Posted on 03/13/2002 3:48:17 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
SAVAGE: Right now I'm very honored to have the next governor of the state of California, Bill Simon, on "The Savage Nation." Mr. Simon, welcome to the program.
SIMON: Thank you, Michael. How are you?
SAVAGE: Well, I'm very glad that you won, for the obvious reasons. We don't know each other, but my reading of this, Bill, is that the reason you won – one of the many reasons – is because the conservative voters who had disappeared from the voting process out of disgust suddenly came out in droves and put you ahead in the primary. Would you say that was a major reason?
SIMON: I would say that was a very important reason, no question about it, Michael. You know, receiving over a million votes in a Republican primary, I think, is something that we all can be proud of. I think that's obviously due to the fact that people came out to the polls and voted for me.
SAVAGE: Now, the big issue is that Gray Davis is in trouble, not only as a Democrat but also as a failed Democrat – he has failed energy policies, there are all sorts of scandals associated with him. How are you, Mr. Simon, going to run in a state that we are told is extremely liberal? Do you believe it's as liberal as the media tell us?
SIMON: You know, Michael, I must admit that I look at not so much labels as I do issues. I've been all over the state talking with people who are Democrats and people who are Republicans, people who would say that they're liberals and people who would say that they're conservatives.
And I would say that the issues that they want to talk about are remarkably the same, and they boil down into one of three areas: the economy, their pocketbooks; their schools; and what I call their quality of life, meaning the traffic, and affordable and reliable water and power.
And now, having done this for over a year and spoken with many, many Californians from a variety of backgrounds, I'm pretty comfortable I know what's on their minds. We all know that in this economy people are having trouble making ends meet. Whether it's their mortgage payments, whether it's paying their electric bills or what have you, people are having trouble paying their bills.
SAVAGE: Let's look at those three issues: the economy, schools, quality of life. I'm not asking you to agree with me, but I would relate all of these issues to the flood of illegal aliens in California and coming into America. I understand that this is the third rail for politicians today and no one will touch the issue of illegal immigration. Is this something you're going to do?
SIMON: Well, I've been very clear, Michael, on my stance with respect to immigration, that we need greater border control, that I'm not in favor of amnesty because I don't think it's appropriate to reward illegal behavior. You know, I've been very clear about those things.
SAVAGE: Wow. Bill, how can you survive being so straightforward? This is shocking. I'm almost frightened.
SIMON: I must admit I was very clear about these stances all the way through the primary. I believe that if you give people an honest assessment of where you are on the issues – they may not always agree with you, but I remember, for example, Ronald Reagan was asked, "How can you attract crossover votes from so many different Democrats?" And Ronald Reagan said, "You know, lots of those people don't agree with me, but they know where I stand."
I don't mean to be threatening about any of these positions. I think it's safe to say that I'm very clear what I'm going to focus on, what is going to be the centerpiece of my agenda, and that is people's pocketbooks, our schools and our quality of life. Those are the things that if I can't make an impact, Michael, after eight years of being your governor and your listeners' governor, then it's shame on me.
SAVAGE: Well, I'm glad that you didn't mince words on the illegal immigration question. I would suggest this is the sleeping giant of the next election. However, having said that – and, by the way, just to agree with you on something, I also am not loved by everyone who listens to me, although this is the fastest-growing talk radio show in California and in America. You may or may not know that ...
SIMON: I'm not surprised ...
SAVAGE: and many of my listeners are identified as Democrats or liberals, we know that from surveys. They don't listen to me because they necessarily agree with me. It's because they know I'm going to express exactly what I believe to be the truth – or how I see it, let's put it to you that way.
But you know and I know that the other side is going to label you in various ways. The minute you come out strongly, Mr. Simon, on cracking down on illegal behavior, you're going to be called every name under the sun, and if it's illegal immigration they'll call you a racist. How are you going to deal with that?
SIMON: Well, you know, I've said publicly that I'm going to focus on three areas: our economy, our schools, and our roads and our water and our power. There is so much to do in those areas, Michael, that it could take up four governors' terms. And so when people say, "I don't agree with your stance on immigration," just to pick a point, if they know I'm going to be improving their quality of life every single day, I think that's one reason I get votes from people who may not agree with me on another particular position.
SAVAGE: Where do you stand on the Second Amendment?
SIMON: I've said that I'm pro Second Amendment. I believe in the right of law-abiding citizens to bear arms. I believe that we have enough gun laws right now. I believe we should have a cooling-off period on new gun laws, and let's enforce the existing gun laws. I think some of the best gun laws – meaning the gun laws that reduce violence among all people – are 10, 20, life and three strikes.
SAVAGE: I agree with you on that. What about the three-strikes law? I was going to ask you about that. That, I think, is a wonderful deterrent. It makes California a very criminal-unfriendly place to practice their trade. It's definitely reduced crime. Are you in favor of continuing the three-strikes law, Mr. Simon?
SIMON: Yes, I am, actually, and I'll tell you why. I think there's an element of prosecutorial discretion that's contained in the existing three-strikes law, which is fine with me. I'm a former federal prosecutor, so maybe I have a unique understanding of the judgments that have to be made as a federal prosecutor and judgments made by law enforcement. So I'm comfortable giving them that discretion.
SAVAGE: You know, Mr. Simon, something else happened during your so-called upset victory that has been completely eliminated from the news, and that was the Democrats and the unions tried to push through a revision of term limits, as you well know. I think it was Proposition 45. They framed it in such a way as to say it was a correction of it or whatever, but the voters came out and roundly defeated that by 20 points.
I think that your win over Riordan and the wholesale defeat of an attempt to turn back term limits are indicators of a broader trend in California, and possibly across America, of a return to more conservative politics. Would you agree with that analysis?
SIMON: I would have to say that I believe in the common sense of people. And I'm not sure that we're so much having a return to conservatism or conservative principles as we are relying on the common sense of people. I find that when we rely on the common sense of people, we reach very good conclusions. I think people are smart. I think people know what's going on.
SAVAGE: They do know what's going on. There's no question in my mind that the people are not as stupid as some would believe.
SIMON: And when people say we don't need as much government ... sure, some say that that's a conservative principle, and I'm a believer in less government. But I believe that people all over America, all over California, want to be in control of their own destinies, whether they're Democrats or Republicans.
I think people all over this state want more opportunity. They want the government out of their lives. They want the government not to take as much of their paychecks in order to finance their silly projects. When you talk about the government growing 37 percent in three years when population grows by 5 percent, that's a crime.
SAVAGE: On a basic, nuts-and-bolts level, our roads are broken, by the way. I never talk about roads, but I ride on them and I'll tell you they're in bad shape.
SIMON: I've ridden all over our roads these last 16 months and I agree with you, they're the worst in the nation in terms of disrepair. Let me give you a number. Over the last 30 years our roads have increased in space – freeways and lanes – by 30 percent. Our population has increased by 70 percent. The number of drivers has increased by 140 percent. And the number of vehicle miles traveled has increased by 183 percent.
So what that means is the demand, vehicle miles traveled, has increased six times the supply, which is our increase in capacity. Now, we all know that that's a prescription for disaster.
But do you know what Gray Davis' response to that was? Six months ago he dedicated a new freeway down in Los Angeles called the Foothill Freeway. You know what words he used to dedicate it? "This will be the last new freeway in the history of California."
SAVAGE: What does he want us to do? Go back to the horse and carriage? What is he talking about? Our entire economy runs on the roads.
SIMON: He's a social engineer who wants to take people out of their cars and put them into mass transit, which we know in Los Angeles was a disaster. And let me tell you, Michael, I'm sure it's true for lots of your listeners, I have three children at home. There is no bus. My wife takes our children to soccer games, piano lessons, over to their friends' houses ... all the different things my wife needs to do in the course of a day, there's no bus that does that.
SAVAGE: You don't have to tell me. I have all of the environmental credentials you could ever ask for, but I certainly understand the value of the internal combustion engine of the car. I'd rather have a sun car, but they don't exist.
Bill, last but not least, I know women who are very conservative on social issues, they're very conservative fiscally, but they'll never vote for a man who is in favor of controlling their right to an abortion. I try to avoid the topic, but you know and I know ...
SIMON: No, let's talk about it.
SAVAGE: Let's talk about it, because it's going to come up. Where do you stand on that?
SIMON: I believe that abortion is wrong, but I understand the law. I will do nothing to change the law. I respect the law. I'm going to take an oath to uphold the law. Abortion will not be a centerpiece of my agenda.
SAVAGE: But I'll tell you, Gray Davis will make it so. They're going to make this the issue.
SIMON: Let's let the voters then decide. If I say I will do nothing to be an activist governor in this regard but I will improve your quality of life, I will make sure our kids get educated and I will make sure we don't face a budget deficit again in the order of $17 billion where you have to pay more taxes, let's let the people decide who they want, me or Gray Davis.
SAVAGE: Bill, you raise a very good point. We pay some of the highest state taxes in the country. It's driving businesses, it's sending people to Nevada and to Florida. What can we do about state taxes?
SIMON: We can lower them. I publicly proposed that we reduce the capital gains rate from 9.3 percent to 5 percent. That will encourage small businesses.
SAVAGE: Oh, absolutely. Bill, last but not least, the media immediately jumped on you the minute you won. They started calling you a conservative Republican millionaire, as if all of those words were dirty words. Why is it that the Democrats – many of them are millionaires who support Davis – are never shown to be as wealthy? Why should your wealth be seen as a deficit? I mean, some of my best friends are millionaires!
SIMON: Michael, I agree with you. You know, I just say the following: I never met a Democrat or a Republican who wants to pay more taxes. I never met a Democrat or a Republican who wouldn't like to have better schools than we have. And I never met a Democrat or a Republican who wouldn't like to be stuck in traffic less or who wouldn't like to have affordable power and water. That's what I'm going to provide as a governor. That's why I can appeal to Democrats and Republicans. That's why I won the primary.
SAVAGE: And Bill, there's one other thing I would say: I've never met a Democrat who wanted to be poor.
SIMON: I've never met anybody [who wants to be poor]. And that's why the reduction in the capital gains tax from 9.3 percent to 5 percent ... that's not to favor the rich. That's to favor the poor.
SAVAGE: I believe you will be the next governor and frankly I am, in a way, very honored that you've come on the show. Because I was afraid that you'd want to avoid controversy, because my show is considered somewhat controversial simply because I speak my mind.
I do believe, though, that the people of the state of California – more particularly, the people of the nation – are sick and tired of being told how to run their lives from cradle to grave, being told what to think, what not to think, what to say, what not to say. They cannot take the social controls that have been imposed upon them by the radical left, and I hope to God, Bill, that you don't run away from the liberals, who will attack you with everything in their armamentarium, and that ranges from racism to calling you a millionaire or whatnot. We're 100 percent behind you, Bill.
SIMON: Thank you, Michael.
SAVAGE: Thank you, and you've just heard the next governor of the state of California, Bill Simon, on "The Savage Nation."
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