, 2011 by <a
href="http://www.commondreams.org">CommonDreams.org</a><!-- I converted this one -->
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<h2 class="title">Debt Political Theater Diverts Attention While
Americans' Wealth Is Stolen </h2>
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<div class="author"> by <a
href="http://www.commondreams.org/author/dennis-kucinich">Dennis
Kucinich</a> </div>
</div>
<p>The rancorous debate over the debt belies a fundamental truth of our
economy -- that it is run for the few at the expense of the many, that
our entire government has been turned into a machine which takes the
wealth of a mass of Americans and accelerates it into the hands of the
few. Let me give you some examples.</p>
<p>Take war. War takes the money from the American people and puts it
into the hands of arms manufacturers, war profiteers, and private
armies. The war in Iraq, based on lies: $3 trillion will be the cost of
that war. The war in Afghanistan; based on a misreading of history;
half a trillion dollars in expenses already. The war against Libya will
be $1 billion by September.</p>
<p>Fifty percent of our discretionary spending goes for the Pentagon. A
massive transfer of wealth into the hands of a few while the American
people lack sufficient jobs, health care, housing, retirement security.</p>
<p>Our energy policies take the wealth from the American people and put
it into the hands of the oil companies. We could be looking at $150 a
barrel for oil in the near future.</p>
<p>Our environmental policy takes the wealth of the people -- clean
air, clean water -- and puts it in the hands of the polluters. It's a
transfer of wealth, not only from the present but from future
generations as our environment is ruined.</p>
<p>Insurance companies, what do they do? They take the wealth from the
American people in terms of what they charge people for health
insurance and they put it into the hands of the few.</p>
<p>We have to realize what this country's economy has become. Our
monetary policy, through the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, privatized
the money supply, gathers the wealth, puts it in the hands of the few
while the Federal Reserve can create money out of nothing, give it to
banks to park at the Fed while our small businesses are starving for
capital.</p>
<p>Mark my words -- Wall Street cashes in whether we have a default or
not. And the same type of thinking that created billions in bailouts
for Wall Street and more than $1 trillion in giveaways by the Federal
Reserve today leaves 26 million Americans either underemployed or
unemployed. And nine out of ten Americans over the age of 65 are facing
cuts in their Social Security in order to pay for a debt which grew
from tax cuts for the rich and for endless wars.</p>
<p>There is a massive transfer of wealth from the American people to
the hands of a few and it's going on right now as America's eyes are
misdirected to the political theater of these histrionic debt
negotiations, threats to shut down the government, and willingness to
make the most Americans pay dearly for debts they did not create.</p>
<p>These are symptoms of a government which has lost its way, and they
are a challenge to the legitimacy of the two-party system.</p>
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