Gephardt Preaches Bipartisanship
January 29, 2002
The New York Times
By REUTERS
Filed at 6:52 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives
Minority Leader Richard Gephardt preached
bipartisanship on Tuesday in the official Democratic
response to President Bush's State of the Union Address.
In prepared remarks Gephardt said just as Democrats and
Republicans came together after Sept. 11 to wage a war
on terrorism, they must now join hands to boost fresh life
into the sagging economy.
``I refuse to accept that while we stand shoulder to
shoulder on the war, we should stand toe to toe on the
economy,'' Gephardt said.
Even as other members of his party fired off election-year
barbs at the Republican White House, saying its policies
favor the rich, Gephardt said in his party's official
response to the president's address: ``We need to find a
way to respect each other, and trust each other and work
together to solve the long-term challenges facing
America.''
Gephardt, as he first did last week, again proposed that
Bush host a bipartisan summit on the economy ``to figure
out how we're going to help businesses create jobs,
reduce the deficit and simplify the tax code and grow our
economy.''
The White House rejected Gephardt's proposal last week,
suggesting the potential 2004 White House contender was
more interested in scoring political points than helping
the economy.
The administration had no immediate comment on
Gephardt's renewed call for such a summit.
AN ELECTION YEAR
But Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi
said the two parties should try to work together on the
economy as well as on pending farm, trade and energy
legislation.
``It'll be hard,'' Lott said. ``It'll be particularly hard with it
being an election year,'' which will see a third of the
Senate and entire House up for grabs in November.
``But,'' Lott said, ``the American people expect that of us
and we have an opportunity to come together.''
Gephardt, in his prepared remarks, also called on Bush to
join efforts on Capitol Hill to pass legislation to reduce the
influence of money in politics.
Without mentioning the Enron Corp. by name, Gephardt
pointedly alluded to the collapse of the Houston-based
energy giant, a major political donor to both parties.
``If the nation's largest bankruptcy coupled with a clear
example of paid political influence isn't a prime case for
reform, I don't know what is,'' he said.
In an appeal to voters, Gephardt said, ``So if you've never
called or written your member of Congress, now is the
time.''
``I hope the president will stand with us to clean up the
political system and get big money out of politics,''
Gephardt said.
Gephardt closed his remarks by offering a salute to the
estimated 3,000 Americans killed in the Sept. 11 attacks.
``We can never know what would have been the full
measures of their lives, or what they would have
contributed to our world if they had lived,'' Gephardt said.
``But one thing is certain: It's up to all of us to redeem the
lives they would have lived with the lives we live today, and
to make the most of our time here on Earth. Let us be up
to that challenge,'' Gephardt said. |
