Top 22 Dick Gephardt Quotes

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.

You know, when you’re in public life, everything you do is out there. But I am proud to stand on my record.

I filed a brief as a friend of the court in the U. of Michigan to keep affirmative action at the U. of Michigan, which I attended the law school. And I was one of the original sponsors of making the Martin Luther King birthday a federal holiday.

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.

Like father, like son, four years and this president is done.

Al Gore is a good man. He is a decent, caring man. He listens to his heart and his head. He loves his family.

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.

The deficit only became a big problem in the Reagan-Bush years. For 12 years, Republican presidents talked about balancing the budget, but failed to propose one.

I’ve always had good energy; I’ve always had good health.

I’ve thought a lot about the world and how George Bush sees the world and it ain’t even close.

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.

In 1993, as House Democratic Leader, I led the fight to pass the Clinton-Gore economic plan – a plan designed to slash the deficit, invest in education, cut taxes for working families, and ask the wealthy among us to pay their fair share… Not one Republican voted for that plan. They said it was a job killer.

One of the big mistakes Republicans made with the Contract with America is that they tried to do too much too fast, and people revolted against it.

I have been a long and strong supporter of civil rights in my whole career. I led the fight to get the voting rights act re-enacted. I have been a strong supporter of affirmative action. I believe in it strongly.

What we have is two important values in conflict: freedom of speech and our desire for healthy campaigns in a healthy democracy. You can’t have both.

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.

The people I’m honored to represent in Missouri and all over the country want leaders to address their kitchen table everyday problems.

My parents wanted me to be a Baptist minister. I was a youth minister in my church when I was still in college. And I was in a lot of theater in high school, and at Northwestern.

Life is the division of human cells, a process which begins at conception.

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.

If the economy is still going forward, even at 40 miles an hour, 50 miles an hour, I think most people will stick with President Obama. I think people look at politics like they hire a plumber. I hire you to fix the bad pipe. If you fix it, I’ll rehire you. If you don’t fix it, I’m not going to rehire you.

Democracy is interactive… It’s a constant job of information, education, explanation, listening, and interactive communication.