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Schwarzenegger in Transition

Aired October 14, 2003 - 15:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger stuck mostly to broad themes during his campaign. And the handful of specific actions he promised to take could prove more difficult than he expected.
With me now for more on all this, our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider.

Bill, I was just talking to Bill Simon about whether the governor is going to go ahead with his promise to repeal the car tax. He's also talked about overturning the legislation that would allow illegal immigrants to have driver's licenses. What's the status of all this? Is he going to be able to do this?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it's going to be tough. But he's promised to do it. And I think he's going to go in the first day, call a special session of the legislature. And the indications are that he has the authority to repeal the increase in the car tax. But the law requires that he come up with what I've seen as $4 billion to reimburse those local governments, which depend on that revenue.

Where's he going to find that money? Well, we just heard the debate with Bill Simon about fine-tooth combs and new brooms and all kinds of metaphors. Nobody knows where the money is exactly. State audits. Medicaid fraud is one possibility. He might have some confrontations with state employees, because their number grew, but they claim the budget deficit isn't their fault. That could be a very bruising confrontation.

There's one other possibility. He's going to meet with President Bush. And he may ask the president to help him out. And I think the president has an incentive to do that as a goodwill gesture to California. Now, he doesn't have a lot of money either. There's a huge federal budget deficit. But unlike California, the federal government doesn't have to keep its books balanced.

WOODRUFF: Good thing to remember. All right, Bill, even if he can do these things that he's talking about, politically, how risky is it?

SCHNEIDER: Well, let's take the driver's license law. He says he wants that law repealed that allows illegal aliens to obtain driver's licenses.

To do that, he'd have to have the legislature pass a new law repealing the old law, which he would immediately sign. Well, the legislature's dominated by Democrats, the Latino caucus is very influential in the legislature. Question: Does one of the first things he wants to do as governor, is that to stage a showdown with the state's most significant minority, with Latino legislators, who are fiercely committed to this new law that they got out of Gray Davis?

Are they going to back down on it? I don't think so. I don't think he wants to stage that kind of showdown with them. He has difficult relations with them, because one of his principal advisers is Pete Wilson, who had a very difficult time with Latino legislators. And they don't want to say, he's another Pete Wilson.

WOODRUFF: Yes, we remember that.

Bill, you mentioned the help he might get or might try to get from President Bush. What if that weren't forthcoming, if, for some reason, the federal government didn't provide money? Would that hurt Schwarzenegger?

SCHNEIDER: Well, he'd probably be sued by those local governments. And that would be political trouble for him, because they would say: We can't come up with this money. We don't have it. We're going to have to lay off firefighters. We're going to have to lay off lay off police officers.

Does Arnold Schwarzenegger, the new governor of California, want to face the people and face all those firefighters and policemen who are losing their jobs and the threat to public safety? I don't think so. He's going to have to find the money somewhere. That's why he has that auditor.

WOODRUFF: But I think you're right. There's some incentive for the president to want to come up with something for California.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHNEIDER: That's right, as a goodwill gesture, at least.

WOODRUFF: Precisely. All right, Bill Schneider, thanks.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

SCHNEIDER: And we'll see you again a little later.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired October 14, 2003 - 15:14   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger stuck mostly to broad themes during his campaign. And the handful of specific actions he promised to take could prove more difficult than he expected.
With me now for more on all this, our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider.

Bill, I was just talking to Bill Simon about whether the governor is going to go ahead with his promise to repeal the car tax. He's also talked about overturning the legislation that would allow illegal immigrants to have driver's licenses. What's the status of all this? Is he going to be able to do this?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it's going to be tough. But he's promised to do it. And I think he's going to go in the first day, call a special session of the legislature. And the indications are that he has the authority to repeal the increase in the car tax. But the law requires that he come up with what I've seen as $4 billion to reimburse those local governments, which depend on that revenue.

Where's he going to find that money? Well, we just heard the debate with Bill Simon about fine-tooth combs and new brooms and all kinds of metaphors. Nobody knows where the money is exactly. State audits. Medicaid fraud is one possibility. He might have some confrontations with state employees, because their number grew, but they claim the budget deficit isn't their fault. That could be a very bruising confrontation.

There's one other possibility. He's going to meet with President Bush. And he may ask the president to help him out. And I think the president has an incentive to do that as a goodwill gesture to California. Now, he doesn't have a lot of money either. There's a huge federal budget deficit. But unlike California, the federal government doesn't have to keep its books balanced.

WOODRUFF: Good thing to remember. All right, Bill, even if he can do these things that he's talking about, politically, how risky is it?

SCHNEIDER: Well, let's take the driver's license law. He says he wants that law repealed that allows illegal aliens to obtain driver's licenses.

To do that, he'd have to have the legislature pass a new law repealing the old law, which he would immediately sign. Well, the legislature's dominated by Democrats, the Latino caucus is very influential in the legislature. Question: Does one of the first things he wants to do as governor, is that to stage a showdown with the state's most significant minority, with Latino legislators, who are fiercely committed to this new law that they got out of Gray Davis?

Are they going to back down on it? I don't think so. I don't think he wants to stage that kind of showdown with them. He has difficult relations with them, because one of his principal advisers is Pete Wilson, who had a very difficult time with Latino legislators. And they don't want to say, he's another Pete Wilson.

WOODRUFF: Yes, we remember that.

Bill, you mentioned the help he might get or might try to get from President Bush. What if that weren't forthcoming, if, for some reason, the federal government didn't provide money? Would that hurt Schwarzenegger?

SCHNEIDER: Well, he'd probably be sued by those local governments. And that would be political trouble for him, because they would say: We can't come up with this money. We don't have it. We're going to have to lay off firefighters. We're going to have to lay off lay off police officers.

Does Arnold Schwarzenegger, the new governor of California, want to face the people and face all those firefighters and policemen who are losing their jobs and the threat to public safety? I don't think so. He's going to have to find the money somewhere. That's why he has that auditor.

WOODRUFF: But I think you're right. There's some incentive for the president to want to come up with something for California.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHNEIDER: That's right, as a goodwill gesture, at least.

WOODRUFF: Precisely. All right, Bill Schneider, thanks.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

SCHNEIDER: And we'll see you again a little later.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com