Senator Bob Bennett & Former Governor Mitt Romney NOTE: This is a typed record of a meeting, not an actual transcript. I did my best to capture the intent when I couldn't get the exact words. I may have gotten a few things wrong, so don't take everything in here as a 100% pure representation. Hopefully it will still be useful in providing an overview of what came up and what was said on the topics presented. Assume quality goes down as the document progresses. -------- Full house. 9:00 AM Start (approx) Doug Wright: Bob Bennett: Reagan's vision that America's best days are ahead. What we need in the Republican party is a pretty strong dose of Reagan optimism, a strong conviction that Americans can bring things back and make things work. The candidate that ended stump speeches with “Yes We Can” was not the Republican candidate. John Kerry focused on his Vietnam service from an anti-war perspective. Along with optimism & patriotism, Reagan had solutions. We can't adopt all of Reagan's ideas because they worked – we can't run on defeating the Soviet Union. He wasn't hung up about the past – he was focused on the future. We have a young president, decent man, with no personal experience dealing with these problems. He has wonderful political skills, but can be easily led by the explainers. His team is the same team that worked for Bill Clinton. They keep changing their mind. Markets cannot stabilize in an atmosphere of uncertainty. When the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, the people perish (scripture?). Obama is discovering that it is easier to campaign than it is to govern. So, they continue to campaign. Instead of talking to real people who know what is going on, he's flying to Elkhart Indiana to get a photo op for the 6:00 news. The campaign is over, you won... stop campaigning and start talking to people who live in the real world. That is what Republicans need to do. We have some breathing space now. We can do two things: throw hand grenades and make a lot of noise, which can be fun. But we also need to plan and prepare for the next cycle. DW: Intro of Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney: He put a stop to Obama's move to end deductions for charitable contributions. Bennett has been there long enough to actually make a difference. Bennett stands up for Utah time and again. People are very smart in this state, more than they'll ever get credit for. Wisdom, experience, tenacity. Story of a kid at barber shop – Barber says to a customer “That's the dumbest kid I've ever met.” Offers $0.50 & $1. The kid takes the $0.50 and runs. Customer sees kid outside eating an ice cream cone and asks him about it. “The day I take that dollar, the game is over.” Inflection points. There are times in history when everything changes at one time. 1800-1900 – agriculture to industry, nature of warfare, moving from rural to cities, commitment to full promise of Constitution. Before that was Revolutionary war. Went from sovereign monarch to sovereign citizens. We're in an inflection point right now. New information age, technology age, nature of warfare. While not fully monarchists, there are some people who say that government must be strong and lead. Then there are those like Bennett and Republicans who believe it is the people who will make the difference. They are the Revolutionaries. DW: Several questions about the state of the economy and how best to get out of the downturn. BB: Comment first, as difficult as it in in America, if you travel around the world, you'll find that America is in the best shape and will come out of this first. There is no other economy in the world that is showing any signs of coming out of this. Europeans, even Chinese are seeing slowdowns and difficulties. Now, we need an intelligent tax policy to come out of this. Reagan's anti-inflation tax policies worked. I can hear Obama's advisers: “Republicans like tax cuts, so we'll put tax cuts in there and the Republicans will like it.” But not all tax cuts are created equal. The Democrat view is: targeted, timely, temporary. If you want to stimulate the economy, they must be permanent, not temporary. I have voted against every single proposal he has made with respect to the economy. MR: “What he said.” DW: Employee free choice act (card check). MR: For those not familiar – it's a complicated bill. Misnomer. BB: The unions have figured out that if they can unionize Wal-Mart, the dues alone would add $100 million per year to their political fund. That's what they're after. DW: Energy production in Utah. BB: Probably referring to 75 leases that were cancelled. During the Bush administration, large & small drillers looked at leases on public lands, oil & mostly natural gas. The leases took a while. They went to great lengths to show that they would meet every conceivable environmental concern. It took 7 years to get approval. They were approved after the election, but while Bush was still in office. The potential revenue to Utah in royalties is in the $100 of millions. They're not adjacent to national parks. They're in the middle of existing leases. Ken Salazar (former Colorado Senator) wants a deputy secretary. Bennett says no until the leases are approved. We can have a significant impact on the US economy if we can get those resources on public lands to market. DW: Trouble trusting Democrats & Republicans in Congress. We need to replace them all. Why should we support you at this time? BB: I understand what you're saying. I get phone calls all the time: “I played by the rules, I payed my mortgage on time, my retirement is destroyed, etc.” Now is not the time for rookies. You're not going to replace everyone in Congress. You're looking at replacing Republicans, which will leave the Democrats with all the experience. MR: If we say “let's change them all,” we'll only change the Republicans. The Democrats aren't saying that. We need people with the tenure and experience that can still win the battles even in the minority. (More words about Bennett.) DW: How do we win a battle with a Democrat President and Congress to educate people that raising taxes on the successful making over $250k is not a good idea? MR: We're in a wave of populism that wants to punish successful people. But we've seen time and time again that when you lower taxes on people, you increase tax revenue. Reagan: “It's not that liberals are ignorant, it's just that what they know is wrong.” Look at how nations are doing who try to redistribute wealth. They're not making it. Look at how we're doing in America. We're leading the world, and we're not going to keep leading the world by making government bigger. We're going to do it through small government and the people. BB: S-corp vs. C-corp. One of the things we fixed with the Bush tax cuts is eliminate the double taxation in C-Corps. There is a draw to form S-corps because of the different tax structure. I was the fifth employee hired by Franklin (day planners). Under me, it grew to 4,000 employees on the NYSE. My salary was $140k/year. My tax return showed I was making $1 million per year, because of pass-through on the tax form, S-corp style. I never got over $140k/year. The company paid me enough to pay the taxes, but it was a burden on the company. We got to keep 72 cents on every dollar we made. DW: Are any of you who are on the stage running for president in 2012? BB: I don't have the hair. We have not elected a bald president since Eisenhower, and he became famous wearing a hat. MR: I glued my hair on this morning. Actually, I'm focused on 2010. We have a new president, we hope his good policies are successful. We're on the verge of success in Iraq. In two years I think people are going to be ready for real change. As for anything beyond that, we'll have to wait and see. DW: Final comments. MR: I'm just so happy to be here. You're lucky to live in the beautiful state. Also lucky to have someone of such substance, character & quality. People in DC know this man, and understand that he has a lot of wisdom & credibility. I'm honored to be here with you today. This is a wonderful state, great nation, tough times, and I know of no one better able to help it get back on its feet than this man, Senator Bennett. BB: Thank you. I know everyone in DC wants Mitt to show up. There was a dinner in DC... let me be blunt, those dinners are dreadful. At one dinner, there was a real incentive, if you raise above a certain amount, you don't have to come. Colleagues say “Wow, did you hear the talk that Mitt gave? Wow, if he'd have given a speech like that on the campaign, he'd have won!” It's easy to say that now. I saw a coalescing among my fellow senators on who the leadership in the Republican party should be. It is an honor and a pleasure to have him here with us. At the risk of sounding pushy, I recommend you follow his advice with respect to the 2010 election. DW: This is what politics should be. 10:00 AM End (approx) |
|||
 |
Lynn D. Taylor |
|
|
|
(c) 2008
 |