PETER CAMEJO
DEBATE TRANSCRIPTS
Peter Camejo 2002
http://www.csusm.edu/cwis/newsmedia/releases/04-05/camejopress1.jpg
Photo
by Walter Lippmann uncredited,
but I took this photograph!
Camejo's debate with Swarzenegger and others, Sept. 25th, 2003
The participants were Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, Green Party candidate
Peter Camejo, independent candidate Arianna Huffington, Republican state Sen.
Tom McClintock and Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. The moderator was Stan
Statham. Camejo excerpts:
CAMEJO: This recall exists because we have a crisis in California. There's no
question that in the last five years we have the highest income the state has
ever had, and instead of ending up with a surplus we ended up with this
disastrous deficit. The polls have taken the governor, Gov. Davis, down to 22
percent and that can't be done by the Republicans alone. They were only 35
percent of the registered voters. So we do have a crisis here. And this election
is the worst election we've ever had and best election we've ever had. Why the
best? Because the public has really gotten a chance to see more than two points
of view. To all of a sudden have two candidates here who are not Democrats or
Republicans... And it's the worst because we don't have a runoff system. We have
no way for the will of electorate. ...
----------------------------------------------------
CAMEJO: I think both Tom and Arnold are both factually wrong here. First of all,
corporations are now being charged the lowest tax rates that they have been for
decades and decades. Their tax rates have gone in the last 60 years from 9.6 to
5.3 percent. In fact, Utah, Wyoming and Arizona, three states where the
Republicans dominate, have higher taxes than California. So I want to ask Tom
and Arnold to go visit those states and have a talk with them before they come
and tell us to lower taxes when their Republican Party has higher taxes than our
neighbors. People are not leaving California. They're pouring into California.
This is a place people want to come to. We're right now hitting a record GDP.
But we have too much unemployment because we're having a jobless recovery. That
is, the corporations are making more money than ever before but not the people.
We need to look at the fact that people are paying much higher taxes than the
wealthiest people in our state or what the corporations are paying. I want to
cut taxes on the majority of the people, but I want the richest people, that 1
percent that have more income than 70 percent of our people to pay the same
taxes you're paying, the average person, so we can balance our budget and start
moving in the right direction.
-----------------------------------------------------
CAMEJO: Look, we pay ... the average person in California pays about 9.2 percent
of their income in taxes. The wealthiest one percent pay 7.2. If we just had the
wealthiest 5 percent, who receive all the advantages of the great strides in the
economy in the last 10 years -- their income rose 113 percent. Your income only
rose 8 percent. Latinos actually declined 3 percent. If we taxed them at the
same rate that you pay, we would now have a surplus in the budget. We're 27th in
education, we were No. 1 in the nation in the economy. And Tom wants to cut,
cut, cut. I want to put more money into education. I want a fair tax. On my Web
site, votecamejo.org, we showed exactly how it can be done. How we can have a
$19 billion surplus, and that means we can start developing affordable housing,
we can make California the leader in renewable energy. These are the things
California could be doing, and all they want to do is cut, cut and rip, rip over
here on my right, and the others, I don't know what they do. They get all the
money in the world, they spend it all, we don't know where it went. I'm calling
for a five-year audit. I want a five-year audit to find out how we had a $30
billion surplus turned into a $38 billion deficit. Because I think we just don't
know for sure how some good things were done. And let's say it, more money was
put in to give teachers a higher pay, some steps were made in taking care of
some of our infrastructure. We don't want to go back on that, but it was done
irresponsibly. They didn't worried about the income. They were cutting the taxes
on the wealthiest people while they raised your taxes. I want to reverse it.
------------------------------------------------------
[Cutting California's auto registration tax: McClintock was a rightist
Republican]
CAMEJO: Let's let Tom go first. I
agree with you on this.
McCLINTOCK: That's actually the
campaign that I started five years ago, to abolish California's car tax. It is a
tax on a necessity of life. Not a penny of it goes to fixing the roads. I have
said from the beginning of this campaign, that the very first act that I will
take within moments of taking the oath of office will be to sign an executive
order to rescind the governor's crippling of this tax. If he can claim that he
has the authority to raise the fee, then by God I can claim the same authority
to lower it right back again. But I want to see it abolished. That's why we're
circulating an initiative right now to abolish that entire use of tax and to
guarantee local governments full reimbursement.
CAMEJO: Amazing, Tom, but as a
Green I agree with you.
--------------------------------------------------------------
CITIZEN QUESTION:
How are you going to ensure that all Californians have adequate health care?
CAMEJO: All advanced Western
countries have established universal health care. We are the only nation that
hasn't. And we really have to realize that having the insurance business running
our health care is not working. We have to turn to a single-payer system. I
support (state senator) Sheila Kuehl's proposals. I think SB2 that John Burton
has raised is a step in the right direction but not the real answer. Actually,
if we did this, a study was done that shows that we would save $7.3 billion in
California, about $4 billion actually out of our budget and we'd have everybody
covered. We've got to learn from Canada and Europe. There are things that other
people can teach us. America is not always right at all, and in fact this is one
of those issues where we have to move to universal health care for everybody.
Single-payer system, that's what we advocate and that's why the whole world is
watching. Why America? Because of a (unintelligible).
-------------------------------------------------------
MODERATOR: I've thought of something to make this a whole lot more
controversial in the area of health care. So why don't each one of you tell us
how much money the state of California should spend on health care for the kids
of illegal immigrants? Who wants to go?
CAMEJO: I just want to say this,
the people we are talking about are the lowest paid workers in California who
work the hardest, who pay taxes and receive almost no benefits. They are
essential to our economy. We loosely use this word, I think totally
inappropriately, illegal. No one is going to arrest them. If somebody is
illegal, you arrest them. But nobody is going to arrest them because they are
essential to California. Everybody knows they are here to stay. They are part of
our family. We have to end this apartheid system that we have toward them. They
are part of our community and are essential to our economy. I really object to
this term illegal. I mean, you know, in the first debate I referred to who came
over here totally illegally and it was European Americans who came over here.
But they are here. So give them a driver's license, give them their rights. I'm
not going to object to that. But these are the people of the indigenous people
of this continent. Let's understand that if your economic situation was the same
as theirs, you would do exactly the same thing. People all over the world are
moving through borders to try to feed their families. Let's look at this as a
human problem we face, not as criminality. These are part of our families. We
need to help them and work with them and give them medical insurance and the
cost that will come about, they are paying for it because right now they are
contributing as taxpayers.
--------------------------------------------------
[Proposation 49 was a racist
ballot proposition which would have prevented the collection of statistical
information about ethnicity and was defeated in the election.]
CAMEJO: Well, you know, the issue here is this is a proposition that promotes
ignorance. It says we will not know. Look, if you made a poll right now and
asked people what you're income level is between right- and left-handed, we all
know it would be about the same, or education level. But it isn't on race. If
you ask the Latinos, do they have the same education? They have less. They have
less income and they pay a higher tax rate. Do you know that? Latinos in
California pay a higher tax rate than European Americans. But Prop. 54 doesn't
allow us to know that. We're not allowed to ask the questions. So how can we
correct problems that exist in our society, which are complex? And I welcome
what Tom says and Arnold says that they are for equality, but if you're for
equality you have to be willing to have the information so we can take the
necessary action to change this. And Prop. 54 is a very dangerous bill because
what it does is leads the people to begin to think that these problems are
behind us. They are far from behind us. We still have enormous problems to solve
in our society.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[How to make California more business-friendly]
CAMEJO: Well, first of all,
(citizen) Mike, I want to thank you for the question. But I'll tell you that I
think there is a myth here. The biggest problem we're facing is the outbreak of
a crime wave. You have the Enrons and the Worldcoms, and why is it that the
managers are all stealing all over the country? In fact, there was a study done
for two years, and this was a ways back, but it was very interesting. It showed
that of the largest 538 corporations, in two years, 67 percent of them violated
the law. There is no other neighborhood with that type of criminal record. So
the corporations, what we need to do is get the rule of law established. We have
companies with felony convictions every single year. Nobody goes to jail. Part
of the problem is that the owners of these corporations, the largest ones, are
the pension funds. And working people actually own these companies and don't
even know it. What we need to do is democratize, change our 1937 act,
democratize our pension funds so they can exercise control. You know what we
should've done during the energy crisis with these corporations? Voted out all
of their boards and put law-abiding citizens in there and stop them in their
tracks.
MODERATOR: Thank you.
CAMEJO: That's what the answer to
this problem is. Business is welcome in California and has been super-welcome.
Their tax is as low as it can possibly go.
------------------------------------------------------
[How to help local government, starved for funding since Proposition 13 in
1978]
CAMEJO: Yeah, I'm trying to be respectful to everybody here and, you know, I'm
trying to say, I want to thank Helen for her question because this is a mystery
in California. There is a problem here that most people are not aware of. Our
county governments are starving for money now. Most of the money they received
is already allocated. The county supervisors have almost no power at all, and
the fact is about half of the discretionary money was taken away from them and
then when we had surpluses in the budget of the state. And instead of giving
back the money, they refused to. This is creating a crisis and I'll tell you
where it starts hurting. Counties start looking at their pension fund as a big
pile of money that maybe they can somehow they can lower, solve their budget
problems by not making the payments that they should be making. So what we need
to do is give that money back. We have to empower the local government. We have
to give them more freedom. We have to look at these issues more carefully, and I
think that as a supervisor that Helen's raising, the stress that she's feeling,
the stress that all supervisors are feeling, the lack of funding to be able to
carry out the very important tasks they do, including preventive, uh, medical,
the health care, the issues of -- if we cut those, we'll end up paying more
because that simply becomes the problem in emergency rooms.
----------------------------------------------------------
[Proposition 53, a measure mandating a percentage of the state budget for
infrastructure spending, taking responsibility away from the legislature for
this.]
CAMEJO: I'm opposed to Prop. 53. It's micromanaging. We do have crisis of
infrastructure. It's super important. But the way you finance infrastructure is
very different from the year to year budget. It's really a capital expenditure.
And should be able to self finance. But we are creating a disaster in the future
for the next generation if we don't start straightening out and have a 20-year
plan. I really think one of the things we're doing wrong in California is we're
not getting together and coming out with a long-term plan in how to keep our
infrastructure and make it positive for our economy. And we need to have funding
that's not affected directly with the budget -- like when you build a bridge,
you pay a fee to go across that bridge. That's what pays for it. And you borrow
money to build a bridge. So we can build the infrastructure even without hurting
our budget.
---------------------------------------------------------
A two-minute closing statement from Green Party candidate Peter Camejo.
CAMEJO: We have a fiscal crisis in
California, and we're not going to solve it unless we have a fair tax system.
The wealthiest 1 percent pay a 30 percent lower tax rate than the average person
is paying. And they talk about not raising taxes, but they have already raised
it on you. But they're not, the wealthy people are not paying they're fair
taxes, nor the corporations. And we're not going to solve the crisis of
education ... unless we establish a fair tax. The amazing thing is that we would
have a very substantial surplus and we could actually attack these issues. Now
is there waste in our budget? Of course there is, and we should try to find it
and stop it and curtail it. On that, I agree with some of the comments Tom has
made. But we are 27th in education. I want to improve that. I want to start an
affordable housing program. I want to make renewable energy, I want to make
California the leader in renewable energy. We also have to raise our minimum
wage. I want a living wage. You know that our minimum wage is 24 percent lower
today, adjusted for inflation, than it was in 1968, and our economy has improved
so much? We need universal health care. And one of the problems that's deeply
bothering me, and we need a governor who will speak out on this, is the issue of
civil liberties in America and of our people in California. I am very concerned
about what is happening internationally because California is a key to this
world. We're the fifth largest economy and we must speak out. Here we were for
10 years supporting Saddam Hussein and arming him, and now we're illegally
occupying that country and destroying the federal budget. No, we need someone
who will speak out in support of the Kyoto agreement, and the U.N. charter and
the rule of law in the world and the world court. What I want to do is fight for
the change of our electoral systems so that you don't just hear two people in
the debate. And it's sad to say that in the next two debates, they're trying to
exclude me. The League of Women Voters now doesn't want the Green person heard
anymore, who's calling for a fair tax. If you believe in democracy, in
sustainable economics, and if you believe in peace and pre-elections, vote
Green, vote Camejo governor.
COMPLETE TEXT:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/special_packages/davis_recall/6858838.htm
=========================
September 3, 2003
[How to vote on the California recall]
Camejo:
Corporations are having a massive criminal problem. We have the Enrons and the
Worldcoms. There is something breaking down. The rule of law is breaking down.
In California, we have lowered the taxes on corporations on a straight line
down. They are paying half of what they were paying just 16 years ago. The
richest people in California, taxes are lowered while your taxes are going
higher, the average person. Where is the money to solve this problem?
(Unintelligible)... In the corporations and among the richest people paying the
lowest tax rates (unintelligible)... You are willing to go there, you cannot
balance the budget.
------------------------------------------------
[taxing the wealthy to pay their fair share]
Next question for Peter Camejo,
coming from John Myers, the Sacramento bureau chief of KQED-FM.
Myers: Sir, you
proposed that the state tax go from (unintelligible) for the wealthy that is a
big jump to make in one year, from 9% to 14.3%. How do you justify that
increase? If it is wealthy today, could it be the middle class tomorrow?
Camejo: The raise
I'm proposing for them would make them even with what the poorest people pay.
What absolutely amazes me is that people are willing to see the poorest people
in California, making $15,000 a year, pay 11.3% Of their income in taxes, but
say that the rich should have to pay it. The fact is I'm for a fair tax, which
is that the wealthiest people in California should be paying the same that you
are, the average person. That would balance the budget. That is where we have to
go. We also have to get rid of waste and the loopholes that Arianna Huffington
referred to. But there is no will. The Democrats and Republicans are at the
service of the people who fund them. That is the difficult problem that we now
face. That is, they are allowing these crises to happen and they are cutting
education, health care and all of the services that we need. People have to
choose. What do you want? Lower the taxes for the rich? Give them everything? Or
allow these services to continue and protect education in California.
Myers: But Mr.
Camejo, how do you get Republicans like Mr. McClintock to vote for that?
Camejo: I will
stand with Cruz Bustamante on this, he had the courage to say if we cannot get
the right kind of tax structure, let's go to the people. I will tell you who
will vote for a fair tax in California, the people in California. It is about
time. We have one third of 1% of the people of California get 20% of the income,
200 billion dollars and they pay lower taxes than you do. That is not right. And
the Democrats and Republicans have allowed that to happen. That is why we have
to have the Green Party here and a voice heard to challenge the corporate
domination and the money domination of our political system.
-------------------------------------------------------
[Taking money from gambling casinos]
Camejo: you know, casinos, I would never accept money from
casinos, tobacco companies or energy companies, whatever. Once you accept money
from them, there is a compromise there. The truth is, casinos are not a good
thing. They are a regressive tax. Of course, deep inside me, I have to feel some
sympathy for the native americans who have finally found a way, but it is the
wrong way, preading casinos over america, every community, it is damaging to our
society, not helpful.
-------------------------------------------------------
[anti-immigrant Proposition 187]
Camejo: I'm opposed to 187. I voted against it, considering it
unconstitutional, violation to U.N. Charter, a denial to children to go to
school, punish them for the economic problems their parents suffered.
--------------------------------------------------------
[lowering the legislative vote percentage to pass a state budget from 66% to
55%]
Camejo: only three states have the system we have. I'm against
it. I support the proposal to lower to 55%..
--------------------------------------------------------
[abortion rights]
Camejo: I'm pro choice and I believe that the issue is rooted in
separation of church and state. Everyone has the right to their opinion, should
be respected, the government should not interfere.
Shandobil: Are you saying that you would have signed it.
Camejo: Yes.
---------------------------------------------------------
[Electricity industry de-regulation]
Audience member:
California electricity industry is at a cross-road of deregulation versus
reregulation. What will you do to fix the broken system and the high electricity
rates.
Camejo:
(unintelligible) Green Party is the only party in California that are opposed to
the deregulation of energy. The Democrats and Republicans voted unanimously,
promising to lower instead it increased as we predicted would happen. I believe
that we are in a complete crisis on the issue of energy. Worldwide. I want to
see California become the leader for renewable energy, the only real solution.
We are setting ourselves up for future crisis by defending on natural gas whose
prices will go through the sealing as we run out of it.
We have to import it. No effort is
being made to solve this. We have to regulate the industry. The question is how
to do it to do it right? The way that we have been deregulating is simply
leading to corporations management taking the money and going into crisis and
you always end up paying for it, as taxpayers and consumers. We need to change
it and have a vision.
------------------------------------------------------
[budget deficit and education funding]
Camejo: Our budget heavily goes it education. When the
Republicans talk about cutting it, they will cut education, that is what they
are talking about. You notice they never mention a specific thing about what
they will cut. If you are a serious candidate, say it. Do I not want to cut from
education. I want to put more money into it. I do not want to see it privatized.
Free public education was a great victory in this nation, it is part of our
culture and tradition, it must be protected and you can only do that with a fair
tax in California.
-----------------------------------------------------
[workers compensation fraud and education testing. two separate issues,
but Camejo was asked the second question right after answering the first one]
Camejo: You know,
fraud exists, of course. We have to look at it. In fact, I believe there is a
lot of -- I've called for an audit of the last five years to try to find out
what in the world happened. How did we get from having this incredible, unusual
income and end up with a massive deficit. I pointed out at my first press
conference an example, over $6.4 Million given to a corporation supposedly for
education when there is no education. There is programs happening here where
they are giving away money to corporations, and to -- basically, you know,
welfare for the rich. We have to stop that waste.
Shandobil: Okay.
Thank you. We move on now to the next question for Pilar who has a question for
Peter Camejo.
Marrero: Mr.
Camejo, the implementation of the high school exit exam had to be
postponed for three years because of the disparities in access to good education
would have made for a high failing rate for African-American and Latino
students. Given that apparently right now there is no money to solve that
disparity, will you get rid of the requirement until the playing field is more
level?
Camejo: I think
so. I'm nervous about the mania we have now on testing. The problems are often
blamed on the teachers. The teachers cannot solve social problems that the
society as a whole has some of. They are doing the best that they can. We have
to have a holistic approach to judging the work they are doing. Where I think
this is going, with all of the testing, is to say that public education is not
working and we'll privatize. It is not the fault of the teacher, the CTA, the
teacher's union has been explicit, clear on this, come forward and said that the
testing mania is hurting us in the way that the teachers have to teach and their
job and their responsibilities. We have to fight this. There is a hidden agenda
behind the mania for testing everyone and use that go as a criteria, instead of
a holistic criteria.
Marrero: But how
would you measure that the students are moving forward and really getting a
education.
Camejo: I believe
that that is complex. I think that you have to look at a school by school
situation. The language issues, all of these different issues necessary for
making judgments on the advance of people. We are making advances in California.
And by the way, even though I've been extremely critical of Governor Gray Davis,
as those of you have heard me know, but he did put more money into education,
you know? We are making an effort. We are making headway. But we still have a
long way to go. And we need to improve gentlemen indication. But the testing is
not the way we're really going to judge it in the end.
full transcript:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/special_packages/davis_recall/6685957.htm
Peter Camejo interview on CNN,
August 28, 2003
Interview
With Green Party California Gubernatorial Candidate
Aired August
28, 2003 - 15:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH
TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT
BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF,
CNN ANCHOR: Checking more of the day's developments in the California recall,
former L.A. Olympics organizer Peter Ueberroth is invoking the memory of the '84
Games with the first of what he's calling Carry the Torch for Peter Issue
Forums. The town-hall-style meeting in wrapped up just a short time ago.
Ueberroth took questions from about 50 to 60 people who have preregistered on
his Web site.
Arianna Huffington held a news conference with reporters today in Sacramento.
Just yesterday, Huffington took the politically risky step of proposing changes
to some of the tax provisions created by the popular Proposition 13.
Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante today proposed state regulation of gasoline.
Bustamante said the oil companies should be regulated because they are guilty of
what he called irresponsible price-gouging.
Well, with me now to talk more about the California recall race is Peter Camejo.
He's the Green Party candidate in the recall election for California governor.
First of all, Mr. Camejo, "L.A. Times" poll last week, it had Cruz
Bustamante at 35 percent, Arnold Schwarzenegger at 22 percent, several others.
You were down there, I think, seventh on the list with 1 percent. How are you
going to translate that into victory?
PETER CAMEJO, GREEN PARTY, CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Well, the Green
Party's been growing continuously over the last five years. I got 5.3 percent
statewide. We got over 10 percent in the north. We beat the Republicans in the
whole area of the Bay area. We have more and more people elected every year.
We're up to 65 elected officials in California.
The problem with those polls is, they're likely voter polls that only cover 20
percent of the population; 80 percent are not included in those polls. And the
80 percent that are not included is where our strength is, which is people of
color. Those polls are 80 percent white, even though the white population in
California is 45 percent.
WOODRUFF: So you're saying those other people are going to turn out to vote.
I want to ask you about your positions vs. Lieutenant Governor Bustamante. The
two of you seem to agree on a number of things, from abortion rights to same-sex
unions, and I could go down the list. What about the argument that, even if
you're just taking a few percentage points away from him, you could end up
costing the Democrats the election and handing it to a Republican?
CAMEJO: Well, the problem is that, in California, we tax the average person a
lot more than we tax the rich people; 99.9 percent of the people of California
pay a higher tax rate than Arnold Schwarzenegger.
I'm alone in calling for the 5 percent richest people, whose income has risen
100 percent in the last seven years, that they pay the same as the average
Californian. That would balance the budget. I'm calling for a fair tax. That's
the difference between us and all the other candidates, including Bustamante,
who I do agree that he has come up with some good proposal. And some of them,
I'm going to support. In fact, all the candidates...
WOODRUFF: So 5 percent richest people would pay what tax?
CAMEJO: We want to increase people above $200,000 by 2 percent and people who
are making over $500,000 5 percent, which would bring them and the actual taxes
they pay to about the same as what the average taxpayer is paying in California.
The poorest 20 percent pay 11.3. The richest 1 percent are paying 7.2.
WOODRUFF: And you're saying that would help make up the $8 billion budget
deficit?
CAMEJO: We would have a surplus.
Also, the corporations used to pay 14 percent. They now pay 7 percent. We
haven't assessed their properties in almost 20 years, over 20 years. If we did
that, that would bring in $3 billion more. I today announced a whole plan for
how to balance our budget. And, in fact, we could have a surplus, as we should
have.
Do you know that California got the most income ever in the last five years, way
above the norm? We should right now be sitting on about a $30 billion surplus.
And Gray Davis lost it all, plus created a massive deficit.
WOODRUFF: You have an interesting agreement I want to ask you about with Arianna
Huffington. And that is, whichever of the two of you has less support as you get
closer to Election Day is going to drop out and throw support to the other one.
It sounds like neither one of you is serious about this campaign. How do you
explain this?
CAMEJO: Well, no.
What is happening, again, is, the polls so far are showing you only likely
voters. And we haven't had the debates. On September 3, for the first time in
California history, a third party will be in the televised debates. This is a
big breakthrough happening because of the recall. The mass people, the millions,
will finally be able to hear what the Green Party says and its position of fair
taxes and social justice and peace and democracy.
So this is a great opportunity for us. Arianna Huffington is saying many of the
same things I'm saying. I welcome her. We're friends. We're working together.
We're trying to get a message out. And we hope that the voters will turn to us.
And the only agreement we've made, really, is that if either of us had a chance
to win, the other would do whatever they could to help that happen.
WOODRUFF: And you'll make that decision between now and Election Day?
CAMEJO: Yes, Judy, if the opportunity actually existed.
WOODRUFF: OK, Peter Camejo, thank you very much for talking to us, the Green
Party candidate for governor of California. We appreciate it.
CAMEJO: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE
ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0308/28/lol.27.html
