Dick Gephardt on Budget & Economy Former Democratic Representative (MO-3); Former Democratic Candidate for President

Return to Clinton economic policy from Bush's failed policy

KERRY: Going back to the Clinton tax cuts, doesn't create another job, it puts a burden on current predicament of middle-class Americans. They lose their current revenue. What's kept America's economy moving in the last two and a half years has been consumer spending. If all of a sudden, when we're trying to recover, we sucked a whole lot of money out of those consumers, we are not going to be able to keep the economy moving. It's the wrong policy.

Healthcare reform is critical to economy

GEPHARDT: Because my bill makes them do it. We don't just hand out tax credits, we say, "You've got to pass it along to the employee so they can buy the plan that they want to buy." We're never going to solve the economic problems in this country until we solve the health care problem. We have 50 million people without health insurance. We did an economic study. A reputable economic forecaster said that we'd put $312 billion of stimulus into the American economy.

I led 1990s boom-I can get economy moving again

Push a bold plan for health care and jobs creation

A: I have the boldest plan for changing America's course and putting us back on the right track. From the beginning of my campaign, I have framed this election as a stark choice: we can stay with the failed Bush economic plan of tax cuts for the few and the wealthy, or we can have a bold plan to give all Americans health care they can never lose - and create jobs while we're doing it.

Repeal the Bush tax cuts and invest in people

A: I have constantly and adamantly called for the full repeal of the Bush tax cuts. I understand what it takes to grow the economy while making investments in people. I led the fight in Congress to pass Clinton's 1993 economic plan that was the foundation for the best economy in America in 50 years. We made tough choices - and we did it without a single Republican vote. Republicans said it would be a job-killer - instead, it resulted in 22 million new jobs.

1993 tax increase & sound economics caused budget surplus

Stakeholder economics: Balance for everyone’s benefit

At the same time, I do advocate basic rules and standards for business and economic behavior. I believe there must be a floor, and in addition, that government has a role in helping find ways to make America’s workplaces better-an approach described as stakeholder economics. It seeks to promote economic growth for all players in the economy and to reduce the adversarial nature of business-labor relations. Old-fashioned economic theory focuses exclusively on one set of stakeholders: the shareholders who nominally own the business. But managers and employees are also stakeholders, and so are communities and governments. Thus, stakeholder economics seeks to recognize and balance the competing claims of various corporate stakeholders so that win-win decisions can be reached for everyone’s benefits.

Top 1% have benefited much more than average worker

People are working harder for same wages

Between 1947 and 1972, the average family felt a doubling of their income. In the last 20 years, average weekly wages declined by 19% in real terms.

People are working harder. American workers are working about 82 hours more a year than they did 20 years ago, yet their wages are flat.