McRee: Thanks for sitting down with us, by the way.
Schwarzenegger: My pleasure.
McRee: You rode into office on a wave of popular support. The latest poll numbers show you in the 37th percent range. There are former supporters and your critics out there wagging their heads saying you squandered your moment in time. That you had a real chance to turn this state around and bring people together. What happened?
Schwarzenegger: Well I think November 8 is the question uh, that uh… you should ask, “What happened?” I think it’s a little early to tell. Because uh… on the day of election, is exactly when we see the results. You see, it’s like sports, you don’t want to peak too early,
McRee, overlapping: But at the same time, we just -
Schwarzenegger: you want to peak at exactly the right time. On November 8 we will see which decisions the people will make and if the people decide to vote yes on Propositions 74, 75, 76, and 77, then you know that we did the right thing and we’re moving the state forward and the people did the right thing… and that we’re going to go move the state forward, be fiscally responsible, reform education and all of those things. If they don’t vote for those initiatives then we also know that they didn’t go with the plan that we had and then we have to make a different adjustment, but I am absolutely convinced that the people will vote for those initiatives…
McRee: But governor, you promised us that you’d save us from politics as usual and this last legislative session was textbook gridlock.
Schwarzenegger: Well, it takes two to tango. And uh…, you know that’s uh. — I think we made great progress. I meant, that’s uh…, I think that umm, it would be unfair to start out the interview with a negative tone, because I’m very proud of what we have accomplished, Democrats and Republicans alike.
I mean if you think about it, let’s go back two years ago. Where were we with the state? I’m sure you were here right? You remember it. That we had a $22 billion debt that they’ve created, the worst credit rating, the highest cost of doing business, worker’s compensation was going through the roof, and the people were… literally became the poison of the economy, people were leaving the state, businesses were leaving the state and uh… they increased the tax, the car tax by $4 billion dollars.
And then we have turned this around. We’ve rescinded car tax, those who have paid, we sent the money back. We’ve brought back 400,000 new jobs. We have reformed workers’ compensation, we have brought in extra revenue this last year of $6 billion.
For the first time we have funded proposition 42 money which is transportation. For the first time we’ve paid back local government that the state has stolen money from year after year after year and we’ve balanced the budget without raising taxes and we’ve increased education funding by $3 billion and spent a record of $50 billion for education, those are great accomplishments, now think about the difference between the previous two years and the last two years,
McRee, overlapping: In fact…
Schwarzenegger (continues):… now that’s what I… now this… this is where we should start.
McRee: In fact Governor when you did take office at the beginning of your term, you made some bold and unpredictable choices, you were lauded on both sides of the aisle, your appointments really thinking outside the box in terms of getting the education coalition to sit down and think of a way to help us out of the fiscal crisis. everyone agrees that without you there would not have been the workers comp reform. Do you understand why -
Schwarzenegger: Well go on. Without you there wouldn’t have been the 400,000 of jobs, without me there would be a lot of things that I just said. We have turned the economy around and now the important thing is reform. In order to rebuild California.
McRee, overlapping: So what happened?
Schwarzenegger: What happened? I don’t know what you’re talking about
McRee: What… Do you understand why moderates and even people who voted for you… think that you flipped to the right? Where’s the criticism coming from?
Schwarzenegger: Do you believe that?
McRee: Whose fault is it?
Schwarzenegger: No, but do you believe that?
McRee: Well I do think that…
Schwarzenegger: Or do, or do you buy into the $100 million
McRee: I do think that…
Schwarzenegger: Well let me ask you, do you buy into the $100 million negative campaign, where the other side wants to paint me to the right? Or do you go and judge reality?
Do you think that I moved to the right when I have appointed out of 50 judges and only half of them were Republicans? Is that going to the right?
McRee: overlapping: You’ve absolutely…
Schwarzenegger: Thank you I rest my case. Do you think it’s going to the right to go and endorse and fight for and… and… campaign for stem cell research? Do you think it’s going to the right put aside the… the… Sierra Nevada Conservancy, the largest land uh… in the history, putting it aside to protect it?
Do you think it’s going to the right to fight for solar roof initiatives and for $100 million solar roofs. And all of those things It has nothing to do with the right, you’re buying into to the uh… the negative campaign The reality of it is that’s how they want to win, but you know something, they’re not successful because even the LA Times did a story on that Schwarzenegger is not to the right, I mean and that says a lot may I remind. They said I’m in the center.
That sometimes I make decisions that uh… that appear to be to the right, and other times I appear make decisions that appear to be to the left. The bottom line is I make decisions based only on one thing - what is best for the people of California, rather than right or left, because I don’t fight for the Republican party, nor do I fight for the Democratic party, I fight for the people of California, this is my intention.
McRee: Everyone knows they have spent millions trying to damage you in the last year and a half. But do you think that you also… met them half way let’s say with pulling some your reforms. You yourself pulled pension reform because there was uh… some wording in it that was ambiguous, that could have been challenged, it set you up to be attacked by teachers and firefighters and the whole widows and orphans thing. The teacher merit pay never really got finished up and the redistricting… the plan that you’re using is the one Ted Costa used instead of having one drafted by your own office. If you’re going to go to the mat and you’re going to risk your personal and political popularity, which was enormous at that time, should’ve you made sure that those propositions were so carefully crafted, that they could’ve taken a beating and still been successful?
Schwarzenegger: I’ve been very, very happy with the work my team has done, the legal team, the political team, my policy team. I’m ecstatic about it. They’ve done a great job. And uh… we’ve been… the other side has tried to derail us from the beginning to the end, filed lawsuits, tried to take us off the ballot, tried to intimidate the signature gatherers. They did everything they could, but the bottom line is, we are succeeding. The momentum is on our side. Think about that, about what has been accomplished. This is a huge undertaking, to take on the establishment, to take on uh… the status quo, and they’re fighting now, they’re fighting and fighting and fighting, because they want to hold onto that status quo.
But remember the people have created, st… started the whole recall because they wanted to have a change in California, a change of a broken system of fixing the broken system. That’s why they sent me to Sacramento and that’s what I’m doing now. I’m now fixing the broken system and the other side that would benefit from the status quo’s holding onto it and the people now have a choice on November 8th.
They have a choice to move the state forward or to move it backwards. If they vote no then the state will go back of where it was two years ago, where they raise taxes, where it will go downhill, the state, and they will be overspending and overspending and we will have nothing left to build any infrastructure, any freeways, any highways, any schools, or any transportation or anything. We will have nothing. But if they vote “yes,” on my initiatives, we will be able to move the state forward. This is what this is all about. I have promised that I will represent the people, and no matter what the other side does, I will fight to the end and the… and the cause is much larger than I am. I’m not fighting for myself. I’m fighting for a cause that’s much bigger than me, which is to fix California. That’s what this is about.
McRee: Why not retrench though when some of the things were dropped from the ballot and you only had three of your own initiatives still hanging on. Why not just save it ’til the June ‘06 primary, save the taxpayers 50 million dollars, and retrench and kind of get the act together and go back out there with…
Schwarzenegger, overlapping: Let me ask you a question.
McRee continues: with the guns loaded?
Schwarzenegger: Let me ask you a question. First of all our guns are loaded, don’t worry about that. Uh… If you break your arm now, let’s say you walk out here and you have one of these crazy things, where you…
McRee: You’re not going to do it to me are you are ya? (laughs)
Schwarzenegger: …just fall, you break your arm. Would you wait until your next physical, or would you go to the hospital right away and get it fixed?
McRee: You say we have to do this now?
Schwarzenegger: No, just answer the question. I’m asking you a question…
McRee, overlapping: Absolutely, I’d go and get it fixed.
Schwarzenegger: you’re going…you’d get it fixed right now, right? Okay, we have a broken system. We know it, that we’re spending more money than we take in. We’re spending about a billions of dollars more than we take in. It almost bankrupt our state, the fifth largest economy was taken down because of irresponsible spending, because we have a bunch of spending-aholics in Sacramento and also we have spending formulas that make us spend more money than we take in. It’s a broken system.
Everyone knows, Democrats and Republicans will tell you it’s a broken system. So therefore I say let’s not wait. Let’s fix it now. And we’re talking here about 50 million dollars. It’s a buck and a quarter per person. For a buck and a quarter per person, there’s someone that are screaming and saying it’s too much money, it’s a waste of money. I say it’s a waste of democracy… not to have the election. This is what is so great about it. This is why we have set up a system.
That’s why Hiram Johnson almost a hundred years ago has set up a system where we can go directly to the people if the legislators don’t do their job and this is what exactly is happening. We’re going directly to the people. Now I grew up in Austria, where we were surrounded by communist countries where the people never had a choice. It was communism, dictatorship! And to the south, in Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, all around it, we were surrounded by those countries, the people never had a choice. So I come from a place where I’ve seen that. So I think it’s great that people can go to the polls and make a decision and say, “I want to be involved and if the legislators cannot do the job, we will do the job.” This is what this all about.
McRee: Some people say this is all about Prop. 75, which could permanently dent the ability of Democrats to pull in political money from unions. Is that the real reason that we’re actually going to the polls on these reforms now?
Schwarzenegger: Well you’re contradicting yourself, because you just said I only have three propositions. And now you’re talking about 75, which is not mine.
McRee, overlapping: Well you support 75…
Schwarzenegger: But wait, so now you’re saying that’s okay. You can’t go flip back and forth…
McRee, overlapping: No, no, I said you originated. No, you originated the three.
Schwarzenegger: I mean you’ve got to be straight you gotta be straight… because the fact of the matter is that’s not my proposition. But I endorse it.
McRee, overlapping: You endorse it, but you did not originate it…
Schwarzenegger: But then it cannot be the origin of my other three initiatives. Think about that.
McRee: Not the origin, I’m saying the reason we’re having the election, because you could have saved those three ’til June…
Schwarzenegger: My…But at that time I didn’t endorse it. So it doesn’t make any sense what you’re saying.
McRee, overlapping: Okay.
Schwarzenegger: So if I endorse Proposition 75, during the Republican Convention, which was literally just a few weeks ago, but I called the Special Election already a month ago so I mean it doesn’t make any sense. But let me just clarify so you don’t uh… uh… get confused about the whole thing.
McRee, overlapping: Okay
Schwarzenegger: This is, as I just said to you earlier, this is reform in order to fix a broken system. So Proposition 75 happens to fall into this category of reforming the system. Because we are having a situation right now where people don’t have any protection of their paycheck. People are not protected. The workers of uh… our government are not protected. Their money’s being taken out their paycheck and it’s being used for campaigns without their permission. So what we’re saying is, “Continue paying. Continue giving to the campaigns. Continue doing everything you want. Continue for the unions to take money from them. But get written permission.”
So all of a sudden they say, “Wait a minute, they’re silencing us!” How are we silencing anyone when all you need is a written permission? As much as you should give a written permission if someone wants to take money out of your wallet, or out of your check, out of your bank, or anywhere else. So you should get… give written permission. So that’s what we’re saying, that’s what proposition 75 is. It’s very similar … it’s very simple, Protect the workers, protect their paycheck.
McRee: Would you support any sort of counter measure?
Schwarzenegger: Absolutely.
McRee: That establishes the same limits on business and corporations…
Schwarzenegger: Absolutely, I think as I’ve several times in interviews, I’ve made it very clear, that anyone should be protected. No one, if it’s a stockholder or if it is a government employee or if it’s some other worker, everyone should be protected, everyone should have the right to give a written permission and say, “I am okay if you take this money and use it for whatever you want. But don’t go and take my money without my permission.” That’s what this is about. It’s reform. It’s true reform. And I think that have to do that. We have to look at all of those things because it’s not fair to do that to people.
McRee: Senator McCain who is a friend of yours has looked at lots of ways of political campaign reform it’s not just direct spending on campaigns… it’s also lobbying and according to the Secretary of State’s own Web site, last year labor unions plus public employee unions plus the California Teachers Association totally, spent 29 million dollars to lobby in Sacramento. And business from manufacturing and real estate to pharmaceuticals to agriculture… and… several others spent 224 million dollars… corporations spent more than seven times what unions spent lobbying in Sacramento and that doesn’t even include the Indian tribes. Would you approve something to… to balance that? To make it a fair fight?
Schwarzenegger: Absolutely. That’s why I’ve said over and over that it’s not fair this year…that the unions are spending a hundred million dollars plus on this campaign. And we only had fifty million dollars. It’s unfair. You’re absolutely correct. I think it’s unbelievable, the unions just increase their dues, they mortgage off their buildings and then they go and they borrow money which of course their members then later on have to pay back and so this is how they’ve been spending a hundred million dollars against me. To derail our campaign. And I have to go out and go to fundraisers from one place to the next and the fundraisers to raise the money, so that we have some money to go on television and to campaign. You’re absolutely right… it is unfair that the unions have all of this money. And they throw the fees that they’re daily collecting from their members around and using it for political campaigns without asking the members for their permission. You’re right, it’s unfair. And this is why.
McRee: I didn’t say it
Schwarzenegger: No, no
McRee: I mean, what I am saying is there’s no balance anywhere
Schwarzenegger: No of course that’s what I’m saying. That we only have fifty million…
McRee, overlapping: But no balance on the corporate side too.
Schwarzenegger: No buy we, but the campaign we are on right now is…See I cannot solve the world’s problems. Because I just came in here two years ago… all I can do is is… now make sure California is getting on the right track. So what I’m trying to say to you is, yes you’re right, the unions are spending a lot of money, and we cannot get that money, because corporate America or corporations in California, the people are not willing to put this kind of money up so therefore we have a disadvantage in this campaign, but that’s okay, because you know something, the unions, the public employee unions they maybe have a lot of power because they have a lot of money…and they maybe can control the legislators, but they can’t control the people. This is why it’s important for the people of California to know, don’t get controlled by those guys with the money. Make sure that you vote of what’s best for California because that’s the fight that I’m fighting- what is best for California.
McRee: And again, we understand unions have spent a lot of money but again corporations spend seven times more than all those labor organizations together lobbying in Sacramento so there has to be a bigger solution…correct?
Schwarzenegger, overlapping: But that’s but this is, but this election is not about this issue. This election is about
McRee, overlapping: reforming dues.
Schwarzenegger continues: reforming California, reforming the budget system, reforming the education system, reforming the political system and reforming the system where public employee union bosses take money out of people’s paychecks, out of the worker’s paychecks without asking for permission. Those are the things we are fighting for November 8th, and so it’s very important that the people vote yes on all of those reforms.
McRee: Redistricting. It’s pretty easy to see that the system doesn’t work well. All of the seats are safe seats. It’s uh really easy to elect extremists, it’s darn near impossible to elect anyone who’s a moderate. Why don’t the voters seem to care?
Schwarzenegger: There are some issues, like for instance budget reform and redistricting that are more complicated. People don’t really, uh, you know, know that much about it. Most people don’t know that it was politicians that have drawn the district lines a few years ago after the 2000 census and that the politicians drew the district lines to protect themselves. To protect the incumbents. Democrats and Republicans alike.
All of the issues that I’m talking about has nothing to do with… with… with… you know… one party versus the other…it has more to do, just like issues. And this is like both parties have basically divided up the pot and they said, “hey let’s go into a back room, let’s make a deal, and let’s only think about ourselves… and not about the people at all.
Let’s not worry about the people, let’s worry about how do we stay in office.” That’s what this was all about. And they drew the district lines sometimes from uh… Oxnard to Monterey county, two hundred miles long the district with a few hundred yards wide in some places… I mean it’s ludicrous… it’s all about picking the voters and choosing who the voters are rather than the voters picking the politicians, so it was unfair and what I’m saying is, let us re-do the system. It’s broken. It doesn’t work.
Out of 153 congressional and legislative seats the last election as you remember… none of them changed party, none of them. So the system doesn’t work so let’s fix it. We can’t do the same thing as I said earlier, it’s a broken system, let’s not wait until next year, let’s do it now, very very important, now the politicians that have called me they said, “okay let’s make a deal, let’s do it, what you say, but let’s do it in the year 2012.” See? Why 2012? Because they want to stay in office longer. They want to hold on to the power. Rather than fighting for the people.
That’s what politicians supposed to do, politicians were elected to represent the people not themselves. So everything that we see in this election coming up, is all about that government instead of being created to fight for the people, and represent the people and become a servant of the people it’s all about themselves. The public employee unions are fighting for themselves, the… the politicians are fighting for themselves, government is fighting for themselves, what’s best for us, rather than what is best for the people of California, and that’s the struggle. That is what is unfair about politics. It’s all about them rather than the people. And I will clean house, and that’s the idea of the election. Democrats and Republicans alike
McRee: Prop 76, state spending and school funding initiative. Democrats say it’s a power-grab, because you can declare a fiscal emergency and cut what you want. What do you say?
Schwarzenegger: Well first of all any governor can declare a fiscal emergency. I mean Governor Wilson declared a state of emergency when there was the earthquake and then he rebuilt the whole thing very quickly, because that we can do that, but uh… the… it is it is …I would say ludicrous to say it is a power-grab, as you can see that any time you make any change the word that they always use is power-grab. You want to reorganize the… the… energy system - power-grab, you want to redo education - power grab, you want to redo the budget system - power-grab
McRee: It’s a dirty word
Schwarzenegger: Well because you know what they do, what they do is go out and they test words. I mean I see it all the time, as a matter of fact, if you come to my office, all the special interest they say we tested this line, this is what we’re going to use against you. We tested this line, I remember they said to me, the teachers union we tested this line and the line that worked the best is that you didn’t keep your promise.
So we’re going to use that over and over and over because that really works well. That’s what they do, they test the line and that’s what they do. So the power-grab there’s no power-grab what I’m asking for be able to do mid-year cuts, it says if the legislators fail to do it. First it should be the legislators that should be doing it.
McRee: They get 45 days, right?
Schwarzenegger: So yeah… So if they don’t do it, then the governor does it, but I mean you know something? That same thing is with 37 other states. So then there are 37 other states that are doing the power-grab. It has nothing to do, I wish, that the legislators do their job, because then I don’t have to do it. I mean I think the governor is just supposed to sign the budget. The legislators, Democrats and Republicans are supposed to work it out and that’s what I want them to do. If, we see after we have negotiated the budget, two months later if we see that all of a sudden our spending is going up and our revenues are going down shouldn’t we catch it right there and say let’s make the adjustment?
Or should we wait now an entire year and do we ring up another 4- 5- billion dollars of deficit and then fix it? No. If you run a business, if you see that you look at your checking book, and you say to yourself wait a minute…I’m spending a bit too much money, I have to make the adjustment, you will make it right then, you wouldn’t wait year and the same is with government, let us do it right now, and the rest of it, it just says, live within your means… let’s not spend more money than we take in.
McRee: With a two-thirds majority required for that vote though, it’s pretty unlikely that those legislators will agree on it, so you’ll get the big red pen and you’ll be able to control spending the way you want.
Schwarzenegger: Well, I mean, it’s like tax increases. It’s two-thirds of the vote I mean they just have to agree on it. But I mean the fact of the matter is… we know that if you’re spending too much money you have to make an adjustment because who is going to pay or it? For the deficit? What we’re doing right now, is every year we are adding to the deficit. We’re adding and we’re adding and your children, if you have any, I don’t know you, have two, will be paying for it, my children will be paying for it. Everyone’s children out there will be paying for it. For the mistakes. Think about it, for the mistakes that our politicians make right now knowingly, because we’ve been telling them, that, years after years, don’t spend more money than you take in, but they can’t control it, and they can’t undo the system so therefore the people have to do it, that’s why it’s important to vote yes on proposition 76.
McRee: Let me ask you this then explain this then because this is also in Proposition 76, it’s a it’s a tweak to the school funding guarantees that the voters approved in Prop 98 some years ago. Though lots of people are frustrated with these spending formulas instead of true leadership, if 76 passes it would release you from repaying the money borrowed from education in exactly the same way you would have had to do it and therefore would mean less money to schools.
Schwarzenegger: Well that’s absolutely incorrect. But I understand that the other side is painting it that way. The reality of it is we have no repayment schedule right now. There’s nothing on the book that says that this is what we are going to do we’re going to repay… by the way the money that is owed to the schools is because of what happened before me… before I ever got into office… But I mean there’s almost 4 billion dollars, 3.8 billion dollars that is owed to education. What we do is in our Proposition 76 it says specifically, that we must pay back to education. There’s a payment plan of all of the debt
McRee: Fifteen years?
Schwarzenegger: Over a period of fifteen years, so every year the state would have to pay of this debt, approximately I think it ends up being $600 to $800 million a year. That we take out of the budget, and pay back over a period of 15 years to pay off our debt, if it is to local government, if it is for transportation, if it is… because they’ve stolen money from everywhere. From education, from transportation, from local government from pensions, what’s going on before I came to office was unbelievably horrendous.
And it was the mismanagement of the highest level of money and now what I said was, “let us do Proposition 76, pay back, like we do with the bank, where you work out the payment plan it’s something that is fiscally responsible and pay it back. And on top of that, may I remind you, that it does not cut into education at all. First of all, we’re going to pay them back that money and second of all, as the California Taxpayers Association has come out and said, and studied very carefully, it actually adds to education funding and on top of that, it creates stability in education funding, which is something that I am most… to me, it… the… the… the stability of the education funding is the most important thing of the whole element, why?
McRee, overlapping: but it does…
Schwarzenegger continues: Because we’re right now taking our children on a roller coaster ride. It is terrible what’s going on right now, look at the history of it.
I mean you see when our revenues go up the spending for schools go up, when our revenues go down then spending for schools go down. Up and down, up and down, is that what we want to do with our children, to take them on a roller coaster ride and not give them a steady stream of revenues?
McRee: But Governor, it does relieve you putting that $3.8 billion back in and having that raise the floor annually.
Schwarzenegger: But you cannot promise something that you cannot keep. We don’t know if annually, you have that income and you have those kind of revenues, that’s why that whole formula is bogus. What we want to do is create stability in education funding rather than raising the ceiling all the time.
McRee: Do you worry, that by putting these two initiatives, these two thoughts in one initiative basically, that you risk losing them both? Because people might agree with the budget but… and the state spending plan, but… but be scared by the education thing.
Schwarzenegger: I believe very strongly that when the people vote for something, for an initiative that is it only the people that can undo it. It’s that simple. I don’t allow and I will never sign anything where the legislators undo something that the people have voted for and this is what I’m fighting for and this also… and that’s why we are going back to the people, with proposition 76 and include proposition 98, because the people voted for proposition 98 and it is more than fair to ask the people to make those changes and make us live it within our means.
We do it all the time with any law. Do you know the amount of bills that I get every year where they say let’s clean up the language here, and let’s make the adjustment and can you sign here? Of course we do it because you notice a year later, two years later or five years later, that things don’t work quite… as well as you thought it would.
McRee: Teacher tenure prop. 74. umm… still could pass, doesn’t seem to have caught fire with people, as I think your office probably thought it would. The unions believe that they have so damaged you in the last few months, that all they have to say to defeat a policy, is say that you’re for the policy. Does that worry you?
Schwarzenegger: Absolutely not. Do I look worried? Most likely not. Because I’m not. Here’s the reality. Ever since we put this on the ballot, proposition 74 teachers tenure, was ahead in the polls. It’s way ahead in the polls right now. (clears throat) Proposition 75 is way ahead in the polls right now. Proposition 76 is coming back, it started with 29% and now we’re at 50-50. Proposition 77 started way back and now we’re at 50-50. So the… the momentum is on our side.
You know what is unbelievable? Think about this. Here we have all these initiatives. And people have a choice to go for it or against it. And isn’t it interesting and people have a choice to go for it or against it and isn’t it interesting that CSAC, the organization that controls all of the counties in California, which has a majority of Democrats, have endorsed it.
Schwarzenegger (before re-starting). See see. I don’t believe in peaking early. It’s a big mistake. Like in sports. A big mistake.
Schwarzenegger: Here’s the important thing, I mean, think about this, that here you have, uh, CSAC, which is the organization that controls all the counties, 58 counties- they’ve endorsed our initiative. That uh… we have the League of Cities, which again, has a majority of Democrats, two-thirds are Democrats- the mayors know this. The League of Cities endorsed our initiatives. Then you have Common Cause, which is the most liberal organization, endorsed proposition 77. Then you have Senator McCain come out there, and endorse all of the initiatives. Then you have the California Sheriffs Association endorse all the initiatives, the California District Attorneys association. And the list goes on and on and on. The farm… the California Farm Bureau, the Western Growers, and… on and on.
They endorse the initiatives. Why? Because they know that it benefits everyone if you’re fiscally responsible. If we only spend the money that we have because then, we can put money aside to build the infrastructure that we need so badly. Look, we don’t have enough money to build the schools, we don’t have enough money to build uh… hospitals uh…, emergency rooms, highways, freeways, bridges. We need more energy; we need to make sure we have the cleanest environment, while our economy is booming. We need more water, we need more of everything.
And more affordable housing which is the biggest problem of all. More affordable housing - and we have none of it, and we won’t spend a penny and uh… as long as we spend more money than we take in, because we won’t have any money left to put aside for building all of those things.
McRee: Governor, you can’t get any of those things done without getting cooperation from the left, and from the right, in Sacramento. Getting them to sit down - that would be politics unusual, and I think what the voters of California really want. How do you re-establish yourself as that maverick? That independent-minded maverick who could get people to cooperate with each other?
Schwarzenegger: First of all, uh, I think Senator Perata and Speaker Núñez, both of them have come to me, uh… in the last month, several times, and said, “We’re looking forward to working with you after the election”. I’ve told them and I’m looking forward to working with them. We’re going to work together. Whatever the outcome is, we’re going to work together; because we know, that the most you can accomplish is when Democrats and Republicans work together. And this is what I’ve tried, from January on, since I held my State of the State Address, I have tried to work together with them. But you know something?
Even though when we almost came to an agreement, to a bi-partisan agreement, to a compromise agreement to go to the special election together, they couldn’t do it. You know why not? Not because it was not right, but because the union bosses of the public employees unions said “no”. They said, “We have $100 million to beat up an Arnold, so let’s beat up an Arnold.” That’s what it’s all about.
And so this is politics as usual, but I’m going to get around this politics as usual, because I go directly to the people. And I ask the people of California, I say, “Do you want to have our union bosses of the public employee unions control and run California? Or do you want to take the power back and take it away from them?” That’s the choice that they have, the people. That’s what this election’s all about. Do you want them to control California or do you want to have the power be back with the people?
That’s what this special election is abo… is about- do you want to move forward or do you want to move backwards? But we’re going to work together- Democrats and Republicans, remember, we have a bi-partisan house. I sleep with a Democrat everyday, (laughs), so I mean of course, I don’t have anything against Democrats. I always promised myself when I went into this that I will be a governor that will represent both Democrats and Republicans, and independents, and decline to state, and swing voters, and everyone. I want to represent everybody.
McRee: Governor, the polls say that the people don’t want this election. How do you make them change their minds?
Schwarzenegger: Do you think that the, when you listen to this campaign, the anti-campaign, the anti-election campaign, that it doesn’t influence the people? Of course it influences the people, it influences them they way they think about me, they… it influences the people the way they think about the special election, of course. If you were to spend $100 million against Mother Teresa, her poll numbers would go down, too. I mean it’s just the way it is. This is the way politics works. Who has the most money? That’s why eventually we have to, uh…, redo the system, and uh…, find out different ways of campaign financing and all of those things. That’s a serious issue that we ought to address.
McRee: Thank you for sitting down with us today and answering all these questions. Just really quickly, since Brian Lord represents you and Warren Beatty and CAA also represents Rob Reiner, and with Rick Nicita. How uncomfortable is the Christmas party at CAA these days? (laughs)
Schwarzenegger: Well the question is, not how comfortable is the CAA party, but the question really is, “How about our Christmas party?” We have all of them at our Christmas party, Warren Beatty, and we have Rob Reiner, we have John Kerry, we have everybody, Democrats and Republicans we always have. And we are very good friends. And may I remind you, I mean, Warren Beatty and I, we are good friends, and so is uh… Rob Reiner, we’re all good- but-but- that doesn’t mean when you’re good friends that you have to think alike - that doesn’t mean that you have to be on the same track, but I respect, uh, you know, Warren’s point of view, the… to let him go out and talk, and I mean, you know, I think that John Burton set him up for all this stuff. And then, (laughs) then, …let Rob Reiner, Rob Reiner does a great job, he’s a great public servant in helping children also. I have no problem with any of that.
McRee: You must have a great party at your house?
Schwarzenegger: We have a terrific party, absolutely.
McRee: Alright, Governor, thank you so much as always.
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