By Derrick Z. Jackson
Dennis Kucinich, the Ohio congressman running for the Democratic presidential nomination, deserves more attention than he gets. On health care, he says what Americans believe, even as his rivals rake in contributions from the industry.
In a CNN poll this spring, 64 percent of respondents said the government should "provide a national insurance program for all Americans, even if this would require higher taxes," and 73 percent approve of higher taxes to insure children under 18. Those results track New York Times and Gallup polls last year, in which about two-thirds of respondents said it is the federal government's responsibility to guarantee health coverage to all Americans.
Such polls allow Kucinich to joke that, far from being in the loony left, "I'm in the center. Everyone else is to the right of me."
"One of the greatest hoaxes of this campaign — everyone's for universal health care," Kucinich said. "It's like a mantra. But when you get into the details, you find out that all the other candidates are talking about maintaining the existing for-profit system."
