Governor’s Mansion, Baton Rouge, La., Jan. 7
Q. What lessons do you think Republicans should learn from the last two disastrous — for them — election cycles?
A. … For me, the three lessons [to be learned by the GOP], are: We have to match our actions and our rhetoric; we have to consistently root out corruption in our own ranks; and we have to be a party of ideas and solutions. Too often the rhetoric from the party has been, “Vote for Republicans because the other side is worse.” That doesn’t motivate or excite voters. You have to have a positive, proactive agenda for America.
We went to Washington to change Washington, but we became a captive of Washington. We were supposed to be the party of outsiders. We became what we were elected to change. The American voters are looking for authenticity. If you’ve got an authentic liberal and somebody who is pretending, why wouldn’t you vote for the real thing? We’re never going to win elections by trying to outspin the other side.
Q. A group of governors wants $1 trillion in aid to help with infrastructure and unfunded mandates. You weren’t among them, why?
A. The bottom line is, you look at what is hurting our economy today. This idea of how we solve our economic problems. They were caused by excessive amounts of debt and structural problems. And the way we’re going to solve that is by printing more money and creating more debt? That seems to me a little odd. …
We need a more rational energy policy that reduces volatility and prices and diversifies our energy resources. We are a state that produces a tremendous amount of oil and gas, but we’re also a state that this year we just cut the ribbon on a project that will create 1,400 jobs, North America’s first facility to create the modular structures for nuclear facilities. We’re also a state that attracted a $350 million investment for clean coal. We also cut the ribbon on North America’s first biodiesel refinery that will use chicken byproducts to make diesel. So even though we’re a state that is heavily involved in the production of oil and gas, we’re also a state that is heavily involved in alternative forms of energy production.
The [federal] government can also address health care. What makes us think that writing a check for different bailouts, one after another, will work? You’ve got to ask where does it stop? If we’re not changing our policies how does writing a check when we’re borrowing money from our children and grandchildren, solve the problems inherent in the economy?
Q. You say your latest budget will save taxpayers $341 million. You’ve cut spending. You won’t raise taxes. How are you able to weed out what you call nonessential spending and not take a political hit? When Republicans have tried to do that in Washington, you get starving grandmothers and closed libraries, no Social Security checks.
A. We’ve done at least three things. You’ll find wasteful spending at all levels of government. This isn’t the biggest example, but we were paying for on-hold music in state offices. Taxpayers look at that and say it is ridiculous. We have government programs that were serving so few clients it made no sense to continue. We literally spent thousands of dollars on programs without clients. These were created, but never ended. The second level of savings, you have to go through every agency and ask where can we be more efficient. We had a prison in northeast Louisiana that was costing us more to operate than a private firm said it would cost them. Now they run it more efficiently, making money and the state earns tax dollars from their operation of that prison.
We are one of eight states that put all of its spending online. We’re the only state that links it to performance outcomes. So you can go online and see where your tax dollars are going and you can link it to accountability. We spent millions on after-school programs, and even the state education board said we have no outcome measures for these programs. We can’t tell you whether these programs are helping to teach kids to read or write.
The third set of budget cuts and savings: You have to set priorities. We can’t be all things to all people. We didn’t cut the community and technical colleges. We’ve got some of the fastest growing technical colleges in the nation. We’ve got a shortage of skilled workers in our economy. So we were thoughtful in the way we reduced services. In Washington, we just cut spending at a slower rate. That’s not how my checkbook works.
There will never be enough money for some groups and individuals, but if we’re conservative and stand for anything as a party, we have to say we’re not raising taxes.
We cut six taxes last year.
Cal Thomas is America’s most widely syndicated op-ed columnist and an author of 11 books. His most recent book is “Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That Is Destroying America,” co-authored by Bob Beckel.
