The OLD Arnold matches the NEW Arnold which matches the OLD Arnold :-)
This is his statement at the Economic Recovery Council press conference 8/20/03. I've transcribed this much so far, still have to finish the question/answer session. I've also stayed true to his still slightly foreign syntax.
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Well, first of all thank you for this incredible turnout. I would have wished to have had this kind of a turnout for when I did "Last Action Hero". Anyway, I want to thank first of all my co-chairs Secretary Shutlz and Warren Buffet for not only being the co-chairs but also for assembling, for helping me assemble this great team of the best and the brightest economic leaders and business leaders of California and we just finished the meeting.
When I came to California 35 years ago this was a place of great dreams. This state said to the people everywhere, come here, work hard, play by the rules and your dreams can come true. What has happened to California? What has happened to that feeling? What has happened to the optimism that this state once represented to the world?
Now I believe in my heart that we can bring that optimism back. The people of this state are working hard, they are raising their families and they are paying their taxes. Our businesses are the most innovative on the face of this earth. We still have all the elements that made us great and prosperous. We have everything we need except leadership.
In simple terms, this is the financial situation that we face. It is not that the people of California have been undertaxed, it is that the politicians have overspent. Sacramento has overspent, overtaxed and over-regulated our businesses. Our elected officials have failed the people. They have overburdened our businesses which are downsizing and leaving and the jobs are leaving with them. We want those jobs that are going to Nevada and Arizona and Texas and elsewhere to come back. We want those jobs back.
I have just met with my Economic Recovery Council to address the economic environment of California. California's economy is critical to the national economy. We must fix California's economic environment not only for ourselves, but for the rest of the nation. Businesses cannot continue to suffer under skyrocketing workers compensation costs.
The day I am sworn in, I will take action. I will call a special session of the legislature to enact reforms to correct a system that imposes unaffordable costs on our employees while denying decent benefits to our people that are injured. I will not sign a budget without workers compensation reform. Our working men and women deserve better. And our economic recovery demands and depends on reform.
The Economic Recovery Council and I discussed many other substantive issues that will be addressed in my administration: litigitation reform, regulatory reform, and the unemployment insurance fund crisis, and, without needed energey reform, California will continue to suffer the highest commercial energy costs in the nation. These critical issues must be addressed to insure the economic recovery that California so desperately needs.
Needless to say, the elephant in the room when it comes to California's economy is the state's irresponsible operating defecit and the massive debt that this government has allowed California to incur. You know, Maria and I, we teach our kids the basic principles. We teach them don't spend more money than you have. That's what I teach my 6 year old. And I promise you that is what I will teach Sacramento. We must have a constitutional spending cap. We must never again permit Sacramento to mortgage our children's future with unconstinutional deficit spending. We must immediately attack the operating deficit head on.
Now does this mean that we are going to make cuts? Yes. Does this mean education is on the table? No. Does this mean that I am willing to raise taxes? No. Additional taxes are the last burden that we need to put on the backs of the citizens and businesses of California.
One message that became loud and clear at this last meeting we just had, was that no one, not even the economic and academic leaders could figure out and make heads or tails of the state's budget. We don't know what is being spent and we don't know where.
One thing I've learned in business and that is that you can't make sound decisions based on faulty information. Upon becoming governor, I would immediately appoint an outside auditing group free of political influence to examine the books and find out how bad the situation really is. This will be a 60-day review that will result in immediate steps to address the operating deficit.
The second part of the problem is that the next governor would inherit what experts think is to be between 12 and 20 billion dollars, this is a debt separate and apart from the operating deficit. California would not be an attractive place to do business. It would not be attractive to the business or financial community as long as our credit rating is the worst in the nation. I have asked the Hoover Institute's John Cogan and mentor of my council to lead the working group charged with restructuring this inherited debt.
Now, before the carping begins about the need for the 25 point plan on each one of those items, let me make one thing clear; that these problems, these problems that I just mentioned were not created in two weeks, nor will we be able to solve those problem in two weeks and anybody that is out there and telling the people of California otherwise are just a typical politician.
The way I work is to get as many people at the table as possible, listen to opinions, think about their ideas and then I make the decision. And let me tell you something, one thing that the citizens of California can count on is that I will take action.
Thank you very much for listening and I would like now to have my two co-chairs make some comments. Again thank you very much for being a co-chair Warren, if you please make some comments before we answer some questions. Thank you very much.
http://www.cspan.org/search/basic.asp?ResultStart=1&ResultCount=10&BasicQueryText=schwarzenegger