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I led the fight for the Clinton health care plan in 1994. We failed. I learned from that experience. What I learned is you can't pass a complicated government-run plan.

Dick Gephardt

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Dick Gephardt
Age: 83
Born: 1941
Born: January 31
Former Majority Leader
Lawyer
Politician
St. Louis
Missouri
Care
Clinton
Government
Plans
Health
Fight
Learned
Failed
Fighting
Complicated
Experience
Pass
Running
Plan

More quotes by Dick Gephardt

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We are all so privileged to be citizens of America, and we all need to be engaged.
Dick Gephardt
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I grew up in a household that was a labor household. My dad was a Teamster and a milk truck driver. My mother was a secretary. Neither of them got through high school. But they worked hard and they gave me very, very important opportunities to go to school, get a good education.
Dick Gephardt
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When you succeed (with legislation), that feeling is exhilaration. And it takes leadership from a president, which means you meet with members of Congress 24/7 and you talk and you listen.
Dick Gephardt
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I was raised in a working class family of Baptist faith, and I went to college on a church scholarship where early teachings were reinforced. Abortion was wrong, I was taught.
Dick Gephardt
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I grew up in the '50s and '60s when Jack Kennedy was president. We would watch him on television. And our teachers always talked about the good things public servants could do. I thought maybe that's something I should do. So when I got out of law school, my wife, Jane, and I became precinct captains.
Dick Gephardt
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Democracy is interactive... Its a constant job of information, education, explanation, listening, and interactive communication.
Dick Gephardt
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Our democracy if self-cleansing. If you don't like it, be a candidate, or support a candidate.
Dick Gephardt
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In every issue there are winners are losers, and the losers are plenty. But they have to be willing to grudgingly accept the result. That's the genius of our democracy.
Dick Gephardt
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I think in some cases busing did improve the situation in some areas in some cases it didn't. We had busing in St. Louis, and it has been ended and we are using other methods of trying to better integrate the schools.
Dick Gephardt
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Every proposal I'm making, every idea I'm advancing has a single, central purpose: to revive a failing economy and give working Americans the help and security they need.
Dick Gephardt
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I'm running for president because I've had enough of the oil barons, the status-quo apologists, the special-interest lobbyists running amok.
Dick Gephardt
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You know, when you're in public life, everything you do is out there. But I am proud to stand on my record.
Dick Gephardt
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We can see beyond the present shadows of war in the Middle East to a new world order where the strong work together to deter and stop aggression. This was precisely Franklin Roosevelt's and Winston Churchill's vision for peace for the post-war period.
Dick Gephardt
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Why would we want to keep a tax cut that's failed? Why would we not want to go back to the Clinton tax code? And why would we not want to help every family more with a health-care plan like mine? Let's help average people. Let's be Democrats.
Dick Gephardt
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The people I'm honored to represent in Missouri and all over the country want leaders to address their kitchen table everyday problems.
Dick Gephardt
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I don't think you can be a good listener unless you're a good listener. I think it's something that you really have to do, and if you really do it, then you can do it. If you don't do it, then you can't do it.
Dick Gephardt
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I think it's time we had a president who carried the same life experiences into the White House as most ordinary Americans.
Dick Gephardt
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If you want to run for president, you better be an athlete. It's 24/7. It never ends. You give up your personal life completely and you have something of a chance to be shot.
Dick Gephardt
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I think a lot of people think I was born in a blue suit, on the David Brinkley show. And that isn't me. I am much more that kid who grew up in South St. Louis, in a very modest household, with a simple background with parents who didn't get through high school.
Dick Gephardt
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Eventually I foresee voting on the Internet, which will lead to much more direct democracy.
Dick Gephardt