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On Budget crisis and raising taxes:
"I proposed a plan to bridge the $24 billion shortfall, was pleased to sign a budget that did that without raising taxes on average people, preserving our high priorities. But Mr. Simon was nowhere to be found. He did not propose a budget to cover a $24 billion shortfall and told The Daily News that if he made a number of additional cuts he'd just be criticized by the governor for doing it. Well, welcome to the big time, Mr. Simon. People of the state expect the governor to make tough decisions, not run from them."
On the Environment:
"Mr. Simon says he's a friend of the environment. Why does he propose weakening the Environmental Quality Act? Why does he oppose the parks' bond issue on the 2002 ballot? Why did he miss the parks bond issue on the 2000 ballot, the water quality ballot? And why is the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation endorsing me for governor , not Mr. Simon. I don't think he's a friend of the environment."
On Health Coverage:
"When I became governor, 51, 000 children were enrolled in what we call the Healthy Families program, which provides insurance for the children of working parents. There was a 28-page form you had to fill out that was really a barrier to entry. We reduced it to four pages, put it on the internet, put it in 10 languages. We now have over 610,000 enrolled through the Healthy Families programs in part because I put my wife in charge of the outreach program. Through Medi-Cal we picked up another 380,000, so we have over a million children insured and we're still growing. UCLA said that because of our insurance program for children, the number of uninsured children has droppedmore dramatically in two years than in the 20 years they have been performing that study. I'd like to continue working on that. I'd like to, if it's possible in the next four years, if the people are good enough to allow me to have that, to have every child in this state covered with insurance.
We've also done an awful lot to improve HMOs, you know people, a few years ago, if the HMO told you you couldn't get the care you wanted, you were up a creek without a paddle. I created with the legislature the first department of managed care. 45,000 people have gotten their assistance and gotten the HMO to give them the care they originally were denied plus they have a right to sue the HMO, which Mr. Simon opposes."
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On Budget crisis and raising taxes:
"If we had a rule, a spending limit that would restrict growth to the rate of population growth and the rate of inflation growth like they do in Colorado, perhaps we would have the surplus that Colorado has right now. What we need to do right now is shrink government. There are some one-time adjustments we could look at and some stimulus. I have publicly proposed reducing the Capital Gains rate from 9.3 percent to 5 percent, streamlining governmental regulations and taking actions that will stimulate our economy and put the million Californians back to work who are presently out of a job."
On the Environment:
"I believe we should reduce greenhouse gasses and I believe yes the scientific evidence indicates that there has been warming, but the cause is not agreed upon right now.There is a dispute within the scientific community as to what the cause is and so therefore we can't know precisely what the solution is. And you'll hear from Mr. Davis, as you already have in his opening, how he says that I'm against the environment. I'm not. I'm pro the environment. I'm pro things that will clean up our air and clean up our water but let's make sure it's based on common sense and real solutions for the problems that face us."
On Health Coverage:
"The number of uninsured is a huge problem in our state. It's now over 6.3 million people. And what that does, in addition to the problems you mentioned, is also create a problem in our emergency rooms and trauma centers. I do have a couple of ideas on how to reduce the problem, in other words to get more of our uninsured actually health incurance. One way to do it -- Mr. Davis referred to Healthy Families-- which was a program started under governor Wilson. Now what he didn't tell you is that in the last 12 months he left 700 million dollars on the table with the Federal government (interrupted for time)."
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