Kucinich: Don't ask the poor to take cuts

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) appeared on Countdown Monday evening to talk about President Barack Obama's debt reduction plan and the steps he would take to protect the middle and lower classes.

"I like what President Obama said today about more taxes about those who are making more, but that's only a small piece of a large picture," Kucinich told fill-in host David Shuster. "That in itself isn't going to move the economy forward. I want to see a little more on the job creation and the wealth creation. "

The Ohio congressman added, "Social Security should have never been on the table. It shouldn't have been a discussion about it being vulnerable."

"Now Medicare and Medicaid, we've got to be very careful that in this trade off, where we're saying that the wealthy people have to play more, that we don't say to the poor people 'Oh you do your fair share.' They're already paying 15 percent of their income for Social Security and Medicare. We've got to be careful to ask those who are on the lower economic strata to start taking any kind of cuts at all when they're already hurting."

WATCH: Video from Current TV, which appeared on September 20, 2011.