Arnold Schwarzenegger News Conference on Economic Recovery Plan

Well, first of all thank you for this incredible turnout. I would have wished to have had this kind of turnout for when I did "Last Action Hero". Anyway, I want to thank first of all my co-chairs Secretary Shultz 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. 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 under-taxed, 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; litigation reform, regulatory reform, and the Unemployment Insurance Fund crisis. And without needed energy 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 deficit 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 unconstitutional 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 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 is 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.

I first became aware of just how bad the fiscal situation was in California and how important it was for leadership that would attack the problem, early in June. At that time, California needed to sell 11 billion dollars in warrants. Those are securities that come due in less than a year, approximately a year, and California found out that its credit card was no longer acceptable in the investment world. They presented it and it was handed back to them and they were told, the state was told, to get somebody to guarantee that you'll have access to the credit markets in the next year. So they got a syndicate of seven investment banks led by Merrill Lynch and 84 million dollars was paid, not to borrow money, but simply to assure investors that someone somewhere would lend money to California in the next 12 months. If they don't, Merrill Lynch and their group will get a very, very hefty fee for providing the money.

So, when the state gets to the position where a syndicate of investment banks are regarded as better credit than what I believe is the richest and most important state in the union, a change is needed. That change is going to require someone determined who is credible to the investment world to present a plan for a balanced budget. As Arnold said, this wasn't created in a couple weeks and it doesn't get solved in a couple weeks but within the next year, because if June comes around next year and that problem has not been addressed, it won't be solved for 84 million dollars and it won't be solved for 184 million dollars.

Credit is like oxygen, you know when you have it you don't even notice it and, when you don't have it, it's the only thing you are thinking about and we got very close to that point in California in June. And without the problem being addressed, it will be around here in spades next June. .

There are 35 million plus Californians counting on leadership. They are going to have to feed their families tomorrow and next week and next month and next year. And they are going to feed them only in one way and that is if they have jobs. And they are only going to have jobs in one way, also, and that is if employers expand their businesses and come to California just like they did in the past years.

This state has provided millions and millions and millions of jobs over the years but, particularly in the recent couple of years, the trend has gone the other way and that has to be reversed because 35 million people aren't going to eat otherwise and they are going to need jobs.

And after looking at the situation, I felt only new leadership could get that job done and take care of those 35 million people and that's why I'm out here with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Thanks.

There's a new four-letter word that we are going to pay a lot of attention to and Warren just talked about it - Jobs. That's going to get a lot of emphasis. I found this morning's meeting with Arnold Schwarzenegger to be a very enlightening one and I learned three things. Number one, I saw this man sit with a diverse group bearing opinions and they told him what they thought and he interacted with them, he listened in an active way. Some people just sit and you don't know whether they are listening or not. Other people engage with the person who's talking so you know they're listening. So, I saw him do that. And then I'm sitting next to him, I'm watching him. I've learned a little bit about people and I see he's making his mind up himself. He'll listen, but then he'll decide. And then as I've listened to what the decisions are and the things that he has emphasized, including the things he talked about just now, I like what I hear those decisions as being.

So I'm delighted to be here and supporting Arnold Schwarzenegger. I live in California, I intend to stay here, I love it. My state is in deep trouble and we need a leader who can take us out of it and make our Golden State "Golden" again.

By the way, I just wanted to say that it is not coincidental that Secretary Shultz is on my right and Warren Buffet is on my left. I just wanted to make sure that you know where the positioning comes from.

A.S. - Well, again, I think that I am very, very much a believer that our people here in this state have not been undertaxed, but the government has overspent. Having said that, it is clear that we can't ever say never because we can have next year an earthquake. We can have a natural disaster. We could have a terrorist attack or something like that. So we can never say never, no.

But I am in principle against taxing because I feel that the people of California have been punished enough. From the time they get up in the morning and flush the toilet, they're taxed. Then they go and get a coffee, they're taxed. They get into their car, they're taxed. They go to the gas station, they're taxed. They go for lunch, they're taxed. And this goes on all day long, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax! So even when they go to bed, you can really go to bed in fear that you may get taxed while you are sleeping, that there is a sleeping tax. This is crazy! This is what this state does and this is why so many businesses have left.

So, I believe very strongly and this is why we've had an Economic Summit, is to bring back a business environment and bring back revenues the natural way so businesses are the way it was, like I said, when I came here in 1968. You know when I was here businesses wanted to come to California from all over the world. I remember when I went to Austria or to Italy or to Japan with my bodybuilding tours and people were saying, "Oh, I cannot wait to get to California, it is the greatest state in the world!" Now when I go over there when I just had my last promotion tour, people said, "I am going to stay away from California", "I do not want to do business in California right now because they cannot figure out what is going on.", "They are in trouble", "They have the worst credit rating.", "They have the worst money management.", "They have one of the worst educational systems." And on and on and on. They are very much aware because this is on the front page of their magazines and newspapers. Remember, California is not just another little state. It's not just another little place that you can't find on a map. It is very important and always considered the greatest state of the greatest nation and that is why everyone came here, and so many immigrants came here.

Question: You talk about cuts and, as any politician knows, it's easy to talk about cuts and it is hard sometimes to do them. Have you and the Council identified specific areas that you have in mind that you think can be cut and, to go back to the taxes for a moment, as well, ...

A.S. - Okay, let me answer first, the first. First of all, I have to correct you in all due respect, it is not easy to make cuts (journalist interrupts, unintelligible) because no, no, it's not easy when you talk about it, it's not easy because you have to look at the whole thing carefully. But the thing that you have to realize is that this budget is, as I said in my speech, so crazy that even though I have met for the last 14 days the top economic leaders and people that deal with that from the academic community, that deal with this, come to me. And they say, "What is really the current operating deficit?", and they would come up with numbers like 5 billion dollars. The next meeting I have, they say 6 billion dollars. The next meeting I have, they say 9 billion dollars. The next meeting I have, it's 7.8 exactly. So how can you make really good decisions?

What you have to do is and what I have to do when I go in to office is have an audit. Like I said, a 60 day audit with an independent company to really look at that. I mean this is one of those things in our economic conference just now that came through, I think David Murdock was the one to mention it. The first thing he does when he buys a business is to look at the line item and do an accounting to check out what is going on so he can make the right decisions.

And that is something that you can't make right now, I can't make right now because we don't really know the answers. So one thing we know is that we don't want to tax more and that in every business, when you really audit and you get into it and you look for efficiency, you find places where you can cut even though you are not laying off anyone or doing anything. But that is what we have to do, is we look at every department carefully and then see where we can make those cuts.

Question - The interview, back to tax issues, didn't when Mr. Buffet, who was your (unintelligible) political affairs, didn't he make some sense when he talked to the Wall Street Journal about the unfairness of Proposition 13 and pointed out when his own property was valued at more than (unintelligible), if it's taxed less than this property was worth?

A.S. - First of all, I told Warren if he mentions Prop 13 one more time he has to do 500 sit-ups! So he's not going to talk about that ever again, I can guarantee it. We've both worked with weightlifting so he knows what that is like. So anyway, to answer that question.

Second of all, let me just say that Prop 13 is something that I have endorsed, that I am a strong believer in and that I was there two months ago at the 25 year anniversary and I was the keynote speaker. And the reason for this is because I've seen firsthand when that proposition was passed what effect and impact it had.

I remember that old lady in Venice where I used to train in Gold's Gym and she came out of her house and she had tears in her eyes. And I said what is the matter? And she said, Proposition 13 has just passed. She says, I don't have to sell my home. She says I have been living here for 20 years and my husband died 10 years ago. She said, I could not afford the property taxes anymore, I would have to move away and sell the house. So it was hurting the wrong people. It was the wrong idea. It's overtaxing, so therefore I am a big supporter of Proposition 13 and, to answer that other question that you had, it is true that some people pay low property taxes because they've been in that house for 20 years. But as soon as you sell that house there is a whole other valuation of that property, raises the value and then it is based on that new value so that is why you have the situation sometimes where someone lives in a house and pays just maybe a thousand dollars property tax and the guy next door has the same kind of house and pays 10,000 dollars. So I mean, as soon as you sell, if it is commercial real estate or if it is residential real estate, as soon as you sell your property, it gets reevaluated and there are new estimates and then this is what you pay on.

Well, I think that is a very good question. People are always concerned, there are a lot of Democrats out there. My answer is I lived with a Democrat for the last 17 years. I am trained to deal with Democrats, okay? My wife and I, we get along really fine and we make great decisions together and it is good to have different point of views.

I don't think I would ever have a problem with them. Remember one thing, that Proposition 49, the "After School Education and Safety Act" that passed last year. I would not have been successful with that proposition would it not have been for the Democrats. It was that Republicans and Democrats came together because I went to them and said "I need your help". This education after-school program, helping children, it's not a political issue. It is a people's issue, it is a family issue. It is helping the mothers that want to go to work and not worry about their children. You know something, they all got it, they endorsed it, they had me out to Sacramento speaking to all the Democrats and the Republicans. No one was fighting me and it passed by 57%. So that is what I want to do. This is why I had this meeting here today. Some of them were Democrats, some of them were Republicans, some of them they have different ideologies and different philosophies. They came from different backgrounds from the academic world and from the business world. But we have one common cause and one common goal and that is to solve the problems that we have in California and bring businesses back to California. And create a business environment in California that businesses not only want to come back, but that businesses want to stay here! So we have to get rid of this hostile environment toward businesses. because we cannot afford to have businesses continue moving out of the state and take workers jobs with them. That is what we want to stop and that was what the meeting was, Democrats and Republicans alike, we all share the same interests, we all want to make this a great state. It doesn't matter what the party line is.

Question: (Unintelligible) paid family leave and the eight-hour workday, do you feel it is anti-business and hostile to the business environment or would you work (unintelligible)

A.S. - No, no, I think that we have to look at those things. I am all for that people can leave and take care of the family members and those kinds of thing, but I mean it is very important that we don't continue going down that road. Because it is very easy for all of us and, I am absolutely convinced that everyone in here would agree because you talked earlier about it is easy to cut, it is also easy to promise people programs. It is easy to go and say we are going to give you more on this, more on that. Yeah, of course I want to give away anything and everything, but can we afford it? We always have to come back to one thing and that is, can we afford it! As I said, I teach my kids don't spend more than you have. We have to do the same with Sacramento. It doesn't make any sense. Of course, we want to help everyone. We want to reach out to everyone. But can we afford it and therefore destroy our business environment in California and have everyone move away.

Sometimes, as a surgeon would say, you have to cut to save the patient. And this is what the situation is here. That is the bottom line. So we have to look at everything. Before we promise anything to anyone right now, I think, stop. Stop, stop, stop with the spending! And then lets analyze the whole thing and see where the problems really are and where can you cut. And let me tell you something, also that's very important to know. It is not as much of an issue as a technical issue because, you know, there are many smart people in Sacramento. There are many smart economists in both parties. It is what you are willing to do!

I have the advantage that I am going to Sacramento without any baggage, I haven't made any deals with anyone, I haven't sold out to any special interest groups, I am not taking any money from anyone. Anyone who comes to me, I say, look, I will support your cause for the good of the people but not just for you because you gave me campaign contributions. I don't want to get into that. I want to go out there with no baggage, no stings attached. I will be totally independent and therefore I will be able to make decisions that those guys right now out there in Sacramento would not be able to make because they already have taken money, They already have sold out, they have already done the job that makes it impossible for them to make decisions for the people.

It is now an environment in Sacrament where the politicians to a large extent are representing the special interests rather than representing the people. What I want to do and this is what I say, I will be a Governor for the people for a change! I want to represent the people because the only thing that counts for me is the people.

Question: If you have to wait for a state audit to identify one single program that needs to be cut, why should anyone vote for you as opposed to someone who is in Sacramento who has already identified programs that need to be cut to bring the budget into balance?

A.S. - Well, everyone knows! You see, the people, you can't pull wool over their eyes. You can't pull wool over the people's eyes. The voters are so smart it is incredible and they know that the people up there right now have gotten us into the situation that we're in. Yes, they know everything! That's what I said earlier. They know the details, they know the budget, they know where the skeletons are hidden. They know everything but are they willing to make the changes? And are they willing to work on behalf of the people? And that has been the problem. And I will go (interrupted) excuse me, let me finish my sentence. Thank you. And I will make sure that when I go to Sacramento, the first thing always in my mind is the people. And when I talk about people, everyone! Democrats, Republicans, young, old, it makes no difference to me. I will represent everybody, but not representing the special interests that are paying the politicians so they are going in their direction. That is what I want to stop.

A.S. - Well, as you know, I am very much pro-immigrant. I mean I myself came to this country as an immigrant 35 years ago, so there is no one that understands those problems better than I. I came over here and I worked very hard to get just a temporary working permit. Then I worked very hard for another year to get a permanent working permit and what they call a green card. And then it took me another 10 years to get my American citizenship and I want to remind you this is my 20 year anniversary this coming month that I got my American citizenship. It was in 1983, so I will be having a big, big celebration. But I know what immigrants go through. We all come here to this country because this is the land of opportunity. It's the place where dreams come true if we are given this opportunity. And so I am all for it and I will find a way of working with immigrants and working with everyone together. It will be a very multi-cultural society here. As a matter of fact, when you go to Los Angeles, when I do my after-school program Thursday in Los Angeles, there are a hundred languages that you are dealing with. So it is very complex, but it is very doable. That is the key thing. As you know, I am very fond of the Latin community and have been doing movies down in Mexico. I've done 4 of my movies down in Mexico.

I've traveled up and down the coast providing after school programs. One of the first after school programs that we had was with Danny Hernandez at the (unintelligible) Youth Center in East L.A. where from just 500 kids, built it up to 20,000 kids providing after school programs mostly Latinos actually at the (unintelligible) Middle School and all those things. So I will do anything I can to help people to come to this country with the language and to get enough tutoring for them and to have them get jobs and all this. But that is why we have to create a business environment now so that everyone works! I'd like to get into the situation that there is no unemployment. It is disastrous the way it is right now, it's 6.6 or 6.7% unemployment!

A.S. - Alright, let me tell you something, that the public doesn't care about figures. They've heard figures for the last 5 years. Figures and graphs and percentages and all those kinds of things. What the people want to hear is, are you willing to make the changes? Are you willing and are you tough enough to go in there and provide leadership? That is what this is about. And I will be tough enough, I'm independent, I can go up there and I really can clean house! That is what I will do. We don't need to know the figures and that is where the auditing will take care of the rest.

Question: They may not care about figures but they clearly do care about programs. Are you saying you'll go through the entire campaign without naming a single program that you would cut?

A.S. - No, but I am saying we have to look at exactly where excessive amounts of moneys are being spent. We have so little information and it is not real true information. It's bad information! When you are dealing with, like I said earlier, from 5 billion to 9 billion dollars, how can you run a business? If I want to take over a business, and I don't know if you have ever been in business or not, obviously you are journalist. I mean it's not anything negative, but I'm just saying when you run a business, like David Murdock said earlier, the first thing you do is to just find out in the details, what is the problem and what (unintelligible) the exact solution.

So it would be wrong for me to go now and come up with all kinds of exact solutions to the problem when I don't really know what the problem really is. That is why I said we have to get into that.

Question: You do know if you are going to have to make cuts because you aren't going to raise taxes?

A.S. - As time goes on maybe we will be identifying that but, as I said as soon as I go into office, I will have an accounting firm, a team, that goes in there and really looks at the whole problem and looks at the numbers in a very thorough way. That is the key thing. And as I also told you, this problem was created over the last five years so don't expect anyone to think that this can be solved within the next few weeks. And as I said earlier, anyone that tells the people of California that they can fix it and can come up with answers in the next few weeks is a typical politician.

Question: Governor Grey Davis last night in a speech to the Californian people said this is a power grab by the Republican Party. How do you respond to that?

A.S. I have said from day one of this campaign that I will concentrate on moving forward in a positive way. I will do everything I can to go and win on October 7th. To me it is important to have a positive campaign and put ideas forward that are positive rather than go and worry about what someone else says. I will never attack, I will never talk about anyone. I will just think about our program and our mission.

It is such a big job to not only campaign but then to take over that office, why would I worry about someone else? When I was competing in bodybuilding, I never worried about how someone else trained, what someone else said. I made sure that no stone was unturned. I trained 5, 6 hours a day. I lifted 50 tons of weights a day. I did everything I could to win, and I won. Why would I worry about everyone else and what they say and what they do? That's not my style. Let everyone talk. Let everyone make misstatements. Let everyone make their apologies where they were wrong the last 5 years and all those things. I only pay attention to one thing and that is that I will be your next governor on October 7th.

A.S. - Well, first of all, let me tell you the reason why the businesses are leaving is, and you've heard it for the last 2 hours when we had our Council Meeting, our Recovery Council meeting. For two hours we talked about the various different things that are wounds that are self-inflicted. Wounds that are self-inflicted, think about that. It's not like the national economy goes up and down as it always does and because of that we are down. We used to be ahead of the curve when compared to the National Economy. Now we are below. Now they say even if the rest of the country were to recover, that we would lag behind.

Self-inflicted wounds like Workers' Compensation. You know when I opened it up just before and said, "What are our problems?" Five or six people said Workers' Compensation. That is a big problem when you have the hugest fees! Then the energy costs that we have, I mean those are just fees that no one can afford.

I myself am interested in business and know that you have a 10% margin on profits. If someone squeezes you and all of a sudden raises taxes or say, now energy costs go up 100% or your Workers' Compensation goes up 100%, like it has in the last four years. It's gone up 100%, it's the highest cost in the nation! Those are the kinds of things where people just look at it and say, as some members said in there and, Arnold, I'm saying to myself, "Why am I not moving out of this state with my business?" That is the question that everyone is asking. We are not competitive anymore. What we have to do is control that. We have to create a better business environment. Otherwise, people will be leaving not only for other states like you say, but to go to other countries. I mean it is great for India and I'm happy for them, but I mean it is bad for us. We want to stop that! We want to really let the businesses know in California that we want to have them to come back. We want them to stay here because that means jobs, and when you talk about jobs that is what every Californian wants. I feel bad for anyone that is unemployed, it is unnecessary. It is self-inflicted wounds that we have here. Like the power crisis that we had, you know, energy costs went up, fuels were made, unnecessary amounts are being paid right now. We have to renegotiate those deals with the contractors. We really are hurting ourselves and that has to stop!

Question: What is your point of view with regard to Proposition 54 where no racial data can be collected?

A.S. - I am looking at it right now and getting from both sides the input. My indication is not to change the way things are, but I want to hear again from both sides because there may be very good arguments that I am not aware of. I want to really hear from everybody about this issue and I will let you know. Before there is an election there will be an answer to all of those things so people really know where I stand on those things.

A.S. - I think this is something that we are looking into. I was in support of Prop 187 and that is on the record. This is a federal issue. What we have to do is, what is important is that the Federal Government has to help California with expenses that occur because of it. I will negotiate immediately with the Bush Administration if I become Governor to have them take over some of the share of the burden.

A.S. - Well, I have to tell you something, that is very interesting. It's a very good question because, as you know, this is a town where we have obviously more Democrats than Republicans. But it is extraordinary the amount of actors and actresses and producers and directors and studio executives that came forward and said, "We want to help you.", "We want to have a fund-raiser.", Republicans and Democrats alike. So that has been an incredible thing and the reason is that they know where my heart is. They know that I want to reach out to everybody. They know the work I've done with Special Olympics for the last 20 years. I've traveled around the world to create equality and respect for the people with mental retardation. All the way to Africa and China to open up those doors and get people out of those prisons and out of those institutions, people with mental retardation. They know where I stand with after-school programs and also with education, how much I love education and how much I love children.

So they know all those things and I've gotten more words in Hollywood there that they support me and I feel good about it. Now, talking about Rob Lowe, obviously what you read in the paper is wrong. Rob Lowe is not a senior advisor, nor is he an advisor. But you know how it is in Hollywood with publicity agents and all those things. We have done that for the last 25 years, so we know how that works. So, the bottom line is that Rob Lowe is a very good friend and he was the first one, the day after I announced, he called me and said, "My wife and I want to support you, we want to get celebrities together. When you have fund-raisers, we want to go there to those fund-raisers. Any help you need I will be ready for you." That's what Rob Lowe's position is and I find it is very kind of him to offer his services, very kind of his wife and I am in heaven when I get offers like that.

So anyway, thank you. Thank you very much to all of you and remember now one thing (interrupted) excuse me, excuse me, that was the last question, but let me just say something here. I will be out there many more times. I will be seeing all of you from between now until October 7th many more times. There will be many appearances. There will be many visits. There will be many fund-raisers, speeches, even policy speeches. When it gets closer to October 7th, we will be talking about details. You will have all of that so don't think that I am going anywhere, okay, so you will have the chance to ask many more questions.

Again I want to stress, thank you all for coming because, remember, I am a strong believer that whether it was my body-building career or my acting career, I could not have done it without the press. You were always very helpful, it is true. Even though there were sometimes negative stories written, you know you can't put everyone in the same pot. But, as a whole I have been getting such great support from the press since I came to this country. And, you know, I don't expect that you will help me now with the campaign and all. That is not the point I am making. I just want you to know because my wife is a journalist that I know how tough it is for you to have your job. Thank you very much for being here and until the next time, until the next time, thank you!

-- *note - Some questions partially or completely inaudible due to journalists' varied distances from microphones.

http://www.cspan.org/search/basic.asp?ResultStart=1&ResultCount=10&BasicQueryText=schwarzenegger

I think you'll appreciate this:

http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/corner.asp

ARNOLD ON IMMIGRATION [John Derbyshire]
Arnold Schwarzenegger has made a point well worth making: that all this bending over backwards to accomodate illegal immigrants is insulting and offensive to _legal_ immigrant like himself, and me. It took him 15 years to get citizenship, he says, jumping obediently through all the INS hoops and writing checks to lawyers all the way. Same me: I arrived here October 1985, got citizenship April 2002. Far as I'm concerned, any legislative action that would result in illegal immigrants acquiring citizenship in less than 17 years from entry, is a gross injustice.
Posted at 11:48 AM

http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=3376362

Immigrant Arnold Wants More Secure Calif. Border
Tue September 2, 2003 09:48 PM ET

By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Austrian-born actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the leading Republican candidate for California governor, called for a clampdown on illegal immigrants from Mexico on Tuesday as Gov. Gray Davis launched a series of TV ads aimed at keeping his job.

Schwarzenegger, who says it took him 15 years to become a legal U.S. citizen, tackled the politically combustive issue of illegal immigration in response to attacks by Democratic recall rival Cruz Bustamante.

Bustamante had accused the "Terminator" star of being anti-immigrant for supporting Proposition 187, the voter-approved measure that sought to deny public services to people in the country illegally.

"What he doesn't understand is that people like myself waited 15 years to get citizenship," Schwarzenegger, who came to the United States from Austria in the 1960s, said. "There are people who have been waiting 20 years. I find it unfair to all of a sudden push the whole thing with undocumented immigrants and say they should immediately get citizenship."

The film star told the John and Ken show on Los Angeles radio station KFI-AM 640 in a telephone interview that he wanted stricter controls and beefed-up patrols on the U.S. border with Mexico. He said he was also against legislation, currently being debated in Sacramento, that would give California drivers licenses to illegal immigrants -- a bill that Davis has said he would sign and Bustamante supports.

Opponents of the bill say it would allow illegal immigrants to vote, encourage others to follow them across the border and pose a risk from terrorists who could obtain valid state identification without being subjected to background checks.

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