Congressman McClintock represents the 4th District of California and
was in Washington D.C. when he called me to conduct my scheduled
interview.
65% of the targeted people in Obama's "very wealthy" tax bracket are
actually small business owners. How are these small business owners
supposed to survive this recession while Obama guarantees to raise all
their taxes in 2010?
"They're not. A lot of these businesses are hanging on by their
fingernails as it is, in this most difficult economy. The last thing
that you want to do in a recession is to raise taxes. Adam Smith said
that raising taxes made about as much sense as a shopkeeper raising his
prices in response to a sales slump. California just proved that
conclusively when it imposed the biggest tax increase by any state in
American history. $13 billion dollars of tax increases effective April
1st. One of the principal parts of that tax increase was a 13% increase
in California's state sales tax, by a penny on the dollar. In the
months before those state increases took effect, sales tax revenues
were down 19% year over year. That's what the recession did to our
sales tax revenues. The tax increase took effect on April 1st. At the
end of April our sales tax revenues were down 51%. 19% of that was the
recession. The rest of that 51% drop in California sales tax revenue
was because of the damage that the sales tax increase did to retail
sales in California. The tax increases didn't close the budget gap, the
tax increases made that budget gap worse. And now we want to do the
same thing to our country? I don't think so".
Everything that you just explained to me is very basic. Any person who
understands basic math or the fundamentals of basic taxes should know
that. I don't understand why the federal government thinks that raising
taxes during a recession is a good idea.
"It's true, it's common sense. Like I pointed out, shopkeepers don't
raise their prices when their sales drop, they slash their prices, they
hold sales, they reduce the costs when their sales go down. This
administration in Washington and the Schwarzenegger administration in
Sacramento did exactly the opposite. It not only defies basic
economics, it defies any semblance of common sense".
Do you think Obama and his administration should forgo forcing the
Universal Health Care and Cap and Trade Bills onto the American tax
payers during this recession, to let us recover?
"Perhaps he (Obama) would like to ask the American tax payers, 'what do
you think about paying an extra $2500 a year on your electricity
bill?', because that's essentially what the cap and tax bill will cost
you as an average consumer. These are nearly a trillion dollars of new
taxes on energy producers that are gonna get passed onto us as the
consumers through higher prices. In fact, that's true of any business
tax. Businesses do not pay business taxes. There are only one of three
ways business taxes can possibly be paid. One, is by us as consumers
through higher prices and that's where you're gonna see their (the
Democrats) cap and tax burden hit. The two other ways are that you also
pay the taxes as employees, through lower wages, or you can also pay
business taxes as investors, through lower earnings. Those are the only
three ways a business tax can be paid. In respect to the government
takeover of our health care system, ask anybody from Canada or Britain
what they've had to go through once government bureaucrats are given
the power to tell them what treatments they may have, and when they may
receive them. The waiting lists in Canada and Britain, which is just a
natural consequence of bureaucracy, are killing people all across those
countries, and sending an exodus of Canadians and Britains to America
to get decent care. Now if we are going to wreck America's system,
where are we going to go to escape government controlled health care?
Why would we want to put the same people who run the DMV, and the post
office, and the TSA in charge of our doctor's offices? Universal health
care implies that everyone is getting health care. That's not the case.
People are being denied health care left and right. If you are too
old,you no longer get it. The bureaucrats make the decision over
whether you're gonna be treated, and when you are going to be treated,
when they can fit you in. The nice thing about the American system, as
chaotic as it is, it's still based on competition. If one health
insurance company keeps you waiting too long, you can move to another.
If you have the freedom to actually own your own health plan. The
problem we have in America is that unless you are self employed, you
don't own your own health care. Either the govt owns it or your
employer owns it for you. If you don't own it, you can't control it. We
need to get back to a system, and we can do that through the use of
simple tax credits that would be within the reach of every American
family. At least with a basic health plan, they can choose, they will
own, and they can change, if it fails to serve their needs."
From my perspective, this administration is naive. They could just look
at Spain and see what their version of Cap and Trade did to them, as
well as look at Europe to see what their health care systems have done
to their health industry.
"Or they could look at how a similar program, how the AB32
( http://www.climatechange.ca.gov/ab32/index.html )
is systematically shutting down entire sectors of California's economy.
Agriculture, energy production, cargo and passenger transportation,
baking, distilling, construction, are all being systematically shut
down by AB32, which is simply a form of this administration's proposal".
California residents already pay the highest income tax and sales tax
in the country, why doesn't the state of California, actually, why
doesn't the federal govt follow the pattern of Texas Gov Rick Perry,
and the state of Texas? Which, at the same time, lowered it's taxes and
has spent more money on border security.
" That's what we found in a recessionary economy, reducing taxes
actually increases your revenues. Reducing the burdens on productivity
actually increases productivity. That's something else that shouldn't
be a big surprise to anyone and yet this government simply can not get
it through it's thick skull, that's simply the way the world works. To
understand what you can do, look back at California's own history a
generation ago, in the early 1960's. We were paying about half the
taxes per capita and yet California could boast of the finest highway
system in the world. We had the finest public school system in the
country, we were offering a free university education to every
Californian who wanted one. We were producing electricity and water so
cheaply that many communities didn't bother to measure the stuff. The
only thing that has truly changed between those days and these days is
public policy."
"In the 1970's we bureaucratized, we unionized and we centralized our
service delivery system, which is simply and inherently, an efficient
way of managing human institutions. Now today we face a very strange
bureaucratic paradox. Despite record levels of spending and record
levels of borrowing, somehow we can't produce a decent school system,
or protect our families from predators, by locking up prisoners, or
build a decent highway system. That is a management problem, that is
not the fault of the taxpayers for not paying enough taxes."
Why isn't the state of California doing more to stop the problem of
illegal immigration? It costs the state of California over $11 billion
dollars a year on illegal immigrants. Shouldn't that $11 billion
dollars, be used for the legal resident taxpayers of California instead?
"Of course it should and Arnold Schwarzenegger has utterly failed at
his responsibilities as Governor to address that issue. And it's true
that the federal government's principal responsibility is to protect
the integrity of our borders, and it's true that George Bush completely
abandoned that responsibility and presided over the biggest illegal
immigration invasion in our nation's history. A trend that this
administration shows absolutely no interest in addressing as well. But,
there is a lot that the states could do then on their own and you only
need to look across the border to Arizona, which several years ago,
placed a requirement that every employer, before hiring an employee,
had to check that employee's residency through E-Verify, which is about
as simple as running a credit card through a scanner. You simply
provide the name and the social security number and the federal
government does an instant match on that. That has reduced the
employment of illegal immigrants to practically zero, which by the way
is the federal law. It is illegal to hire an illegal immigrant, that
was the whole thrust of the 1986 Immigration Act, that legalized the
presence of, what was then a population of about 3 million illegal
aliens in the country. The deal was, we'll legalize everybody who's
here now but then we're gonna actually secure our borders and prohibit
the hiring of illegal aliens. Well, we legalized that population but we
failed to do anything to secure our borders or to enforce the
anti-employment law. The states that have done that, have had dramatic
success. Arnold Schwarzenegger could have imposed that by Executive
Order, but he's refused to do so for years despite repeated calls to do
so."
Why did Janet Napolitano, the head of Homeland Security, order the halt of all immigration raids by federal authorities?
"I think, because they (Democrats) want to encourage illegal
immigration, because they see that as a huge voting population. Our
immigration laws were not written to keep people out. Our immigration
laws were written to assure that as immigrants come to America, they
come here in order to become American. That they acquire a common
language, a common culture, and a common appreciation of American legal
traditions and American constitutional principles. Illegal immigration
undermines that entire foundation by which a nation of immigrants can
be built. I think what they (Democrats) are actively seeking to do is
to encourage the mass migration of a population that has not
assimilated into American society, that has not shared those American
beliefs, in limited government, in individual freedom. And I think the
principle reason is because many of today's ruling Democrats don't
believe in those American concepts of limited government and individual
freedom."
I just wrote a piece on what you said last night. I'm glad people will now know, that I'm not a "conspiracy theorist" per se.
"It's not a conspiracy theory, its actual politicians acting in their
self interest. And by so doing, acting directly contrary to the
interests of our nation. The good news is that there is a huge silent
majority of Americans who in the past, have not paid a lot of attention
to politics because they felt they haven't needed to. You have a lot to
do to run your life. You got to get up in the morning, get the kids
ready for school, you've got to get to work on time, you've got to pick
up the kids from school, get them to soccer practice, stop at the
grocery store, stop at the dry cleaners, get dinner ready, then turn
around,
and do that all again, the next morning. That doesn't leave a lot of
time for people to spend their time and attention on politics until
things get bad enough that they begin to sense that their country is in
trouble. That's when they begin focusing enormous amounts of their time
and attention on politics. They start thinking these things through
very carefully and they start making very good decisions. That's how
democracies get themselves out of trouble. I think we are seeing that
occur now in this era of American history. I think people are beginning
to sense that things are getting seriously off track. I mean, today we
have the President of the United States traveling the middle east with
an appeasement policy straight out of Neville Chamberlain's playbook."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeasement_of_Hitler
"I hope people look at that and look at all the other developments. The
government takeover of our banks, the government takeover of the
automobile manufacturers and automobile dealerships, and now their
attempt to takeover our health care system. People are starting to
become very seriously concerned about the future and that's when I
think you're gonna see them start to set things right. As bad as the
Jimmy Carter years were to live through, and people forget we had
double digit unemployment, and double digit inflation, and 21% interest
rates, and mile long lines around gas stations, and American embassies
seized with impunity,and an American military so badly weakened, it
could not even stage a simple rescue mission. Those four years,
ultimately produced 8 years of Ronald Reagan. You look back on that
now, and that's a fair trade."
Do you think the Stimulus Bill was actually a bill to help the economy?
Or a bill disguised to help the Democrats, especially Obama, get their
payoffs completed and their liberal pet projects done?
"Of course it (the Stimulus Bill) does not help the economy. A govt
cannot inject a single dollar into the economy, that is not first taken
out of that same economy. That entire policy is based on the assumption
that if you take a dollar from Peter and give it to Paul and Paul's got
another extra dollar to spend, he's gonna spend it and that dollar is
gonna ripple through the economy. Well that's all well and good, but
they forget the other half of that equation, Peter now has one less
dollar to spend in that same economy. On paper that equation nets to
zero. In practice, it nets to much less than zero because we're
shifting huge amounts of capital from investments that had been made by
Peter, based upon economic considerations to investments being made by
politicians, strictly on political calculations. That is not a very
productive pursuit. And that's why an $800 billion dollar stimulus
package by the president's own calculations, is gonna create about 4
million jobs at most. That comes to $200,000 per job. And by the way,
if you haven't noticed, they are all government jobs."
How does ACORN, which Obama had worked for in the past and is currently
being investigated in over 21 states for voter fraud, be given a
Stimulus Bill, tax payer gift of nearly $6 billion dollars?
"That's what politicians do. They reward their friends, they punish
their enemies. ACORN was a moving force behind the democratic
registrations, and 'get out the vote' efforts. It (Acorn) is now under
indictment in several states for voter fraud, including right next door
in Nevada. The Obama administration is rewarding them for political
services rendered. I can't put it more bluntly or clearer than
that.That's why the American founders believed in limiting our
government. Because they knew that politicians often act contrary to
the public interest when it's in their own political self interest to
do so and that the best way to contain the damage they do, is to limit
their power to only those things that are directly necessary to protect
our freedom, our liberty, and our sovereignty."
Is the current administration and the Democratic Party taking us in a Socialist direction?
"Well, I don't know what other word you would apply to a government in
which the banks, the automobile manufacturers, automobile dealers, and
soon the hospitals and doctor's offices are all controlled by the
government. That is Socialist. I'm sorry, but that's the word we use
for it. I don't know of another (word) that applies."
What is your take on how the mainstream media has portrayed the current
administration? Is the media helping the current administration pass a
liberal and socialist agenda?
"Well, the good news on that front is that it used to be, you'd get
your news from major newspapers chains and three networks. Technology
has now taken us far beyond that. Of course, the old style media is
radically left wing and we can see that bias on the NBC Nightly News or
the ABC World News Tonight every single day. We all have common sense,
whether you are liberal or conservative, you can look at those
reporters and say 'that's really biased'. The good news is that there
are so many ways to get information without having to go through those
left wing avenues and people are doing that. That's why cable news
stations like Fox News are doing so phenomenally well, that's why
conservative talk radio is dominating the radio markets across the
country, and the internet now gives everyone the ability to
spontaneously organize. That's how the unprecedented turnout at these
tax payer tea parties occurred. It was a tiny little cable broadcast,
by Rick Santelli, from the floor of one of the stock exchanges, ranting
about how he was sick and tired of being called upon to pay for the
neighbor's mortgage, who took out the extra room, who bought more than
they could afford, and now they decided that they can't afford that
house anymore. So now, he's being called upon (by the government), in
addition to pay his own mortgage to also pay theirs (the mortgage of
his neighbors) as well, through his taxes. As you recall, the entire
floor erupted in applause, but then something very strange happened. It
got picked up on 'YouTube', and it got circulated all over the country.
Pretty soon people started emailing it and started calling one another
and saying, you know, he's right, we need to do something about this. I
like the idea of a taxpayer tea party, let's plan on doing something on
April the 15th. Nobody organized that. That was spontaneous grassroots
organization. In Sacramento, one of the 800 cities in which these tax
tea party rallies occurred, where normally it has 200 people showing up
at a tax payer rally (in Sacramento), that's a big turnout, and we had
6,000 people show up. There were a number of groups that put it
together, but there was not one central sponsor. It just happened
because people recognized their country was in trouble. They needed to
do something about it. Because of the internet, cable news and talk
radio, they were able to organize that spontaneously. That made a big
impact by the way, on the calculations of a lot of politicians. The
reason why the left wing reacted so violently and viciously to those
tax payer tea rallies is because they know the old story of the
Emperor's new clothes. It takes one person to stand up and say, hey,
the emperor's not wearing any clothes before a lot of people begin to
think to themselves, so, I'm not the only one who believes that,
somebody else who thinks that too. Once that happens, the entire facade
comes tumbling down. That's what they're so scared of."
Why do you think the left wing media and celebrities like Janine
Garafalo portrayed the people who attended these tea parties as being
"racist" and "unpatriotic" ?
"And don't forget potential domestic terrorists, by the Department of
Homeland Security. The Department (of Homeland Security) also by the
way, refuses to use the term 'terrorist' now, in reference to Al-Qaida
and to Osama bin Laden. But they are perfectly content in calling
Americans, who happen to believe in the (United States) Constitution,
potential domestic terrorists. There is a reason why that report (by
the justice department) came out just a few days before the tax payer
tea parties. They were trying to suppress the turnout by making people
afraid of being smeared by that name (domestic terrorist), if they
dared to turn out and protest their government and stand up for their
constitution. This really is becoming this current generation's fight,
over the future of our liberties, as Americans."
So many things I agree with and so many things I have learned. A
Congressman, who not only spoke his mind, but spoke the truth. Not only
was McClintock a great interviewee, he was also a great guy.
Please visit Congressman Tom McClintock's official home page on the United States Govt website.
http://mcclintock.house.gov/
The Republican Party has a future.
www.conservativerule.com
