Dennis Kucinich

Low-income families across this country, including in my own district in Ohio, are especially harmed by high gas prices because they have a crippling effect on the price of food.

Congress cannot continue to allow American consumers to bear the brunt of our energy policies, which grant oil companies massive tax deductions in exchange for the privilege of reaping an unimaginable profit from extraction from the earth.

By not raising the price at the pump.

It is clear to me what we are seeing is the result of a monopoly.

I don't think we ought to have a system where we say only 2 percent of the population is so-called smart enough to be accredited investors.

One example is the whole area of accredited investor. This started off with the perfectly good intent of trying to keep the--allowing people who should be able to take care of themselves to be in without having to be regulated.

There has been a lot of evidence that the SEC is somewhat dysfunctional.

I want to challenge the conventional wisdom. We have a regulatory structure of the SEC which was basically designed in the 1930's, and the question is, is that really appropriate for today's Information Age?

Governor Walker has inadvertently done a public service by exposing the extent to which this mind-set of privatizing what is the public sphere...

Whether there is such a thing as a public sphere with public servants who perform duties on behalf of the public...

The attack on collective bargaining rights is a choice, not a budget issue.

Governor Walker's effort to repeal the rights of State workers is a nonfiscal, nonfiscal policy item.

It obviously had no effect whatsoever on the State budget.

If the unions in Wisconsin agreed to the financial cuts you sought, I don't understand how this can't continue to be characterized as a debate about State budget deficits.

If the gentleman will yield, I would be pleased to work with both of those gentlemen to make sure that we cover all the safety concerns that are expressed.

What power did you have to negotiate with your insurance company when you increasingly saw your health care costs increase during the last years?

I have heard witnesses, the other witnesses say that they think that employers will increasingly stop offering health care to employees as a result of this law.

The new health care law comes at a time when both employers and families are struggling to keep up with skyrocketing increases in their health care costs.

And also, I ask unanimous consent to submit for the record a report from the Commonwealth Fund entitled, 'Seeing Red: The Growing Burden of Medical Bills and Debt Faced by U.S. Families,' where it points out that an estimated 72 million…

This study, by the way, is done by a group of physicians from Harvard, and Ph.D.s from Harvard and Ohio University, who found that using a conservative definition, 62.1 percent of all bankruptcies in 2007 were medical.

I do not believe that the insurance companies, in and of themselves, are the problem.

I want to thank my friend, Chairman Roe, for calling this hearing.

I think the President is right. I think he hit the right balance.

There is nobody--we want job-creating opportunities. We want you all to be successful.

We want our people to have good health. We want people to be able to have safe jobs.