VIDEO
TRANSCRIPT
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/02/21/arnold-schwarzenegger-and-ed-rendell-on-abcs-this-week/
EXCERPTS:
MORAN: Well, the Senate, as I said, is taking up a jobs bill this week, $15 billion. When it started at the White House, it was $200 billion. The House passed a $180 billion version. There was a deal for $85 billion. We're down to $15 billion now, but do you think there needs to be another stimulus, federal stimulus like this? Is $15 billion enough?
SCHWARZENEGGER: Well, I don't think that we need another stimulus as much as what we need is just to do what we have been talking about over the last two years, and that is rebuild America, because that will create jobs. That is why it is so important to think about the infrastructure, because we happen to be at a stage right now where if we don't rebuild our infrastructure, we're going to fall behind economically and we're not going to be the number one nation anymore. I mean, right now, we are the most powerful nation, but it is because we have this great infrastructure that over the last 100 years, we have built, built and built. But in the last few decades, we have stopped maintaining that infrastructure and we have stopped building and expanding that infrastructure, even though there's tremendous demand for that infrastructure. So if you build this infrastructure and do what was recommended, $2.2 trillion of infrastructure, that will put a huge amount of people to work and it really will stimulate the economy, and they did that in the 40s and in the 50s, and Eisenhower did it in the 50s. And even into the 60s, the height of infrastructure was in the early 60s, it was the height. Maybe even when I came here to this country, there was this enormous boom of expansion of freeways and bridges and waterways and the universities and all this. And now we're kind of like only spending 2.5 percent of our GDP on infrastructure, rather than the 5 percent that we should be spending.
MORAN: $2.2 trillion -- we had money back in the 1950s and 60s. That is a gigantic amount of money, and when people think about infrastructure, they get it -- roads, bridges -- they understand it. But wasn't there $200 billion or so worth of infrastructure spending in the stimulus a year ago?
RENDELL: Actually, a little less than we recommended to the president when we met with him when he was president-elect. I would have liked to have seen the infrastructure money in the original stimulus at least doubled. And so did Senator Boxer and some other people in the Senate. But still, it was a nice hunk of money, but it just scratches the surface, and the governor is right. What's great about infrastructure spending is one, we need it, for safety, we need it for quality of life and we need it for economic competitiveness. But two, it's the best jobs creator. Economists (inaudible) $1 billion of infrastructure spending will create 40,000 jobs that can't be outsourced, that are here in America, that are good, family- sustaining jobs. And they're not just jobs on the construction site. We've seen this in our stimulus figures. They're jobs back in the steel factories and the asphalt factories and the concrete factories and the electrical factories and the wooden timber factories. So if you want to preserve American manufacturing and get it to thrive again, and put this country back to work, long-term -- and the key is here, your lead-in saying Washington is broken, and sure it's broken because of the partisanship. But it's also broken because nobody plans. Nobody's willing to do something for 10 years down the road. Everybody thinks about the next election. We need a plan, a 10-year plan that is going to take us to a first-class infrastructure that will keep us competitive. The port of Shanghai in five years will take more throughput than all American ports put together.
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MORAN: And people want to see that, and that kind of bipartisanship, but right now, we have this partisan divide. So let me ask you directly, Governor Rendell, does President Obama, having been outmaneuvered by the party of no, right now, as the governor says, does he need a shake-up? Does he need some new blood in the White House?
RENDELL: No, I think they just need to take a deep breath, look at what happened and revamp their strategy. They've still got the best communicator I've ever seen in my life in politics. But, Terry, I want to say something about Representative Pence. He seems to be a very decent person, but what he just said there is the most dangerous prescription for America, no spending, no borrowing. How in God's name -- I'd love -- I was a former prosecutor; I'd love to cross-examine Representative Pence. How in God's name does he think we're going to repair this nation's infrastructure, stay competitive, give safety to our people, improve our quality of lives? Every business that's successful in this country has, at some key moment, reinvested in itself, usually by borrowing or taking out capital reserves. They reinvested. They created another product line, built a new factory. If you don't invest in your future, you will die. And Representative Pence and the people at that convention -- when they say no borrowing, no spending, no investment, they're writing out a prescription form for this country becoming a second-rate power. And I don't think the governor and I, and there are others out there with us -- we're going to fight that theory. Because we've got to invest in our future. If we don't invest, what's going to happen to American manufacturing?
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SCHWARZENEGGER: ...But one should never get confused between spending money and investing in the future of America. And what we are talking about, with our partnership, is about is investing in the future of California. We have made a commitment in California of $70 billion since I've come into office. And right now, the legislature, after four decades of arguing, have come together, Democrats and Republicans, and have made a commitment to $11 billion in bonds for water infrastructure. Because what has happened this last year in the valley, having 40 percent unemployment because of the lack of water, it was devastating. So the California people know the difference, and that's why they have approved of those infrastructure packages, including the high- speed rail, the $10 billion. And they will also approve in November the water infrastructure, which is very important so we have water in the future. So we've got to rebuild our state, and the whole country has to rebuild itself. Because if you think in all of the -- in history, I mean, all the great civilizations all became great because they had great infrastructure. If you think about the Persians, of building the waterways and the paved roads. The Romans, they had the aqueduct system of delivering water and the sewage systems. The Egyptians, they built--(CROSSTALK)
RENDELL: How many people (inaudible) Great Wall of China--(CROSSTALK)
MORAN: --run out of time here, but I have one more question.
SCHWARZENEGGER: But it is -- I just want to say that the decay and the falling of those empires and of the civilizations is directly linked to not keeping up the infrastructure. So we have to be very, very careful in America to keep up our infrastructure, not only to maintain it, but to build, because it is our ports, if it is our freeways, if it is our airports, and all of those things needs to be rebuilt.
SCREEN SHOTS:
Posted on
Monday, February 22, 2010
by Laura Braden