Rep. Dick Gephardt
Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner
Veterans Memorial
Des Moines, Iowa
November 15, 2003

TRANSCRIPT    TRANSCRIPT    TRANSCRIPT

SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: Dick Gephardt, Dick Gephardt is the son of a milk truck driver and a secretary.  He graduated from Northwestern University and the University of Michigan Law School with the help of a church scholarship and student loans.  Upon graduation, he and his wonderful wife Jane began a career in public service in St. Louis politics.  He was first elected in 1971 to Alderman and now, after 26 years in Congress, Congressman Gephardt is an accomplished lawmaker and a leader in the Democratic party.

Among his most notable accomplishments was the House passage of President Clinton's economic plan in 1993 to slash the deficit, invest in education, cut taxes for working families and ask the wealthy to pay their fair share.  As the majority leader at that time, Congressman Gephardt steered this initiative through the House without a single Republican vote.  The Republicans asserted it was a job killer, but in fact this economic plan led to the single longest economic expansion in history, the highest home ownership ever, the lowest inflation in a generation, and over 22 million new jobs.

Congressman Gephardt has put forth a number of ideas--a bold plan to improve the economy and our health care system while securing our nation--that have drawn very favorable comments.  And many people look to Dick Gephardt for the kind of leadership and decency that has always been his hallmark in our nation's public life.  It is my pleasure to introduce to you Congressman Dick Gephardt.

[Music].

REP. GEPHARDT:  Thank you.  Thank you all very much.  I'm going to -- thank you -- I'm going to start you tonight with a question.  Are you better off than you were three years ago?  [audience: "No."]

When Bill and Hillary Clinton were in the White House we had the best jobs creating program in the history of the country.  Remember?  Twenty-two million new jobs were created in seven years.  We took a $5 trillion deficit and turned it into a $5 trillion surplus.  I was proud to lead the fight in the House to pass that Clinton economic program, and I was proud to fight at the side of Hillary Clinton to pass the Clinton economic--the Clinton health care program.  She had courage.  She did what was right, and when we win the presidency back, we're going to pass a health care program that covers everybody in this country.

I've though a lot about how to describe this president and what he's done.  I finally figured it out.  He's the vanishing president.  Everything we care about is vanishing.  Jobs.  3.3 million jobs have vanished since he's been president.  2 1/2 million people in just the last months lost their health care in this country since he's been president.  Our clean environment is being lost since he's president.  we're losing our allies by the day since he's president.  We've lost the surplus that we produced in the Clinton years since he's president.  Everything that we want to find, we're losing.  We have lost Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.  They vanished.  There's only one answer to this problem.  We got to make George Bush vanish.

He only has one idea in his head, if he has one.  Tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, that he follows by tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, that he follows by [audience...].  It's never going to work.  Trickle down never has worked.  The only way you build this country is by investing in the middle class and the people trying to get in the middle class.  You know what I tell my Republican friends.  If you want to live like a Republican, you better vote for the Democrats.

Everything that I'm talking about in this campaign is designed to build jobs, to create a better future for the American people.  I will have three goals of my presidency--jobs, jobs, jobs.

I've got a health care plan that will cover every American with health care.  I help everybody be able to get and keep health care that can never be taken away.  I help every employee, every person who's unemployed, part-time, full-time, people who work for the public sector, people who work for not-for-profit organizations.

Let me tell you as clearly as I can, it is imperative that we get everybody in this country covered with health insurance.  Jane Gephardt's here tonight.  We have three kids.  When our oldest was 18 months, he had terminal cancer.  The doctor said he wouldn't live four weeks.  He lived because we had good health insurance.  This is a moral issue.  We must not rest until everybody in this country is covered with good health insurance.

I've got a plan, a universal pension plan to make sure that all of your credits as you work for different employers are put together so that at the end of your working period you at least get one good pension.

I've got a plan to get an international minimum wage.  I will go to the World Trade Organization and demand that as a condition of being part of the World Trade Organization every country in the world have an enforceable minimum wage.  It is time to stop the exploitation of  human labor.

In 1960 Jack Kennedy said that in ten years we'd put a man on the moon.  I will say that in ten years we will be independent of Middle Eastern oil.  It is time that we do  that with American resources.

I have a Teacher Corps idea.  I want to say to young students, if you'll train to be a teacher and teach where we need you for five years, the federal government will pay your college loans.  If it's good enough for the Marines, it's good enough for teachers.

And finally I have an agriculture program that will bring us back to Democratic agricultural values.  We'll put a limit on farm payments, we'll have a packer ban, we'll have country of origin labeling, and we'll enforce the laws to stop the corporate hog los that are ruining the environment in states like Iowa and Missouri.

I will give the American people real clear choices and real distinctions with the lack of leadership of this president.  My philosophy, my values, our values, are different than his.  I think we're all tied together.  Martin Luther King once said we're all woven into a single garment of destiny.  What affects me directly affects all the rest of us indirectly.  He also said I can't be what I ought to be until you can be what you ought to be.  That's what I really believe.

My own life, my own life is the best example.  I grew up poor.  My dad was a Teamster and a milk truck driver.  It was the best job he ever had.  We didn't have any money.  But I got a great education.  I had church loans, I had government loans, I had university scholarships.  I got a great education in university and law school.  I've been leader in the House for 13 years.  I'm running for president of the United States of America, and I did not do it on my own.  I had a lot of help.  There aren't many of us that don't need some help to fulfill our potential.

So in conclusion just hear this.  When I'm president in that Oval Office, every day on every issue I'm going to be trying to figure out how every person in this country fulfills their God-given potential.  Nobody left out; nobody left behind.  We can make America a better place than it's ever been.  And I'll just end finally with this.  Like father, like son--four years and another Bush is done.  Thank you.  God Bless you.

[Music].

# # #

Copyright © 2003  Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action.