In the Recall Candidates’ Words

The Budget

Some of the liveliest exchanges during Wednesday’s recall debate occurred in response to a question about balancing the state budget. McClintock began by proposing spending cuts:

Tom McClintock: This state is already spending a larger portion of people’s earnings than at any time in its history ....

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Peter Camejo: Tom wants to cut, cut, cut. I want to put more money into education.... All they want to do is cut, cut, and rip, rip, over here to my right.... They were cutting the taxes on the wealthiest people while they raised your taxes. I want to reverse that.

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Arianna Huffington: The first thing I would do is close corporate tax loopholes.... What I find amazing is that Republicans really do not believe that morality applies to businesses. You know, it should be absolutely unacceptable that companies defraud the California public and then the state continues to do business with them. Is that the kind of business climate you’d like to bring to the state? The same kind of business climate that brought us Enron and Global Crossing and Adelphia and has cost millions of jobs ... ? And one more thing, Arnold ....

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Arnold Schwarzenegger: Arnold? I like that. I’ll tell you one thing. You personally, personal income tax, have the biggest loophole. I can drive my Hummer through it.

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Huffington: You know perfectly well I paid $150,000 in property taxes and payroll taxes. And you know what? I’m a writer, and these two years was writing and researching a book, and I wasn’t making $20-million violent movies, I’m sorry.

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Cruz Bustamante: Clearly, we spent too much. As a government, we spent more than was coming in. There’s no rocket science to this. We clearly knew that there were certain incomes that were coming in, and we spent more than we had.... We’ve done all the easy things, and now it’s time to do the tough things. I have a plan, a plan that I call tough love for California....

“We do something in terms of raising taxes. She [Huffington] called it raising revenues. We know what it really is. But at the same time, we get something good for Californians.

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Huffington: There’s tough love for everybody except for Indian gaming tribes and prison guard unions. And that’s really the problem with our system. Tough love for everybody except your big campaign contributors.

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Schwarzenegger: The politicians make a mistake. They keep spending and spending and spending....

What you have to do is put a spending cap on it. You guys have an addiction problem. You should go to an addiction place ...

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Huffington: Your analysis fits perfectly the Bush administration in Washington ...

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Schwarzenegger: If you want to campaign against Bush, go to New Hampshire. It’s the proper place for you. You’re in the wrong state right now ...

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Huffington: The people of California need somebody who is going to fight the Bush administration for them.... There’s a huge connection between our budgetary problems here and the decisions made in Washington.... It’s completely hypocritical of Arnold ...

(Schwarzenegger starts to interrupt.)

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Huffington: Let me finish. Let me finish. This is completely impolite, the way you treat women. We know that ...

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Schwarzenegger: I would just like to say that I just realized that I have a perfect part for you in “Terminator 4.”

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Illegal Immigrants

Another contentious issue was health care for the children of illegal immigrants.

Schwarzenegger: First of all, I think it is important that we take care of our children. And we have to make sure that every child in California is insured; that is the most important thing. I’m very passionate about children’s issues. I think we have to take care of our children and we have to take care of our seniors. This is very important because they cannot fend for themselves. Children -- we have a Healthy Family program here in California and it is a very, very good program. It’s supposed to insure people to get health care for children and also for their parents if they are low-income people. The only problem with the program right now is that two-thirds of the people that are eligible are not having that health care ...

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Bustamante: On that we do agree.

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Huffington: I am very glad that Arnold is in favor of providing health care for the children of illegal immigrants. That’s really good news, because after all you did vote for [Proposition] 187. And also I’m really glad that you said that because you’ve also come out against licenses for undocumented immigrants. So there is a bit of a contradiction here. In fact, I was really saddened that you as an immigrant would come out against giving that basic right to immigrants here who are trying to drive, to go to work, to take their kids to school. You know, it’s all very well to say you are for children, you want them to be insured. But if their parents cannot legally drive them to work in a way that they are insured and they are safe, isn’t that a bit of a contradiction?

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Schwarzenegger: Arianna, again, as usual, you are off here. We’re talking here about health care and you’re talking about driver’s licenses.

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Huffington: But they are connected. They are connected because parents drive their children.

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Schwarzenegger: I am against the driver’s licenses because that is without any background check and without any fingerprints or anything. Therefore, it is dangerous for the security of California. Gov. Davis came out a year ago and has made it clear and has said you know we cannot do that because it is endangering us. It is a security problem. Notice now because it is an election coming up on Oct. 7, now all of a sudden, it is a great idea. Let’s get some more votes. That is the idea of those things. It is wrong to do that and you know that we have a security problem because of it. The governor is supposed to represent the people of California, not special interests. That is the problem.

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McClintock: I think you are all losing sight of a very important fact, and that is we’re talking about families that are in this country in violation of our nation’s immigration laws. Now this nation has the most generous immigration policies of any nation in the world.... Illegal immigration undermines that process of legal immigration that is the strength of our nation.

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Moderator: Do you want a quick 15-second close on this Arianna?

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Huffington: Yes. Absolutely. Because at least the good news about Tom McClintock is that you know where he stands. No fudging. And that’s what I like about you. With Arnold, you know, it’s all over the map.

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Health Care

The candidates also squabbled on the question of universal health care, and specifically SB 2, a bill that would require many employers to provide health coverage to workers.

Bustamante: I do believe also that SB 2 is probably the most important piece of legislation that has not yet been signed by the governor. I think it is very important because it will provide 1 million working people with health care in California. Probably the most significant piece of legislation, I believe, that’s going to come out this year in California.

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Huffington: Well, actually, SB 2 is a John Burton bill [that] does not include any cost controls. That is the problem with a lot of half-baked measures out of the Legislature. I mean, that was the problem with workers’ comp; this is the problem again now. I don’t believe we should implement another bill which does not include cost controls, and which also leaves over 3 million Californians still uninsured.

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Bustamante: That’s true.

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Huffington: It’s another half-baked measure.

Bustamante: Well, not half-baked. It’s a good step ...

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Schwarzenegger: I think first of all it is very important that we have it available, that we have as many companies bidding so that the prices come down and make it available. What Cruz is suggesting, that again to have health care and have the companies pay for it -- they cannot do it right now. We have really a crisis right here with our companies, with our businesses, because they are overburdened as it is right now with workers’ compensation, with Medi-Cal, with all of those kinds of things, high electricity costs. They are much, much higher than anywhere in the nation. They cannot afford it ...

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Bustamante: I understand that, Arnold.

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Schwarzenegger: But let me just say something, Cruz. It doesn’t surprise me that this comes from you because you’ve never run a business. I’m the only one here that has run businesses, developed businesses ...

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Someone: Not true, Arnold. Not true ...

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Compiled by Times staff writers Jia-Rui Chong and Eric Malnic.