Wednesday, January 16, 2008

My Votes

In another importnat blog on American politics, I think that these two interviews with Republican Candidates are so very important that I am putting them both in the same blog.

In a perfect world, I would like to see Mitt Romney as President, with Rudy Guliani as his Vice-President. And, if that did not work, then I would gladly take Duncan Hunter as President Romney's 2nd-in-command.

[ When you have finished, do not forget to come back here and click this link, http://leprechaunlaundry.blogspot.com/2008/01/newt.html , to read Glenn Beck's interview with Newt Gingrich! ]


Without further ado, I give you Glenn Beck's interviews with Mitt Romney, and Rudy Guliani.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Mitt Romney interview

January 16, 2008 - 11:13 ET

GLENN: Well, he now leads in delegates. More people have voted in Michigan last night than all of the other primaries combined. He's either number one or number two in every race and it is Mitt Romney. Hello, Mitt Romney, how are you, sir?

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: I'm doing terrific, Glenn, thank you.

GLENN: I bet you are. Congratulations. Feeling good today?

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Yeah, feels really good. I tell you, as you say I've been able to do either first or second in each of the contests and, of course, with Wyoming a first and Michigan a first, that gives me a good start.

GLENN: How are you shaping up? The next one is Nevada? Is that Saturday?

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Yeah, Nevada and South Carolina. The media attention has always been on South Carolina although interestingly South Carolina has 24 delegates at stake and Nevada has 34. So we'll be playing in both markets and I think I've got a better shot at coming in first in Nevada. In South Carolina John McCain is way ahead. Of course, he battled some years ago and has put a lot of money and time into it here but, you know, you never know.

GLENN: Right. I will tell you, Mitt, that something that we have talked about before, the economy. I have been very concerned about the fundamentals in our economy for quite some time and you have been my economy guy the whole time. If somebody's got to deal with the economy, because of your experience of, you know, building companies and great turnarounds, you are the guy. In a way, I mean, it's going to be real bittersweet for you because you know what's coming with the economy but you also know you're the guy to fix it. So it's good for you.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Well, there's no question but that the economy is the issue people face, short-term or long term. You really do want to have somebody who knows something about how jobs come and go, how we stay competitive with other countries, where our dollars lie and how you rein in Washington waste and push Washington to do those things which actually builds our economy stronger. So, you know, it is what I do, as they say, and that would suggest that I'll get a boost and I think I got a bit of a boost in Michigan because I was willing to talk about the economy and say, look, we don't have to be pessimistic and look at our shoes here. We can see a return of American strength and there's no reason to think America can't lead the world.

GLENN: There's a couple of articles that are out today. One is in U.S. News and World Report and the other I think is in the Boston Globe. They say Michigan signaled the end of the Reaganomics because everybody, including you, was talking about bigger government. That's what the article was saying. Do you find that accurate?

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: No, of course not. I love how the liberal media is dying to put at rest any conservative thought. The answer is stop the growth of government and instead to return to the individual the ability to make their own decisions. So, for instance, my healthcare plan does not give people government insurance. It lets them buy their own private market insurance. And that's by far the better way to go. Government insurance is way too expensive. It's run by bureaucrats. You don't want the people who ran the Katrina cleanup running their healthcare system. So it's just, you know, as obvious as the nose on your face but somehow Democrats just don't see that.

GLENN: We had David Walker from the GAO. I don't know if you know him, but he's the U.S. comptroller general. I had him on television last week. The guy never did interviews because he's not a left or right guy. He's just right or wrong. And he's not a political guy. First interview he did was 60 Minutes. I believe we did the second interview and we're doing an hour with him on Friday on radio. This guy is out now ringing the bell and he's been a quiet guy for a long time and he says our debt is not sustainable. How do you get the American people to understand that, you know, giving people money to help with their heating oil is not going to fix this economy. It is the massive overspending in Washington. And not just the earmarks but Social Security, Medicaid more specifically, and prescription drugs. It's got to be fixed. How do you get that message across?

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Well, I think the best way I've been able to get it across, and it is in my view why I've been able to do as well as I have in the season so far is that I say quite bluntly and with a major sign that's standing up behind me says Washington is broken. We simply cannot keep on going the way we have gone. We have to deal with the challenges we have. The good news is Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security can be fixed so that they don't have to weigh down our entire economy. The annual spending is --

GLENN: How? How do you fix it?

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Well, yeah. Well, Social Security's the easiest and that's because you can give people a personal account, you can extend the retirement age and you can calculate the initial benefit based on inflation for higher income people rather than the wage index which goes up so much higher. Those simple arithmetic changes will keep Social Security from bankrupt.

GLENN: Hold it just a second. I can -- hold on. I think I just heard a politician say "Extend the retirement age"?

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Those are the three major levers you have, changing the retirement age, giving people more of their income going in or their Social Security withdrawal going into private accounts, and having a lower rate of inflation on the calculation of initial benefits for higher income individuals. Those are the arithmetic ways to make this work. Other than having a tax increase. And the problem with a tax increase is you slow down the economy, which is the last thing you need in this nation.

GLENN: Do you ever get to the point, do you and your wife ever lay in bed and just say, what did we get ourselves into? I mean, I don't think we've ever seen a primary like this before. I mean, if there's anybody that seems to be taking it from all sides, it's your candidacy. Do you ever just say to your wife, what are we doing?

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Well, we say that all the time, but what we know we're doing is running in this race because I don't believe that the Republican party is going to nominate a good man, Senator McCain, who is somebody who voted against the Bush tax cuts, who authored a bill to give illegal immigrants the right to stay here forever, if you will a form of amnesty. I fellow who authored McCain/Feingold which devastated our First Amendment and has made money an even bigger political player in political events. I just don't think that's the right course to take and for many reasons I think Mike Huckabee wouldn't be our nominee. So I look at it and say if they are not going to be able to it, somebody's got to. We're going on as long as the American people say that the accommodation of, if you will, Reagan's coalition of social economic and foreign policy conservatives are what are needed to lead this country.

GLENN: Okay. So tell me then, because this is something I've been asking on the air and my listeners can't give me an explanation on John McCain. Explain why -- I mean, every conservative knows who this guy is, and I admire that he never changes -- you know, he knows what he believes and he just, you know, he bucks the system and says I'm going forward and that's what it is, but he's wrong almost every single time. How is it that he's got this momentum?

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: You'd rather change than be wrong, but it is a combination. I read an article just a couple of days ago that said actually he was opposed to Second Amendment rights and then he has changed and now is in favor of Second Amendment rights and he, of course, voted against the Bush tax cuts but now he says that he wants to make them permanent. So, you know, he has had his fair share of points on which he has evolved as he's described it.

GLENN: Wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait. That's not evolution. I mean, if there's a clear case to be made some case for flip-flop, it's John McCain. He was just trying to hand free amnesty out to everybody and was like, wow, you know, that was a bad idea; we shouldn't do that. That, at least with your abortion thing, you had an explanation. I don't understand how McCain's not being labeled a flip-flopper.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: You know, I think it's just too hard for people to imagine because of the brand he's been able to establish over the years and I don't have any problem with a person changing their mind to do something which I think is right. I have to take a position which I think is right. And if somebody can go through life for decades and never find that their experience causes them to change their mind, then they probably shouldn't be in public office. I'm not going to be critical of somebody changing their views from time to time.

GLENN: But hang on.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: But I can tell you when their views are wrong, I'll point it out.

GLENN: The first time we spoke, I don't know if you remember this, I said to you -- I was very, very skeptical and I said before you came on the air, I'll going to ask this guy for his pivot point and if he can't tell me the moment that it crystallized in his head on abortion, if he can't tell me the wallpaper color of when he realized, "Wait a minute, I'm on the wrong side of this issue," he's lying to you. And you told the story about when you changed and you didn't hesitate at all and I knew it was a valid pivot point. I'm a pivot point guy because I'm a alcoholic. I knew -- I can tell you the moment I said I've got to change my life. That's not the case with John McCain. That's a flip-flop. When it comes to taxes, you don't support them back then and now, "well, I'll make them permanent but I'm not really sure if I would do more tax cuts now." That's a flip-flop. He doesn't even understand what tax cuts do.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Well, I do think you have to have an appreciation for the fact that if you reduce taxes, and particularly if you reduce them in the right way. You actually can grow the economy and make it possible for the Government to get more revenue and take less revenue away from the American people. And that's, you know, that's a very fundamental perspective and I know there were a lot of people, myself included, who didn't think that made a lot of sense a long time ago but you know what? The more I've aged, the more I recognize how brilliant Ronald Reagan was.

GLENN: Let's just, let's play a game here and let's just say that you are the guy facing off the other side. Who would you rather face?

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: You know, I don't know who that would be. I have to be honest with you. All three of the leading contenders are so extraordinarily liberal that I find it very, very hard to pick among them. I think it's going to be -- I do think it's going to be a Republican victory if I'm the nominee. I think if I go up against Hillary Clinton, I'll be able to say, Senator Clinton, you worked very hard to create a healthcare plan but there's a big difference between your plan and my plan. My plan got passed and yours didn't. And number two, mine didn't cost more money. It was paid for with money we were already spending. Yours cost, your new one cost $110 billion more. You impose one plan on the entire nation; I let each state craft their plan within guidelines that we helped put together. And number four, you give people government insurance; I don't do that. I let them get free market insurance.

GLENN: Mitt Romney, thank you so much. We'll talk to you again, my friend.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Have a great day.

__________________________________________

Rudy Giuliani interview

January 16, 2008 - 11:14 ET

GLENN: Now we go to Rudy Giuliani who is with us. Hello, Rudy.

GIULIANI: How are you?

GLENN: Very good. Where are you?

GIULIANI: I am in Jacksonville, Florida.

GLENN: Okay. You were talking, right now -- I mean, we're huge in Florida. We're talking to almost every city in Florida is listening to you right now and you have put everything into the Florida strategy. Karl Rove said to me just a few minutes ago, very risky strategy, never been done before. Do you ever kind of wake up in the middle of the night and go, jeez, maybe this was a mistake? Or are you feeling good about it?

GIULIANI: We feel good about it. I mean, this is the strategy that works for us. If you look back on it, it probably is the one that emphasizes our strengths and weaknesses the best, meaning the place where we would have the best chance. And we are campaigning very, very hard here, getting great reception. Tremendous enthusiasm. When you see how the rest of the field is kind of spread out with many different winners here and there, you get the feeling that -- you get the feeling that this strategy might very well be a good one. Even outsiders are getting the feeling. We feel this.

GLENN: I will tell you that when I first heard the strategy, I thought, I don't think that sounds like a good idea. But now that the field is so split up, you know, if they're -- I'm going to be real honest with you. The two people that I would vote for, you and Mitt Romney. And if it is Huckabee or McCain and I wasn't necessarily on your bandwagon, I would look at those two guys and go, I can't do that. So yes, Rudy Giuliani. I think there's a lot of sentiment like that and they're not sure. If it becomes a frontrunner of one of these guys that you absolutely would be in the position of, well, you know what, I know Rudy Giuliani, I know what he's about and I know that he really believes in tax cuts and everything else, I'll go for Rudy Giuliani. You may all of a sudden sweep.

GIULIANI: Well, I think the fact is the tax proposal we made has helped us a lot. It's got a great deal of attention here in Florida. It's the largest tax cut in American history, or would be the largest tax cut in American history. But that isn't even the main point of it. The main point of it is it would also provide a single one-page form that people could file.

GLENN: Hang on just a second.

GIULIANI: For paying their taxes.

GLENN: Hold on just a second. America I just have to -- this is adult material. This is practically pornography that you are talking right now. This is erotic talk come from you, Rudy Giuliani. It really is.

GIULIANI: And it works. When you look at the form, I think people will see that it works. It does preserve the key deductions critical to our economy really like home mortgage. You can't take away the home mortgage deduction right now. And it preserves the child care exemption, state and local taxes and the new exclusion that we're going to create for healthcare to encourage people to buy their own healthcare insurance.

GLENN: This is the only problem that I have with this plan because I love it. Don't get me wrong. I love it. But I wondered why you just didn't go for a flat, why you went for the three separate categories and then you added some stuff because that's where we always get in trouble. Because special interests will always say, well, wait a minute, add mine, too. Why didn't you just go flat?

GIULIANI: Well, we drew a line at, I think it's four, five, and that can all fit on one page. The idea is to have it fit on one page. And we picked the ones that aren't just special interests. In other words, we picked the ones that are core to our economy. For example, Glenn, right now if you took away the home mortgage deduction with what is going on in the housing market, you just couldn't responsibly do it. I mean, it would be a very, very devastating blow to an area of our economy that already has a lot to deal with. The charitable deduction I think would also be a big blow to all of these philanthropic organizations that do a lot of the work that otherwise would fall to government. And state and local taxes, it would totally recreate the whole tax scheme. You know, as I said, if we were starting income tax at the very beginning, I would be in favor of one, just a number, that's it, no deductions. But we have an economy now that's built around this. And second, the practical point, Glenn. This can get done. In other words, the political opposition to it would not overwhelm the support that you have for it. If you tried to take on all those things, I think as a practical matter you just wouldn't get it done.

GLENN: Let me ask you this. We've talked about this before and I think I'm a lot further down the road than you are, but I think you're at least on the same path that I am. If you look at CitiBank writing down $18 billion, and I don't think that's the end of it, unemployment coming up, inflation now coming up, I feel that we are about to hit very hard economic times and if you throw on global warming treaties, universal healthcare, higher taxes, socialist policies, I don't see a way, as Medicare, Medicaid and everything else starts to hit us, I don't see a way that we economically survive with the kinds of policies that the Democrats are going to put into place if they win next year. Right or wrong?

GIULIANI: Well, I agree with that. I think it would be devastating to our economy, it would really harm it, it would put a -- I describe it as putting a lid on our economy. You know, putting a halter on it so that it wouldn't be able to grow.

GLENN: I was -- I just had a five-day hospital stay and it was one of the worst experiences of my life and all these liberal blogs came out and said, oh, I wish he would have died in the hospital; now he's going to come out with some epiphany and said we should have universal healthcare and I came out and said the exact opposite. We need people who care, who remember that care is part of healthcare. I felt like I was being pushed out.

GIULIANI: Absolutely right. You need a personal relationship with your doctor. You need a personal relationship with a healthcare provider that you have so that you can make decisions with them.

GLENN: Right. And when somebody asked me last night, they said, who is the guy -- I think it was on CNN. They said who is the guy that you would want for healthcare, I said Rudy Giuliani. Could you please explain your healthcare proposal?

GIULIANI: Sure. My healthcare proposal is a tax exclusion of $15,000 if you buy your own health insurance, if you buy it personally. If you can buy it for $12,000, you get a $3,000 health savings account which you can put aside. It's yours. Nobody can touch it and you can use it for regular and ordinary healthcare expenses. What this will do, I believe, is move millions of people to the private healthcare market. That will have the impact of driving down the cost of private healthcare. If 15 million people are buying private health insurance instead of 17 million people, it's going to cost half the price.

GLENN: What Democrat would you rather face?

GIULIANI: Oh, I don't care, Glenn. Not only don't I care, I don't have anything to say about it. So you sort of have to be open to --

GLENN: There's not one that you go -- wait a minute. Hang on. There's just --

GIULIANI: Either Obama or Clinton, right?

GLENN: Well, no, you could face socialist John [ Edwards ] . I think he should wear a star on a furry cap. I've never seen anything like it.

GIULIANI: Well, John Edwards doesn't have a chance at this point but the other two, it could be either one of them.

GLENN: Yeah.What about, I mean, Dennis Kucinich, --

GIULIANI: It's still more likely Hillary, I think.

GLENN: -- is still in there fighting. All right, Rudy Giuliani, thank you very much.

GIULIANI: Thank you.

GLENN: Best of luck to you, sir. We'll talk to you again.

No comments:

Post a Comment