Posted on 08/17/2006 8:32:11 PM PDT by So Cal Rocket
Thank you for your invitation today and thank you for your support of the California Public Policy Foundation. And special thanks for John Kurzweil the William F. Buckley of California politics and for everything he has done to build and maintain and expand this vital conservative forum for California Public Policy.
When the history of this era is written, I think that Johns contribution to Californias conservative renaissance will be just as conspicuous as was the National Reviews impact on the national public policy discussion in the 1960s and 1970s. And that in turn, will have been made possible by the support of each of you there today.
I have been asked to discuss saving California. And today, just 84 days just 12 short weeks from Election Day, I would be ignoring the elephant in the room if I did not note that the upcoming election is vital to that object.
The choice before the voters of California is one of the clearest and most profound choices ever put before them. It is a choice between a leadership team with a PROVEN record of REDUCING the taxes and regulations that were destroying the commerce, enterprise, and prosperity of California, and a leadership team with a PROVEN record of INCREASING those burdens.
We are seeing a nearly unprecedented surge of new revenues into the state treasury a 23 percent increase in three years. This did not happen because of a 23 percent increase in taxes. It happened precisely because we didnt have a 23 percent increase in taxes.
The indisputable fact is that our Republican team rolled back the Democrats illegal tripling of the car tax; we won the most comprehensive regulatory relief in Californias history (the workers compensation reform), and we held the line against the Democrats incessant demands for tax increases.
And guess what? Reganomics still works. If you reduce the burdens on business and hold the line against tax increases, the economy blossoms.
In California, we can proudly boast of being the textbook example of that proven principle at work.
Our tax receipts are off the charts because of three conscious policies enacted by Sacramentos Republicans and opposed by Sacramentos Democrats we cut tax rates and said NO to tax increases. And let me repeat that for anyone who has missed all of Arthur Laffers lectures on the subject: in high tax environments like California, REDUCING tax rates INCREASES tax revenues.
Memo to Angelides and Garamendi, that also works in reverse: in high tax environments, INCREASING tax rates REDUCES tax revenues. And thats not just idle economic theory that was the bitter lesson that we learned the hard way in 1991. And we certainly dont need to learn that lesson again.
Of course, theres much work yet to be done to restore the prosperity and opportunity of life that Californians once took for granted. And were all going to need to have a very serious discussion during this campaign over the future direction of our state.
So lets begin that discussion by asking how long will this economic expansion will last after the Democrats have tripled the car tax, as they have vowed to do. Or when theyve rescinded the $15 billion in workers compensation savings, as theyve imposed $10 billion of new tax increases as the Democrats have vowed to do?
Those are the issues before us today.
Never has the choice been clearer between the two parties in this state.
They offer the rationing of shortages. We propose a renaissance of new public works to restore the abundant water, the clean electricity and the open roads that Californians once took for granted.
They have handed control of our schools over to the unions. We propose to restore control of our classrooms to the teachers and control of our schools to the parents by returning to local control and charter schools.
They offer stifling central planning to manage every aspect of our lives, they offer higher and higher taxes and more costly regulations. We offer freedom.
And thats whats really at stake in this election freedom:
These are the monumental issues at stake in the next 12 weeks, and they affect the lives of every Californian. And I believe the people of California understand what is at stake, and that the winds of political change are stirring.
We caught a glimpse of that during the recall election three years ago, when 62 percent of the voters cast their votes for Gov. Schwarzenegger and myself to just 31 percent for the Democrats. What that election proved is that when people are paying attention and thinking through the issues, the election of a liberal Democrat even here in California is a mathematical impossibility.
And I came away from that election with a great consolation and also a great revelation. By the end of that campaign, according to every major poll Gallup, Field, and L.A. Times I had the highest approval rating of any of the candidates. The public agrees with us and they agree with us by overwhelming margins.
The upcoming election will determine whether the recall was just a passing phase, or whether it really did mark a turning point in the history of California.
And thats why we have to win this election from top to bottom.
Every Californian should cringe at the prospect of Jerry Brown the chief architect of the Rose Bird era in charge of the Attorney Generals office.
It should be unthinkable to suggest returning the Secretary of States office to the political machine that gave us the Kevin Shelly scandal that diverted millions of tax dollars that had been intended for fair and free elections into the Democrats partisan political program.
No good can possibly come from keeping the Controllers office in the same hands in which it has been held for 32 consecutive years and that have produced the most rapacious and abusive tax apparatus anywhere in the nation.
And after we witnessed one of the worst scandals of 20th Century California when John Garamendi seized Executive Life, sold it to a French Government consortium for pennies on the dollar wiping out the life savings of every pensioner and annuitant who depended on it do we really want to turn that office over to another Democrat?
And that brings me to the Lt. Governors race, and what is at stake with that post. We know Garamendis record of corruption in the Executive Life scandal from which he personally profited by the financial ruin of thousands of families.
And we know mine. During the recall election, I put forward a comprehensive program to set the states finances in order, to reduce the takes and regulations that are choking our economy, to restore Californias long-neglected public works, to return control of our classrooms to parents, to bring a basic health plan within the financial reach of every family, and to use state agencies to combat illegal immigration. I laid out plans to fulfill our need for clean, cheap, and abundant electricity, to rebuild and expand our reservoirs, and to restore control over local decisions to local governments.
It is true that only the governor has the power to implement these policies, but the Lt. Governor can put them on the table, and become a powerful advocate for them from his unique position within state government. The Lt. Governor is the second ranking constitutional officer in the state with a legislative role as President of the Senate and is independently answerable to the people. Imagine what a reforming Lt. Governor can do.
I intend to make this a four year campaign for the broad range of reforms necessary to set the states finances in order, including restoring constitutional limits on spending and borrowing, regaining our property right protections, and pressing for institutional efficiencies that include decentralizing public school administration and contracting out state services.
When my family came here in 1965, California was a shining beacon of opportunity: a fresh, dynamic land of economic freedom where taxes were low and jobs were plentiful. Affordable housing abounded at all income levels. Our children were secure in their homes and our families were secure in their property. Our hydro-electric and nuclear power plants were making electricity so cheaply that electricity meters were becoming obsolete. Our water storage was so immense that many communities didnt bother with water meters. We boasted the finest highway system in the world, the finest public education system in the country.
To produce this cornucopia of services in 1965, Californias general fund spending came to just $140 per person, or the equivalent of $830 in todays inflation-adjusted dollars.
This year, state government will spend $2,700 per person.
Yet the only thing that has changed between those days and these is public policy. In a period of three decades, the policies that produced prosperity and opportunity were replaced gradually replaced with those that promised only the rationing of shortages and heavier taxes and regulation.
And we have now arrived at a fiscal paradox where, despite record levels of spending, we cant scrape together enough money to build a decent road system, educate our kids or protect our families from predators.
Californias plight is not the fault of taxpayers. It is the fault of misguided public policy that has diverted our ample resources away from core responsibilities like good schools and safe neighborhoods to feed the bloated budges of sprawling new state bureaucracies.
As Lt. Governor, I cannot promise to change these ruinous policies myself but I can promise to do everything within my power to make them the center of the public policy debate and to forcefully put these desperately needed policy alternatives to the legislature and to the governor.
And with your help, together, we can restore to your children the golden land of opportunity that our parents gave to us.
I figure you might want to ping your McClintock ping list, since this is a transcript of Tom's speech.
You were quick with this one!
Tom McClintock:
"The upcoming election will determine whether the recall was just a passing phase, or whether it really did mark a turning point in the history of California.
And thats why we have to win this election from top to bottom."
BUMP
Great speech!
I wish he was going to be governor instead of Rino Arnold, but you take what you can get! Better than tax you into the poor house Angelides.
some choice , huh?
tax&spend you into the poor house Angelides or borrow&spend 'til the California Cows come home Schwarzenkennedy.
Living proof that all politicians embellish or lie. Here's an accurate statement:
It is a choice between a leadership team with a carefully cultivated PUBLIC PERCEPTION of REDUCING the taxes and regulations that were destroying the commerce, enterprise, and prosperity of California, and a leadership team with a PROVEN record of INCREASING those burdens.
The Schwarzenegger administration has done little to reduce taxation on business. The three accomplishment it trumpets, reducing employment taxes, frustrating direct, business tax increases or rolling back transpiration taxes are the product of a legislative action before Schwarzenegger took office, beside the point or an outright falsehood, respectively.
Senator McClintock has indeed, been at the forefront of common sense restrictions on government intervention and waste but not the leadership team. Senator McClintock's adversary, in matters fiscal, has frequently been the leadership team .
And after we witnessed one of the worst scandals of 20th Century California when John Garamendi seized Executive Life, sold it to a French Government consortium for pennies on the dollar wiping out the life savings of every pensioner and annuitant who depended on it do we really want to turn that office over to another Democrat?And that brings me to the Lt. Governors race, and what is at stake with that post. We know Garamendis record of corruption in the Executive Life scandal from which he personally profited by the financial ruin of thousands of families.
I know, but the alternative is too horible to comtemplate! Until we manage to out number the liberals we are stuck with this.
We have the votes in the assembly to block tax increases if the will is there to do so, the fact that some rolled recently on accepting the last few budgets is becuz they were asked or coerced to do so so the Gub could look like he was getting things done, even as the debt load was on the increase and after November could sky rocket.
Some republicans did hold firm and didn't bite however, they are the real troopers for the party, not those who want to plant tent poles all over the party and puff up a tent that is nothing more than a charade to gain power and dole out the goodies tothe major supporters of parties on both sides, all in the name of bipartisanship... It's the ultimate fleece job.
How much longer can we sustain 10% increases in budgets, that is what we are averaging since the Recall, the dems win either way.. and all the conservative base gets is another boot in the teeth from the Ca GOP in this and on other social issues, some deal.
If PHILth wins, at least we can unite against a common enemy and fight the good fight, here we are asked to just stifle it and vote as we are told or be called diruptors..
This state's politics has gone insane and it is true on both sides of the aisles in my opinion.
I agree with you. I didn't vote for arnold in the primary, but one of the other candidates. I did vote for Tom however. I wouldn't mind getting a real condervative in office and I think Arnold is screwing us big time.
I really hope Arnold actually listens to McClintock if he gets re-elected.
I intend to make this a four year campaign for the broad range of reforms necessary to set the states finances in order, including restoring constitutional limits on spending and borrowing, regaining our property right protections, and pressing for institutional efficiencies that include decentralizing public school administration and contracting out state services.
Still no endorsement of Prop 90. Promoting $50 Billion in new bonds and deferring repayment of internal borrowing. And remember this from Arnold last year?
Schwarzenegger suggested that the governor -- not the elected state schools chief -- should oversee education...On Friday, the governor called for smaller, more efficient schools, and said the education system is not working because no one is accountable at the highest levels of state government. Schools get mixed signals, he said, from the schools superintendent, the governor's office and Schwarzenegger's education secretary.
"The problem is from the top. Who really is charge?" he said. "I think the governor should be in charge of education." Schwarzenegger said he had no immediate plans to act on his suggestion. But the proposal is similar to a recommendation in his top-to-bottom review of state government that would give the governor's education secretary more authority over schools.
Does anyone know who Tom has endorsed in the Senate race?
A hallmark of liberalism, socialism, communism and fascism.
The antithesis of the most vital principle upon which this democratic republic was founded.
Dick Mountjoy has been a true and steady defender of the
Constitution and the freedom it protects. He believes it is the duty of
those elected to office to protect the Liberty of the people.--Senator Tom McClintockEndorsed by:
California Republican Assembly
Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman
Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy
Senator Jim Battin
Senator Dave Cox
Senator Jeff Denham
Senator Bob Dutton
Senator Dennis Hollingsworth
Senator Abel Maldonado
Senator Bob Margett
Senator Tom McClintock
Senator George Runner
Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian
Assemblyman John J. Benoit
Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee
Assemblyman Russ Bogh
Assemblyman Dave Cogdill
Assemblyman Chuck DeVore
Assemblyman Bill Emmerson
Assemblyman Ray Haynes
Assemblywoman Shirley Horton
Assemblyman Guy Houston
Assemblyman Rick Keene
Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa
Assemblyman Jay La Suer
Assemblyman Bill Maze
Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy
Assemblyman Alan Nakanishi
Assemblyman Roger Niello
Assemblyman George Plescia
Assemblywoman Sharon Runner
Assemblyman Van Tran
Assemblyman Michael Villines
Assemblywoman Mimi Walters
Assemblyman Mark Wyland
"If PHILth wins, at least we can unite against a common enemy and fight the good fight, here we are asked to just stifle it and vote as we are told or be called diruptors.."
===
Sure, let's lose, so we can all feel good about being losers. Great idea. (/sarcasm)
You must really have a low opinion of conservatives to expect that they fall for this and help you get Angelides elected.
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