A Revealing Interview of Governor Schwarzenegger

As to redistricting, campaign finance reform and term limits, these have been linked in what he endorses and he doesn't necessarily favor a redistricting proposal be placed on the ballot by signature gathering:

"The timing is there. They know exactly when they have to pass it, when they have to do it. The also know that we will only endorse the term limit only if it is combined with redistricting and also with some kind of campaign finance reform. So, there is the important thing.

I think everyone understands that. I think there's no reason for putting any extra pressure on the legislators at this point simply because the legislators have actually worked very well together, Democrats and Republicans, and we have seen on how quickly we made a decision on changing the election day, on changing election day for the primaries from June to February. We have seen the prison agreement come together between Democrats and Republicans, even though many in the press were doubting it. … Things do happen in the building and I myself am amazed at how well they work together."

On the prisons and the penal system, he spoke of many of the details, re-entry beds, the early release of county jail inmates that has already occurred because the jails are overcrowded. When he was asked about the fact that he has paroled more inmates than Democratic Governor Gray Davis, he said:

"I've always said to our Democratic leaders and to our Republican leaders, I said: We should put everything on the table--which is building more prisons, which is looking at parole reform, and also at a sentencing commission. I'm willing to talk about all of those things, but we should always be clear that we should not release people out of prison and put them back out on the street just because we run out of space. It won't happen."

On healthcare, he is opposed to piecemeal approaches such as taking care of the problem of uninsured children by itself, because the money just isn't there unless the problem is dealt with in a comprehensive fashion. He said, once again that everything should be on the table, and mention the Perata, Nunez, Republican, and Senator Kuehl's bills.

Myers noted that the Governor had called Kuehl's bill "socialized medicine." Myers then pointed out "but the plan still has private providers provide the care" and referenced Medicare. At this point Schwarzenegger had cited polls showing that only 20% of those asked wanted "government running the health care system." He then said:

"Government has had the chance to run the health care system which is in the health care system in our prisons and look what happened. A Federal judge had to take over because it was such a disaster."

Myers asked if prison health care is the same thing as "regular health care," and Schwarzenegger said:

"Absolutely because it is government running it.

Government cannot run things. I'm telling you that I'm personally so against government running things because you don't have the experts here that run it. The private sector has the experts. The private sector also has the money. The private sector has the best executives. We cannot hire those people with a salary of $130,000 when they get $500,000 to $1 million dollars out there. It doesn't work. We do not have the capability of doing it. The best way of doing it is to have government set the rules, the guidelines, and have the private sector take care of it, because they have the experts, they can do it."

On greenhouse gases, and global warming, and the environment and whether sacrifices also had to be made, the Governor went into a long answer about many facets and included water in the discussion:

"I think it's very important that people use less water. We have a limited amount of energy. We have a limited amount of water. That's why we have to have above the ground and below the ground storage. We have to build more dams no matter how you look at it because we have an increasing population."

Governor Schwarzenegger said we need "technology and conservation combined."

On the question of tribal gaming and slot machines and how much more California can handle, the Governor said "We cannot go overboard." When asked to define the parameters of this, he responded that "Well, everyone has their own opinion." He said his administration had been very cautious in its approach, that a certain segment of the population wants to gamble, and that what he had proposed "just means that people are going to stay in California rather than Vegas. I want to keep people in California." He then went on to say:

"It creates a lot of jobs when you go to those casinos, a lot of really good paying jobs. I'm looking mostly not for the casinos, I'm looking out for the state."

He then repeated his assertion that the casino compacts would bring $500 million in revenues to the state and recited the many programs that this money could fund. He said the state has $103 billion of money that is coming in to spend, and no more, and that this money is needed. He chided the legislature that each day it delays in approval it is costing the state this money.

For his last question, Myers was primed with a quote of two years ago of the Governor , that is similar to what he used when he first ran for the office in the recall, about the special interests running Sacramento. He was asked if that was still the case and here is the exchange:

"The special interests have tremendous influence on the legislators. The special interests have a tremendous influence on our political outcome. And this is why it's very important that when people get campaign contributions or any money from anyone that they don’t sell out and it's "money in and favors out." Q. They don’t run the town?

I think the very nature. They're very experienced and trained people. They have tremendous influence in this building and I think the most important thing is that when you look back, it is last year what has been accomplished, the legislators have been extraordinary. Democrats and Republicans have come together and have made decisions, not what is best for the special interests, but what is best for the people of Califoria, so I'm very proud of the Republicans that they have gotten their act together and have really done things. [Litany omitted]

A lot of those things, what is good about it is, they are things that maybe special interests are fighting for but also things that are very good for the people of Calfornia.

Q. So if the two interests match together..

Sometimes it matches together, because, if the, you know, the uinions, let's say the teachers' union is fighting for better education for our kids and they're fighting for getting more teachers on board--well, it's exactly what we want. We want them to have more salaries. We want them to have more teachers in schools. We want to expand, and you know, have less kids in the classroom and make those classrooms bigger, and all those things that we want to do. These are maybe the same things that the union wants. So then it fits very well. But if it is something that is just in the union's interest and not in the …"

At this point the version on the web stops, but I think you get the picture.