Transcript Part 4: Mexican Immigrants

Schwarzenegger talks a lot about Mexico. "As a matter of fact, so much so that now it is almost like in Africa in Zimbabwe with the squatters. They come and land, you can't then get rid of them. Or like in the Gold Rush with Sutter. They had his land, the people digging for gold, and he couldn't get rid of them anymore after a certain amount of time, because they became part of the picture. So now you can't go anymore -- now it's almost odd to throw them out, because you say, 'Wait a minute, their kids are born here. You can't split up families.' " Read more after the jump.

(SS) = simultaneous speaking (UI) = unintelligible (IA) = inaudible (PH) = spelled phonetically

GOVERNOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
Speechwriting 3
April 3, 2006

GOVERNOR: Does it mean that you have -- then you go to Mexico and you say,
"Now we want to bring 200,000 in because 200,000 stayed here? So
that's your problem, Mexico. If your friends cannot return back and
work within the rules, then so bet it. But you can only have every year
400,000 in here."
Do you go back then and chase them down? Do you then make them
criminals for staying here? Do you put them in prison for staying here?
Do we have the prison beds, and do we have the supervision? Do we
have enough of the personnel in the prisons, in the county jails for this
stuff, to feed them and to guard them and all of those things? Do you
round them up? Do you send them back?
Q: Well, those are the nitty-gritty detail questions that need to be
answered in Washington. But I think --
GOVERNOR: But the most important thing here is -- you see, that's the interesting
thing about it. That, for instance you call the 'nitty-gritty detail', but that
actually is the biggest issue. Because why? Because our government
in 1986 --
Q: The amnesty.
GOVERNOR: Has fucked the American people.
Q: Yeah, we've got twice as many illegals --
GOVERNOR: You see, because what happened, they said, "Look, we came up with
a solution."
Q: Right. M-hmm.
GOVERNOR: And now 20 years later the government comes up again and says, "We
are going to work on a solution."
Q: It's worse now.
GOVERNOR: And what happened was with the solution is that they said that if we
give them amnesty and if we solve this, and we are going to go and
track them down if anyone comes in here illegally, and we'll send them
back, and the people that are providing jobs will be punished and all.
No one enforced the law.
Q: Right.
GOVERNOR: As a matter of fact, so much so that now it is almost like in Africa in
Zimbabwe with the squatters. They come and land, you can't then get
rid of them. Or like in the Gold Rush with Sutter. They had his land,
the people digging for gold, and he couldn’t get rid of them anymore
after a certain amount of time, because they became part of the
picture. So now you can't go anymore -- now it's almost odd to throw
them out, because you say, "Wait a minute, their kids are born here.
You can't split up families."
Q: Yeah.
GOVERNOR: So you have no choice anymore. So what is happening with the new
one now, when really in fact they have working, to a huge extent, on
assumptions, not on reality; assumptions that after two years they're
going to go back and then they can come back again, and then they
will pay the taxes here. Well, what if they don't, if they don't pay the
taxes? If they don't have health care, will you and I have to pay for
their health care bill?
Q: Right.
GOVERNOR: You know? And the farmers have the cheap labor, and they're
laughing all the way to the bank, and then we are paying their health
care. Is that the right thing to do? What about their health care? If
you say that anyone and everyone that brings someone in here, what
is the proof that they have to have that they actually exhausted every
avenue to go and find American workers? And now, out of 400,000
that they're looking for, they found 100,000 American workers. Does
that mean that now only 300,000 should come in from Mexico? And all
of those things -- so those are the things that I think -- because that's
where it can go really wrong, and you all of a sudden have 400,000
every year added, and the question is, can we afford that? And can
our school system afford that?
Q: I guess if I were -- I think that's all true, but if I were a reporter and you
asked me what I would think, I would try to get you to -- I would try to
pin you down, if you will. Do you think that the 12 million people --
okay, we have all these questions about the guest worker program,
how it's going to work and how it's going to function, all the things that
you just laid out don't happen so it doesn’t get worse.
Q: The solution isn't worse. But are you committed to finding a legal path
for the 11 or 12 million people who are here now if they'd go through
certain steps to become legal permanent residents of the United States
without sending them back or anything else?
GOVERNOR: I would say yes. I would find a way, a legal way so they can earn their
visas, so they can work here and they can stay here, because it's not
really realistic.
Q: Right.
GOVERNOR: To send them back. Realistic is sending them back --
Q: Except that's not -- you haven't said that publicly, what you just said.
(SS) that part.
GOVERNOR: No, no. Realistic -- yeah, you may be right. Realistically to send them
back, because some of them have now children, some of them have
grandparents here, some have families and all kinds of things. It's
almost impossible to do that. The children that were born here are
American citizens. So how do you split that family up? So it doesn't
make any sense. Nor does it make any sense that -- anyone who
thinks that they ought to be sent back out to first come up with a plan
on how to pay for that.
Q: Well, the public doesn't have the will or the resources to do either of
those things.
GOVERNOR: There's not enough money, because as we saw, it cost 250 million
dollars, or billion dollars. 250 billion dollars that someone has done a
study on, to send them back. So if that's the case, who is going to pay
for that?
Q: Because that's what I think where -- I think the op ed piece falls short.
Did you read Weintraub yesterday? I don't know if you agree with him,
but I think it's -- he criticized you for not taking a position, a firm
position on a couple of those benchmark questions, and I think that's
what -- the op ed was so carefully worded that it raised a couple of big
questions like that, and I think people -- as a journalist, I'd want to try to
pin you down, saying what do you believe?
GOVERNOR: Well, I want to write another one -- I think they're working on it -- for the
Washington Post or for the Wall Street Journal or something like that.
And I think that we should then answer those questions, and I should
answer it also -- tomorrow we're doing a press conference here, I think.
Q: And raise the questions -- excuse me. And spell out the questions and
concerns you have on the guest worker program, and you don't want to
make things worse. You don't want to do what we did in '86 and make
things worse.
GOVERNOR: Right.
Q: I think those are all valid points. And then the public knows --
GOVERNOR: But there are also things that only experts can answer, and I'm not an
expert.
Q: Yes, that's fair to say.
GOVERNOR: Because like for instance the question comes up, do you believe in a
700-mile border fence? Well, but I don't know enough about what that
border fence -- and maybe someone has the information. I sure didn't
get it yet from our experts, from our people here. Because if someone
brings it to me and says, "This fence is 12 feet tall, high." I would then
say, "Well, we all know that a 12 foot fence has never stopped
anybody, because you can build tunnels, and there's no fence
underneath. So are we saying that a 12 foot fence above and it goes
30 feet down so no tunnel can be built? What is the situation there?"
Q: Doesn't a 700 -- 700 miles?
GOVERNOR: 700 miles.
Q: Doesn't that, just on the face of it, seem ridiculous? It does to me.
GOVERNOR: Well, it sounds ridiculous to me simply because --
Q: How does that work?
GOVERNOR: Because to me the border with Mexico is longer than 700 miles.
Q: Yes. Plus, you dig under it, you tunnel --
GOVERNOR: So now we need to know specifics. We need to know -- so the
question really is, do you answer -- I say, "Look, I need to know more
about the fence. What does this fence mean?" We all know that no
matter where you go around the world -- I come from a country where
we had walls around castles, we had walls around houses, and we had
walls around -- we had the Berlin Wall, we had walls everywhere. But
we always looked at the wall as kind of like the outside of the wall is
the enemy.
Q: Yeah.
GOVERNOR: Are we looking at Mexico as the enemy? No, it's not. These are our
trading partners. So what does that mean? All of a sudden you're
building a wall for a specific group of people, which are the people that
are wanting to come over here. Are those necessarily criminals? No.
But we want to build a wall and we want to secure the fence because
we want to have not the other elements come through. Because
whenever there is vulnerability, if we see hundreds of thousands of
people coming through every year our fence, that means also terrorists
can come through.
Q: Sure.
GOVERNOR: So we're not looking at the Mexicans as terrorists, but we are looking
at -- anyone else can come in here because there are many people
that want to do us harm, not just want to be part of the golden dream.
Q: I think the other thing the public -- I've read a lot lately about how there
are some real myths about Mexican immigration. They are
assimilating more quickly, they do have family values, they're
conservative. They have a lot of the values and ideals that I think most
-- I think the public mood is changing on this. I know with some people
it's a hot button, red-hot issue.
GOVERNOR: You know something? Let me --
Q: But I think the public opinion is changing on this.
GOVERNOR: It is changing, but in reality, I tell you. We can talk about what do we
say when we get asked in an interview, and there are certain things
you can't say. And one of the things that is, I think, tough for the
American people to digest is that Mexicans, because it's next door,
are holding onto their tradition and to their language much longer than
the Polish did when they came over here, and the Germans and the
Austrians when they came here, the French when they came here,
because that was like you wanted to go and become part of America
so quickly that you tried to learn the language. The older generation
had always much more difficulty, as much as I have more difficulty
getting up to speed with the computer. The older generation that is
kind of like still with this new technology kind of stay away from it. But
my son is on the computer and everything, and he's much better in
English than I am, and he's 12 years old. So that's just the way it is.
But I made an effort. But the Mexicans don't make that effort. See,
they are building, as you saw down there -- you were down there, right,
with the Mexican shopping mall?
Q: You bet.
GOVERNOR: Which is like a --
Q: Plaza de Mexico.
GOVERNOR: Which is like the -- yeah, the Plaza de Mexico, which is like a growth.
Q: On our side?
GOVERNOR: Yeah (SS)
Q: (SS) Linwood.
GOVERNOR: In Linwood. I mean, it's spectacular, when you see that shopping mall.
Literally I felt I was in Mexico City, because I was in Mexico City for
months and months and months doing my movies there. And it felt like
I was down there. Everyone only spoke Spanish, every shop was in
Spanish, every sign was in Spanish. They create a Mexico within
California.
Q: You bet. And it's not just in that area. It's in (SS)
Q: Oh, I know.
GOVERNOR: And so you have to now bring all your brochures and everything in
Spanish, all your government forms in Spanish, and all of this and all of
that. So we have to make an effort, and I think that annoys people in
California. It annoys people in America. They say, "Look, you want to
come in here as a guest, but then behave as if you are a guest. That if
you come --" I always compare the country to a house, your home. If
you have someone coming to your home, he's going to say, "This
family wakes up at 6:00 in the morning, and then they leave the house,
or they go out running and all this. If I stay here I think I should get
with the program here, you know? That's the way it is. And it's really
funny what I've seen here in the Dehlson's house. Everyone does
chores here. It's wild.
Q: They do?
GOVERNOR: Kids go and take out the trash, and the wife is doing the cooking, and
Gary is there, he's going out shopping to get the food while she's doing
the vegetables ready, he's getting the steaks. And so and so and
doing this, and the grandmother is over there putting the flowers --
everyone is doing something. I'd better get with the program. So if I'm
smart now, if I'm the guest, I go to his wife and I say, "Hey, what can I
do?"
Q: That's true.
GOVERNOR: Right?
Q: That's a big part of it, absolutely.
GOVERNOR: Because I'm not going to say, "Well, in my house, I sit there and I read
all day, no matter what happens around me, I read." Well, when you
are a guest you don’t want to go and sit in a chair while everyone is
working and you keep reading your book because you love your
novels. You go and get up in this one hour, at least you will then go
and make an effort here, because I'm a guest here. Or, let me go out
and get the flowers, to the wife, to the lady of the house. "I'm going to
get some flowers for doing all of this," with a little message on it.
So you do certain things. But what do we see in return? We see
protestors carrying the Mexican flag.
Q: Carrying the Mexican flag.
GOVERNOR: And stepping on the American flag, and speaking in Spanish and
talking about, "We are here and we're going to stay." So now imagine,
someone coming to your house and he has no place because his
house burned down next door. Now, he comes to your house because
of the misery he went through, or she went through, comes to your
house now and you say, "Come on in here for a week or two weeks
until you get going." And that person comes out and says, "I’m not
going to move anymore. You know, something, Gary? I'm here to
fucking stay."
Q: Well, it's rude. Disrespectful and --
GOVERNOR: That's what I'm saying.
Q: Yeah.
GOVERNOR: So those are the kinds of things that one has to look at. And this is
why when the students asked me at the Cesar Chavez Center about
the protest, I said, "Go ahead, protest. But think about one thing.
Don't break the law. Don't walk on the street unless you have a permit,
because that's what the law says. You can protest all you want in
America, but get the permits." I said, "Then you can gather your 500
students, you will be on the news, the media will cover you. You have
your signs. And then don't wave the Mexican flag. Wrong for America.
America loves America. We love Mexico and we go there on vacation
(audio skip) yes, everything. We love to hear the Mariachi music all
this stuff. But up here, for us to feel sympathetic towards you, you
have to carry the American flag and you have to say, 'We want to be
part of you. We love you.'"
Q: I totally agree with that. I don't know how you --
GOVERNOR: I said, "That's --"
Q: But you can't -- you're right. That would be tough to say, right?
GOVERNOR: No, but this is the thing. I told them that. I told them, "That's what you
do. Because you're trying to sell yourself, and you're tying to win
hearts over to your side, because that's how you get things done. You
don't want to create hatred. Just remember--" (audio skip) Gandhi in
India. Peaceful. He was against violence, he was against breaking
the law. He peacefully marched forward, and in the end they won.
Q: Fabian was a big proponent of waving the flags at the demonstration --
not this last time, but a few years back. And I've read comments he's
made. And I don't think that you're disavowing your Mexican heritage
by embracing the American flag.
GOVERNOR: No, not at all.
Q: You are here, you're still Mexican, but you're respectful.
GOVERNOR: I was wrapped in the American flag when I became a citizen. And I
many times posed with the flag and all of those things. I've never seen
anyone in Austria ever say, "How could you give up the Austrian thing,
and how could you become an American?" No one ever complained,
because they understand that this is my new country here. They
maybe agree or disagree with the death penalty and those kinds of
things because it's against their religion. But with the American flag,
no one every complained. But so those are the kind of things when we
talk about -- for instance, also, health care. It's a very important issue,
because you have here people coming over on a guest worker
program. I hope that they're addressing health care, because does it
mean that when a farmer brings over 400,000 that they're part of a
health care, a group health care thing, that if someone gets sick that
they're covered? Or is it me and you that are going to pay for that?
What is the story here? Those are the kinds of issues that have to be
addressed and thought through very carefully.
Q: So you're having a press conference tomorrow on immigration, or just -
-
GOVERNOR: No, no. It's just in general. I think I will be gone maybe for a few days
to go on vacation.
Q: My question is this, on that issue. (IA) we have now 11 or 12 million
more immigrants that have come, illegal immigrants they call them, that have come over and who are here. And how many of those are
actually working in the fields, as dishwashers or whatever field they
are? How many of those are actually working, and how many are here
that are not working, and with letting them all stay, in 10, 15, 20 years,
are we going to have another 12, 15 million? Where are they going to
work? Are they going to drive the wages down for more farm workers?
What's going to happen to them?
Q: Well, it's complicated. I don't know that you can drive the wages down
any more, but you can certainly (SS)
Q: But if they're going to keep coming --
Q: Well, secure the border, have --
GOVERNOR: I think this is the key thing, is to talk about securing the border, have
law and order. This is a land of laws and rules and regulations, and
that has to be respected. But one has to deal with it in a
compassionate way also. And I think that, to not go into details, to just
say that I’m for being able to earn your way into a legal status, and I
think there will be endless amounts of debates going on, what the
definition of that is, as McCain and Kennedy and others have already
come up with specifics, but they're going to negotiate what it's going to
be. So I think those are the kinds of things that one has to talk about,
like you said.
Q: It's been building for a long time, but I think just suddenly overnight this
has become the biggest issue that everybody is talking about.
Q: It's been a big issue. It's brought to the forefront now.
Q: It's been a big issue, but it's exploded in the last -- I think the
demonstration, what's going on in Congress --
Q: Yeah.
GOVERNOR: I think mostly what's going on in Congress because of the
demonstration was the reaction of Congress.
Q: The bill.
GOVERNOR: Yeah.
Q: Which one are you looking at?
GOVERNOR: This here. I'm looking at the (SS)
Q: You (SS)
GOVERNOR: (IA)
Q: We might be able to smooth that paragraph out a little bit. It's a little --
GOVERNOR: (IA) It's too long, the sentence here.
Q: It's kind of clunky. It goes back and forth. We can smooth it over.
GOVERNOR: It's just long. You know, "With this report and with the action our
administration has already taken, California is now world leader in (IA)
gas emissions."
Q: We could just end it there.
GOVERNOR: No, no. Start a new sentence. Yeah.
Q: Yeah.
GOVERNOR: Okay. Now, make me understand what that actually means.
Q: What's that, the report?
GOVERNOR: The sentence. Because it says here that "With this report and with the
action our administration has already taken, California is now a world
leader in curbing" -- making a decrease -- "greenhouse gas
emissions." So we're going down with the thing.
Q: Right.
GOVERNOR: But then it says that "If left uncorrected, threatens to devastate our
planet."
Q: I've got too many thoughts in that sentence.
GOVERNOR: Because we have already said that we are curbing it. So why is it left
uncorrected? So I think we should straighten out --
Q: Good question. I'll fix that. Maybe I'll just take that out. I think (SS)
GOVERNOR: But I think we should continue that thought, because what we want to
say is that we are already making major steps to curb it. But with the
increase in population and with an increase in cars and all this, that's
not enough.
Q: Yeah.
GOVERNOR: That's why we asked for that report, and now we're going to go the
next step to meet our goals, is really what we want to say. And it says
anyway here, "This report sharpens the debate, and we need to
discuss how best to put these recommendations into law." So we have
to set it up to this report here. So this report is taking us to the next
level, to accomplish the goals that I talked about a year ago. This is
what we are saying here, is that this report, we have now started taking
very aggressive action, but now, and I commissioned a report so it can
tell us how to meet those goals that I proposed last year. Because first
we have to have a goal, and this is now -- this is kind of like "I want to
be the world champion bodybuilder. Now, here's the blueprint on how
to get there. What training do I need to do? This is what this is. And
so this is why we had the report done, so we can actually reach those
things. "(IA) much as dialogue, but actually reaction. I look forward in
working with all of you in the legislature, all of the legislators. I want to
make sure that we get it done. But make no mistake about it. We
must take strong action and we will take strong action."
Are you talking about making sacrifices also?
Q: Well, I thought of that word, and I wasn’t sure if you wanted to use that
word. I think it's a legitimate word, because you are making sacrifices,
right? I mean, you're asking -- how do you feel about that?
GOVERNOR: Well, because I think it's important that we all have to create the will,
and that we have to know that every one of us has to make certain
sacrifices in order to get there.
Q: Everybody needs to pitch in.
GOVERNOR: You have to pitch in, exactly. And it's also important, I think, in this
report, because we always talk about that we admire public service.
This is kind of like a form of great public service, to pitch in.
Q: To do your part.
GOVERNOR: To do your part.
Q: Good point, I like that.
GOVERNOR: Because we always say that the power is individual, so each and every
one out there, everyone that drives a car, everyone that operates a
company, everyone that makes decisions, important decision, the
average person that decides on which car to buy and what to drive,
and blah, blah, blah. You know, just where to put the garbage, where
to do this, where to do that? How many times to leave the lights, how
long to leave the lights on? Do you want to turn the lights off? How do
you want to -- let the shower run 15 minutes, or is it 5 minutes? You
know that it takes 40 percent of energy to deliver the water. We all can
be --
Q: We're all responsible.
GOVERNOR: Exactly. So it would be good if -- (IA) Yeah, that's the question, if this
doesn't leave us open. Before I was governor I was both a
businessman and an environmentalist, because here I was driving
Hummers. I don't know if I leave myself open here by calling myself an
environmentalist. So we should just be aware of that, if that --
Q: You talked in that speech a year ago about growing up in Austria and
the beautiful mountains and everything else --
GOVERNOR: Because I'm environmentally conscious, rather than an
environmentalist. It's just too strong.
Q: Yeah. Environmentally conscious.
Q: Say an environmentalist with a Hummer.
GOVERNOR: Exactly. (Reading aloud, majority inaudible)
Should we say not by polluting oil and gas, to dramatize it a little bit?
Q: M-hmm.
GOVERNOR: (Reading aloud, majority inaudible) Should we put the green building
initiative in there?
Q: Sure.
GOVERNOR: Because I think that's such a good thing, because that's what makes
you to be able to save energy.
Q: Okay. Absolutely.
GOVERNOR: (Reading aloud, majority inaudible) That's a good line. (Reading aloud,
majority inaudible) And this -- and I should hold it up, the whole book.
"And this action report here, based on 4 months of hearings and
testimony from more than 100 experts --"
Q: The question is, how thick is it, and big is it?
GOVERNOR: It doesn't matter.
Q: It's pretty big. You could probably lift it, though.
GOVERNOR: Yeah. Whatever it is there --
Q: Is it 200 pages?
GOVERNOR: No, it's just a book. It's just a good shot.
Q: Yeah. That's good.
GOVERNOR: (Reading aloud, majority inaudible) (Audio skip) How many pages is
it?
Q: It's a little long right now, but --
Q: I think this is really an important speech for you. It just gives you a
chance to reinforce those environmental --
GOVERNOR: I'm not worried at all about the length. Actually, I think it's maybe a
little short. And the reason I'm thinking that, the question really is, if we
don't need to get a little bit more into it?
Q: Into the --
GOVERNOR: Into the challenge of saying -- because if I say, if I would talk to people
off the cuff, I would we saying, "And I know that a lot of you will be
saying, 'Well, it can't be done. This will be too tough on us, and it will
ruin our business, and we have to make sacrifice, and that would be
terrible for our revenues.' There will be 100 different excuses or
reasons why. But it's as much as like someone saying, that has to go -
- you have to be sensitive about this, don't worry -- It's like a bad guy
saying, "Look, the doctor says you've got to go now and go on a diet.'
And he says, "I can't, this is terrible. I just love my cream puffs, and I
like my ice cream. I can't." "Your blood pressure is high, your
cholesterol is 238 and you're going to die in 2 years. So what do you
want? Do you want to live long and be healthy and make some of
those sacrifices, which I know you can do, or do you want to continue
like that?" Do you know what I'm saying?
Q: M-hmm.
GOVERNOR: Put it on that level and people understand it. So I don't know how we
can write that. Just say, "Look, in order to accomplish this we have
done that in the past, and California has become great because of
this." You know, to kind of use it -- I feel like, that to really address,
that yeah, there will be people saying this is unfair, and that this will be
hard, and we can't do it, and what happened, I thought you were probusiness?
And all of those kinds of excuses we will hear.
Q: Yeah. The Chamber of Commerce is against it.
GOVERNOR: Exactly. But that's what I'm saying. My friends from the business
community will be saying this is too tough. No, we're going to ease
into this nice and easy, and we're going to do it so it's doable. But
we've got to think about the long term. What do we want 20 years from
now? What do we want 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 50
years from now? We want to have a great and healthy state. What
are the options? We have increasing costs, we have increasing power
lines, energy, we have increase in everything. That's what happens.
This is why we are now having our infrastructure, that we're building
infrastructure, so that we can handle the growth of the population. But
we also at the same time as we have this growth in population and
infrastructure also means with the environment. This is also good.
You cannot mention infrastructure without saying part of that
infrastructure is to take care of our environment. We have to take care
of our state, our state's population growth.
FEMALE VOICE: He's such a flaming liberal.
Q: He's turning into one.
Q: Do you want to use the overweight patient, use that health problem?
GOVERNOR: (SS)
Q: It's not a bad example if we could do it gingerly.
GOVERNOR: Exactly. If we can do it in a --
Q: In a delicate way?
GOVERNOR: Well, because I just -- you know, in my seminars that's what I would
say.
FEMALE VOICE: I’m driving home. Do you need me?
GOVERNOR: No. I'd say you did a great job today. I don't care what Gary says
about you. I think that you're moving the gender forward, and you're a
major, major champion.
FEMALE VOICE: Got that on tape?
Q: It's on tape, yes.
Q: We have it on tape.
FEMALE VOICE: The next time McCarthy sends a message, tell him -- he's not phoning
you. I pissed him off today.
GOVERNOR: You really pissed him off. But you know something? You pissed him
off because he's at home. That's why you pissed him off. People
always get hurt -- always when you hit something that is the truth,
that's when people flame out. That's just the way it is. Because you
can say anything you want. You can say to me, "Arnold, you never
made enough money." Why would I get upset about it? I laugh about
it.
Q: But I could say you're a lousy chess player. Now, that (SS)
GOVERNOR: But if you said that sounded like an idiot when you said that "The
geniuses in Washington," then I go like --
Q: (Audio skip) when I heard that. I heard you gave him a hard time
about that.
FEMALE VOICE: Don't believe him.
Q: No, he didn't tell me. I heard it on the tape, and I thought -- I heard it
somewhere. I saw the video. Where was that? Where did you say
"The geniuses in Washington?" Where was that delivered?
GOVERNOR: Someone said I said it twice. I said it in San Francisco at the press
conference.
Q: Yeah, that's right.
GOVERNOR: I thought I said it in Bakersfield somewhere, to some local reporter.
Q: I don't remember that.
GOVERNOR: But I guess I must have said it in San Francisco.
Q: San Francisco is where I remember it.
FEMALE VOICE: That's all right. We'll be seeing a lot of that. (IA) right now. They're
focus grouping it as we speak.
GOVERNOR: Anyway, so you hit the Bakersfield boy hard today.
Q: What did you say to him?
GOVERNOR: It was like --
FEMALE VOICE: I forget how I said it, but I said, "That's fine, but every time you guys
get together he gets bummed."
GOVERNOR: The funny thing about it was, she said I didn't read his note on Sunday,
that this is all you can get, the 30 billion dollars infrastructure, and this
and that, and forget about everything that you want. This is still a
victory and blah, blah, blah, and said "I wouldn't push the Republicans,
but that would unravel the whole thing." So then I tried to be really
gentle with them and controlling myself when they were talking about
all this. So I would say --
FEMALE VOICE: I lost it. I couldn't help it.
GOVERNOR: So I said, "It would be good if you also include the 99 highway, and I
think it's not to push it, I understand where you're going, you're doing
the dance," and all this. And all of a sudden she comes in. Out of
nowhere she says, "Yeah, but you're fucking the Governor. Everything
that means something to us you've not included. What does it mean,
that every single time you go upstairs and you negotiate you take one
more thing away from us, and only do things that are good for you?"
FEMALE VOICE: I couldn't help it. I could not stay quiet.
GOVERNOR: So I stayed quiet, and I --
FEMALE VOICE: (SS) so come back, and Kevin will come back downstairs. But you
didn't say anything. I didn't know it was important, because you didn't
say anything. He's done that before. We sat in there before. We
specifically went over, don't take the money out of this and put it into
the stip, because this is important to us. And he did it anyway, and he
came back and he was like, "We talked about that." And I said, "Yeah,
we did. We specifically -- "It's like he doesn't care. There's no pride.
Anyway, don’t get me started again. I'm glad he's running for
Congress.
Q: How's Plescia?
FEMALE VOICE: Plescia looks like the deer that keeps getting caught in my yard when
I leave the gate open.
Q: Is he a fish out of water right now?
GOVERNOR: Great look. I love it.
FEMALE VOICE: He goes --
GOVERNOR: There was the Academy Award right there.
FEMALE VOICE: He's big-eyed, and he just kind of like -- stare, like a Stepford wife.
He's a good looking guy. Happy, perky.
GOVERNOR: It will be interesting if he can control that wild bunch upstairs, because
that's like a very unique unruly bunch of guys and girls.
FEMALE VOICE: Bonnie Garcia is great. She's a ball buster. She's great. Is she
Puerto Rican?
GOVERNOR: She seems to me like Cuban.
FEMALE VOICE: She's not Mexican.
GOVERNOR: No.
FEMALE VOICE: Because she said something. I thought she was Puerto Rican.
GOVERNOR: Puerto Rican, or the same thing, Cuban. They all are very hot. They
have kind of the black blood in them, and part of the Latino blood in
them, that together makes it -- because I had a friend, Sergio (IA) that
was competing against me.
Q: Sure.
GOVERNOR: He was like that.
Q: He was in the Caribbean. Is he now?
GOVERNOR: No, he lives in Chicago.
Q: Oh, I'm thinking of someone else, maybe.
GOVERNOR: They guy that you're talking about is the guy that, I think, killed a few
people, and he is now on the way to get executed. What was his
name? (IA) Fox.
Q: No, I was thinking of somebody else.
Q: Sergio is the old --
GOVERNOR: He's like a little bit older than I am. He's probably 65 or so.
Q: I think I saw him at the Arnold Classic. Would he have been in town?
GOVERNOR: That's right. He was at the Arnold Classic. Lot of jewelry always, and
a bald head.
Q: Yeah.
GOVERNOR: It was incredible. He had this unbelievable Olympic lift, also.
Unbelievable Olympic lift.
FEMALE VOICE: I'm leaving.
GOVERNOR: Won the Pan American.
FEMALE VOICE: This doesn't look like water. I'm leaving.
GOVERNOR: He won the Pan American games in the Olympic lifting, and then he
went into bodybuilding.
FEMALE VOICE: I'm leaving. See you later.
Q: I'm going to get you a copy of this tomorrow so you'll see it, circulate it
around.
FEMALE VOICE: Thank you. I'll see you later. See you tomorrow.
GOVERNOR: See you. Bye-bye.
Q: Drive carefully.
GOVERNOR: But anyway, so I think it needs --
Q: We can do all that.
GOVERNOR: It needs a little bit, kind of like rather than just giving information out, it
has to be kind of like, look, I know that there are some of you that are
going to say this is impossible. But remember, what is for some
people impossible, we have to make possible. You know, something
inspirational, that this was not done (IA) that this was not easy, that
was not easy, accomplishing this was not easy, but they did it. This is
what we have to do. This is a great challenge for all of us, and blah,
blah, blah, but it is wonderful and we can --
Q: Do you want to say something like because what California does, the
rest of the world, the rest of the country and then the world will take
notice, and we can have a global impact too? If you want to think
about your kids and their future --
Q: Well, I think the future is important, and to talk about the future.
There's really nothing saying, you know, this goes on, this is a legacy.
Because if you think back, really, to be honest with you, in the '50s, the
smog in LA was worse than it is now.
Q: But this is beyond just California. If California does this and has
success and has the guts to do this, the rest of the country --
Q: California has always been in the forefront of things like that.
Q: So we can lead for the world, for the country?
Q: Yeah, so we can lead for the world and the future.
GOVERNOR: But that's a good point what you're saying, because of certain laws that
were changed --
Q: Yeah.
GOVERNOR: -- we have cleaned up our mess. Because when I first came over here
-- that maybe an interesting spin to put on here, just an idea, because
you just said that -- that when I came over here I couldn't figure out that
my eyes were always running. I was always teary eyed. It was not
because I missed Austria. People would say, "Why do you have tears
in your eyes?" It was not that. I was happy here. But the smog was
burning my eyes. And you know today when I'm in Los Angeles my
eyes don't burn anymore. No matter where I go my eyes are not
burning anymore, because we passed certain laws. What is that part
that we took out? It looks like smoggy, but it took something out of that
bad air because of the catalytic converter and all of that? What was
that? We just have to find out from Gary.
Q: But because of laws back then that people said were too hard to pass.
GOVERNOR: Exactly. No, but the point that I’m making here is that I always use an
example. I say, "When I came over to this country and know that we
could move around freely and it took 10 minutes only from Santa
Monica to downtown Los Angeles, now we are stuck in traffic, things
are getting worse, and blah, blah, blah. But let me tell you something.
With the environment we have done better. We have improved our
environment. Now my eyes are not runny. Now you can drink out of
any tap of water. Now people are talking about how to collect the
garbage and to put the papers aside and to do recycling.
Q: Right.
GOVERNOR: People are talking about all of those, and mention, for instance, people
are very conscious about it. People are buying cars now that are
energy efficient, people are doing this, people are doing that. They are
much (IA) because of certain laws that were passed, because of
certain things, and because we created awareness. We did it, and
now the key thing is that we can make also the next step.
Q: Exactly. That we continue, we move on.
GOVERNOR: We can continue, even though there will be people that say this will be
too difficult and it will destroy businesses. But look, we have gone
through all this. Look what we have accomplished just this last few
years without destroying businesses. Our revenues are higher than
ever, 93 billion dollars in revenues, when people said, "Oh, we don't
like this change, our businesses will deteriorate." No. We have now
93 billion dollars in revenues, and we're going to have 110 billion in 2
years from now, and we're going to continue on, and our economy will
continue booming because blah, blah, blah. I think we have to
encourage them, we have to challenge them, and we have to give
them a good example, because then every stage after that will be
complaining about it and will be talking good, bad and all, people will
be talking about different things, which will be good. But I think it's
good to set it up. I know there will be speeches -- and we maybe put in
the category, different people that they're talking about it, and we have
to find out will it be all people that will be supportive of this, or -- I think
the Chamber will talk about it, and lobbyists will be talking about how
this is not going to be so good for the business community. So if we
find out that, then we can say, today there will be speeches --
Q: They've already said that.
GOVERNOR: Good. So today you will hear from people that all have the greatest
intentions to make this the greatest economy, to make the businesses
great, to make the state great and all of this. But there will be different
opinions. Some think that those goals are too tough to meet. Some
will be saying, you know, it's impossible to do business like that. Some
will be saying that it's the greatest things that ever happened. Some
will be hailing us as the most advanced -- but let me just tell you. And
then just go into it. It will take sacrifice, yes. It's no different than when
someone says you have a problem with your health, that you have to
now stop eating this and that. And then use some examples.
Q: Do you want to look at the --
Q: That's not a problem. That's good. I like that.
GOVERNOR: So I would put that in to kind of oomph it up. And to just show how we
all have to just chip in.
Q: I think this is kind of a benchmark speech on this subject, so -- it will be
three or four pages longer, though. That's okay?
GOVERNOR: Don't worry about that.
Q: Okay.
GOVERNOR: Because we have to think more about there are certain speeches once
a month maybe where we have to go and really do a policy speech
and be out there.
Q: Yeah. I think this is one of those.
GOVERNOR: And I think it has to be well-rounded, it shouldn't be chopped off just to
stay within 20 pages or so. If it's 28 pages, then it's 28 pages. It has
to be -- it's like follow-through. It's the same, with the swing.
Q: Okay. I'll do that tomorrow morning.
Q: Do you want to look at the Firebaugh (PH) thing?
Q: Yeah. Do you have an extra copy of that, or just the two? So you
want to have that early tomorrow?
Q: Yeah.
GOVERNOR: Good, okay. I'll give you this back.
Q: Okay. Are you going to keep that, or do you want me to keep it?
Q: It's going to change now.
Q: Yeah. Are you going back?
Q: Yeah.
Q: You can get it tomorrow though, right?
Q: Yeah. (IA)
Q: Well, I've been working on this, and she's basically done one, but I
haven't looked at it yet. So -- Matt will be in in the morning, and his
wife is real sick.
Q: Yeah, I know. Did we find out what happened?
Q: (IA) Absolutely miserable, will bear close watching tonight, and she
had a similar episode a few years ago and they thought she had colitis,
so I don’t need to tell you how much pain she had. (IA)
Q: I've got a first draft, though. Do you want to see it, or do you want to
just wait until we polish it tomorrow?
Q: We'll polish it tomorrow.
GOVERNOR: We have to just find out -- maybe call Jim Long, or (IA) the thing we
talked about, that -- you know, how we can never make decisions
when we pass on. That's God's decision. He has certain plans for all
of us. That kind of a thing. It needs something of that, on that level
also.
Q: Where will you go with that (IA)
Q: God's plan. Would you say something like we don't choose our own,
when we pass on, that's God's decision. But it's up to us what we do
with our lives when we're here, and Marco was a strong -- something
like a strong example of getting involved and being engaged, and
fighting for the underdog, and trying to make the society a better place
to live in, not -- something along those lines?
GOVERNOR: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Q: I mean, we don't decide how we die, but we decide how we live.
Q: That's a good line.
GOVERNOR: Exactly, yeah. You know, that one decision, that decision when you're
born or when you pass you away, that decision God makes. But the
decision we make is how do we live our life, and what impact do we
have. That kind of turn, you know?
Q: Of course, unfortunately, he caused his own demise because of his
lifestyle. He admitted that.
Q: Drinking?
Q: Yeah, he drank, and did all kinds of -- but still. Not for this day.
GOVERNOR: Yeah.
Q: Okay?
GOVERNOR: That will be great.
Q: We'll do those. Out we go.
GOVERNOR: Pump it up.
Q: You going to the gym?
Q: You bet.
Q: And there's one last thing for Wednesday, but we'll get you those
tomorrow. The CPOA, the California Police Officers Association,
you're going there?
GOVERNOR: That's right, yeah.
Q: And we're working on that, we'll have those tomorrow. Somebody said
you're doing the CCPOA, and I thought, "Oh, that' interesting." But it's
the CPOA. Big difference.
GOVERNOR: (IA) the Peace Officer Association.
Q: Yeah. The Guards. That would be news. The Governor is going to
one of their functions. That would be news in and of itself.
GOVERNOR: Right.
Q: Okay. Anything else?
GOVERNOR: That's it. Thank you.
Q: Thanks for the cigar and the schnapps, and for the good ideas.
GOVERNOR: Absolutely. So what do we do at the Peace Officers Association?
Q: You know --
GOVERNOR: The question is if I should do a speech there or if I should do an
improvisational rap?
Q: Well, you know what? The way I understand this thing is, there are
about 300 people there that represent all the different law enforcement
groups, sheriff, police, district attorneys. And the way I read the
briefing is, all of the elected -- everybody running for office goes, and it
seems to me like an endorsement kind of a dance, a little bit. You
know, Lockyer goes -- all separately -- Westly goes, Angelides goes.
So I think you've got to do a little campaigning there.
GOVERNOR: Okay.
Q: About you've always been a big strong -- you know, we put in the talk
about your father being a police officer, respect the police officers, the
important work they do, the dangerous work they do, public safety is
the top priority of government. Talk about the things you've done,
three strikes, the DNA, now Jessica's Law, stuff in the budget for law
enforcement, those kinds of things.
Q: Accomplishments, looking forward, paying respects.
GOVERNOR: Right.
Q: I think it's more than just talking points, is the way I --
GOVERNOR: You're right.
Q: Because they said 10 to 15 minutes. I don’t know if you'll go that long,
but we can -- I thought we'd give you about 10 minutes.
GOVERNOR: They always say that, everywhere.
Q: They always say 15 minutes. That's what they --
Q: But I think this is -- they don't say that this is part of their kind of sizing
people up for possible endorsement down the road, but I think that's
what this is, because all of the political candidates and people running
for -- the Democratic candidates are appearing separately, so --
So you're going to get away for a vacation, or are you going to be here
all week?
GOVERNOR: Maybe. If they're going to vote --
(End of recording)
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