Gephardt health care makeovers, letdowns have marked tenure

[Freddie Stubbs]

WASHINGTON - When Richard Gephardt unveiled his health care plan this year, critics from both the left and right attacked it immediately.

Republicans derided it as a major tax increase that smacked of big government. Some of Gephardt's Democratic rivals said it was a sop to big business and a "big spending" idea of the past, while others said it wouldn't work and wasn't big enough.

With health care costs spiraling and the number of uninsured at 41 million, the issue has taken center stage in the Democratic primary debate. And the issue is the heart of Gephardt's presidential bid, with the potential to make or break his campaign.

This isn't the first time that Gephardt has been at the center of a firestorm over health care - one of his own making. It was Nov. 15, 1979, and President Jimmy Carter was so steamed that his words were unprintable.

Carter had battled relentlessly in Congress to lasso runaway health care costs. But he suffered an embarrassing defeat orchestrated by Gephardt, then a junior House member with the audacity to challenge the president of his party.

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