Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich

Washington, Dec 7 -

Washington D.C. (December 7, 2012) – Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) appeared on “Fox and Friends” this morning, calling for an end to brinksmanship over the “fiscal cliff” negotiations currently going on between the President and Congressional leadership.

The interview can be viewed here.

Kucinich spoke as negotiations over how to avoid the combination of tax increases and across-the-board spending continues. As the deadline set by the 2011 Budget Control Act looms, Congress has been in gridlock over how to best promote economic growth. Kucinich has repeatedly called for an economic revival led by job creation and not cuts to essential social programs, pointing out that advocating for fiscal austerity is misguided.

“We’re going in to a season of ‘peace on Earth, good will toward all.’ It’d be a good thing to practice that in Washington,” said Kucinich.

“If we have a ‘fiscal cliff’ deal that results in government spending being cut we are likely to see a deleveraging in the private sector that will cause unemployment to go up and tax revenue to go down. We need to create more taxpayers, not just talk about raising more taxes. Jobs are the central problem that we aren’t addressing in this conversation about the ‘fiscal cliff.’ Let’s build a bridge over the ‘fiscal cliff’ – with a jobs program.

“Cutting spending and increasing taxes are old prescriptions and they are not going to work in this situation. We’ve got to get America back to work. We’ve got to help prime the pump of the economy and get businesses going again,” said Kucinich.