Better than Sugar Bowl: Gidwitz-Rauschenberger on Cable/Webcast
Ron Gidwitz: I have no intention of raising taxes. We’re not going to raise taxes during a Ron Gidwitz administration.
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State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: Think about it. He [Blagojevich] turned around. He said he’s not going to raise taxes,” and then he added seven hundred and fifty million dollars in new taxes to the economy of the state of Illinois.
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Jeff Berkowitz: Is he [Former Gov. Jim Thompson] a good Republican? Silence descends on the set.
Ron Gidwitz: [laughter]
Jeff Berkowitz: Am I going to get an answer. Is [Former Governor] Jim Thompson a good Republican? Nobody wants to say. ...
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"Public Affairs," featuring as guests Republican Primary Gubernatorial Candidate Ron Gidwitz and his running mate Lt. Gov. candidate and State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger, is airing tomorrow [Monday] night throughout the City of Chicago at 8:30 pm on CANTV, Cable Ch. 21.
The show can also be watched anytime as a webcast on the Public Affairs Cinema Complex [See here, show labelled as Rauschenberger-G...].
******************************************************
The show gives viewers a good chance to see how Gubernatorial Candidate Ron Gidwitz and his running mate, Lt. Gov. candidate and State Senator Steve Rauschenberger [R-Elgin] interact with each other while debating and discussing economic, social and other public policy and state legislative issues with Show Host and Executive Legal Recruiter Jeff Berkowitz.
Of course, the big question for this ticket in the Republican Primary is can Sen. Rauschenberger's legislative experience and knowledge, his conservative credentials and respect by most for his public policy know-how be leveraged into votes for Ron Gidwitz for Governor? That is, can Steve get Ron votes, both from individual voters and from the editorial boards around the State.
In his 2004 U. S. Senate run in the primary, Steve picked up 26 of 30 edit board endorsements around the state. However, Rauschenberger had no money to tell anybody about it, on TV or in mailers. This time, if Team Gidwitz-Rauschenberger gets the endorsements, it is said that Ron Gidwitz has 10 million dollars to tell voters about the successes of Team Gidwitz-Rauschenberger.
Of course, there is the ultimate question of whether Republican Primary voters will connect the dots between Gidwitz and Rauschenberger when they go to a ballot that lists them not as a team, but as separate candidates for the offices of Governor and Lt. Governor, respectively, as is dictated for the primary, but not the General Election, by the Illinois Constitution.
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Issues and people discussed on the program include reformers and non-reformers, public corruption, education, health insurance for kids, school vouchers, taxes, spending, pensions, budgets, abortion, gun control, gay rights, capital punishment, Jim Thompson, Jim Edgar, Governor Blagojevich, Judy Baar Topinka, Joe Birkett, Gidwitz's housing investment in Joliet, National Republican Committeeman Bob Kjellander, Mayor Daley, George Ryan and much, much more.
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See here and here for partial transcripts and more about the show. Another partial transcript of the show is included, below.
*****************************************************
Tax Pledges: Blagojevich and Gidwitz
Jeff Berkowitz: Economic issues, Senator Rauschenberger said just a few months ago on this program—He looked into the camera and said, “I won’t raise taxes.”
State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: Yes [I did].
Jeff Berkowitz: You’re sticking to it? You won’t raise the income tax; you won’t raise the sales tax?
Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: First of all, I’m now running for lieutenant governor. These questions are more appropriately directed to my boss-
Jeff Berkowitz: But, you’re part of the team here.
Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: [But] I do not believe-- I do not believe you solve our problems by increasing taxes.
Jeff Berkowitz: And, if you had authority to do that, I know you’re going to be the lieutenant governor, if you’re successful, but to the extent that you have got this guy’s ear-
Steve Rauschenberger: I will be helping Ron do a budget that’s honest; the first time in a long time down there. We’re going to try to do one that’s balanced, which is going to be a lot of work. We’re going to do one that’s in the interest of the people of the state of Illinois. And you don’t do good budgeting by solving your problems by taking more money out of the private economy.
Jeff Berkowitz: So, you won’t be recommending any increases in the income tax or the sales tax to your boss if you’re successful?
Steve Rauschenberger: I will not.
Jeff Berkowitz: And, your boss would be Ron Gidwitz, right?
Steve Rauschenberger: Yes.
Jeff Berkowitz: And, when you get that recommendation, Ron Gidwitz, not to raise the income tax or sales tax, once, twice, three times, over four years, from your lieutenant governor, are you going to listen to him?
Ron Gidwitz: Well, we’ve got a problem in this state, Jeff. We’ve got an economy here that is uncompetitive with the surrounding states, and the result is, the job growth that other states are experiencing-- we are not. So, we need to correct that, and the solution is not, add more costs to the people in Illinois.
Jeff Berkowitz: Are you going to look in the camera and say the same thing your subordinate said? Lieutenant governor candidate?
Ron Gidwitz: My teammate.
Jeff Berkowitz: Your teammate. He looked in the camera; he said, I’m not going to raise taxes.
Ron Gidwitz: I have no intention of raising taxes. We’re not going to raise taxes during a Ron Gidwitz administration.
Jeff Berkowitz: For four years?
Ron Gidwitz: We’re not going to raise taxes to pay the current operating costs of the state.
Jeff Berkowitz: You’re not going to raise the sales tax?
Ron Gidwitz: That is not my intention.
Jeff Berkowitz: You’re not going to raise the income tax?
Ron Gidwitz: That is not my intention.
Jeff Berkowitz: That’s not your intention, but that’s not quite the same thing as saying- Rod Blagojevich has taken that pledge. He’s said four years ago he wasn’t going to raise taxes.
Tax and Fee Increases
Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: Think about it. He turned around. He said he’s not going to raise taxes,” and then he added seven hundred and fifty million dollars in new taxes to the economy of the state of Illinois. The kind of things Ron Gidwitz and I say-- we actually believe.
Jeff Berkowitz: I understand, but he didn’t raise the income tax, which he said he wouldn’t do, and he didn’t raise the sales tax. You give him that?
Ron Gidwitz: Which is a gimmick. It’s a total gimmick.
Jeff Berkowitz: It’s a gimmick? You don’t give him that?
Ron Gidwitz: It’s a total gimmick. Ask-
Jeff Berkowitz: The voters don’t think that’s something? The guy says “I’m not going to do this,” and he--
Ron Gidwitz: You think they don’t think that the cost of getting a haircut hasn’t gone up, the cost of going to the grocery store hasn’t gone up, the cost of going to--
Jeff Berkowitz: Grocery store? Has there been a sales tax imposed on groceries?
Ron Gidwitz: No, but the cost of the products has gone up, as a result of the fees.
Jeff Berkowitz: Ah, the fees.
Ron Gidwitz: Absolutely!
Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: And, all the license fees-
Jim Thompson: Cheerleader for Rod?
Jeff Berkowitz: Jim Thompson, who was a Republican governor for fourteen years [1977-1990], said on TV [ABC-7 NewsViews, about a month ago] that he found this refreshing-- that Governor Blagojevich kept his pledge not to raise the income tax and the sales tax. Jim Thompson, you know Jim, both of you guys, right? You like Jim?
Ron Gidwitz: I like Jim.
Jeff Berkowitz: Is he [Jim Thompson] a good Republican? Silence descends on the set.
Ron Gidwitz: [laughter]
Jeff Berkowitz: Am I going to get an answer. Is Jim Thompson a good Republican? Nobody wants to say. But, he [Thompson] did say that [Blagojevich keeping his tax pledge] was refreshing. But, you don’t find it so refreshing, I take it?
Ron Gidwitz: It’s nice, but unfortunately what we have is we’ve got a state that now has sixty five billion dollars worth of debt. Our bonded indebtedness, the amount of money that the state has actually borrowed is double what it was when Rod Blagojevich came into office. And, we’ve got-- who knows how much unpaid accrued bills [we have] that people are waiting to get paid for.
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Health Insurance- All Kids
Jeff Berkowitz: The Governor said … healthcare and education were his priorities and on health care, he’s got this program All Kids—he said all kids are going to going to get [health insurance]--
Ron Gidwitz: But the question gets to be--
Jeff Berkowitz: If that’s your priority; what are you going to do? You’re going to repeal “All Kids?”
Ron Gidwitz: But the question gets to be, Jeff-- where do we want the state to go over a period of time, and what are the things we have to do in order to get that? Right now, “All Kids” isn’t a program, because it hasn’t been started yet.
Jeff Berkowitz: People are signing up. Pre-registration. I was there; I saw it.
Ron Gidwitz: Who knows what the rules and regulations are? And, I don’t know that people are signing up because there’s no place to sign up at.
Jeff Berkowitz: I saw them sign up.
Ron Gidwitz: Where did they sign up?
Jeff Berkowitz: They were signing up right at the North Bridge Mall [in the Chicago Loop].
Ron Gidwitz: For what? There’s no program.
Jeff Berkowitz: To be eligible to have healthcare insurance.
Ron Gidwitz: There’s no program!
Jeff Berkowitz: Do you agree, Senator Rauschenberger?
Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: With which part? Well--
Jeff Berkowitz: Would you, would you-
Steve Rauschenberger: The Governor is very happy to do balloons and t-shirts. The Governor is very happy to do circus and bread for the masses. Did he think somehow--
Jeff Berkowitz: He did All Kids. Address “All Kids.”
Steve Rauschenberger: He thinks somehow; he thinks somehow, that by proposing a program that he hasn’t funded, that he hasn’t done the rules for, and hasn’t done the regulations for-- he thinks, by passing out t-shirts and enrollment forms, that somehow we’re going to be convinced he’s providing healthcare. It’s not true.
Jeff Berkowitz: Do you oppose the concept of all kids having health insurance?
Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: … I think all children should get health insurance, but we want those children to get health insurance in the same program with their parents. In the private sector. Where they have choice. You don’t want to take those fifty five thousand kids and put them in the worst healthcare network in the state-the Medicaid program-where providers are overloaded, where bills are unpaid-
Jeff Berkowitz: How are you going to do that? How are you going to give them that option?
Steve Rauschenberger: Well, first of all, you go in and you persuade the Legislature to give us no-frills health insurance. If you want to invest money, invest money by incentivizing employers to offer family coverage at affordable rates. I mean, we all want kids to have insurance, but the idea of dumping them in the Medicaid program before your election so that you can do enrollment rallies is politics that smacks of, I think, disingenuous-
Jeff Berkowitz: Have you heard anything you disagreed with, Governor [want] to be Ron Gidwitz?
Ron Gidwitz: No, I think Steve’s right on.
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School Vouchers:
Jeff Berkowitz: …On education, would you folks both support school vouchers? School vouchers. School choice?
Ron Gidwitz: How many times have you asked me that question?
Jeff Berkowitz: I think the answer is yes, but I just wanted to make sure you haven’t changed.
Ron Gidwitz: The answer is clearly yes.
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Public Affairs, airing here at the Public Affairs Cinema [See Here, click on the Rauschenberger-G… box, recorded on Dec. 18, 2006] and throughout the City of Chicago on Monday night, Jan. 2, 2006 at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 [CANTV]. See here for an additional partial transcript of the show.
**********************************************************
Transcript drafts prepared by Amy Allen, who also does research for “Public Affairs,” and has her own political blog [See here].
******************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Host and Producer of Public Affairs and an Executive Recruiter doing Legal Search, can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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*******************************************
State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: Think about it. He [Blagojevich] turned around. He said he’s not going to raise taxes,” and then he added seven hundred and fifty million dollars in new taxes to the economy of the state of Illinois.
******************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: Is he [Former Gov. Jim Thompson] a good Republican? Silence descends on the set.
Ron Gidwitz: [laughter]
Jeff Berkowitz: Am I going to get an answer. Is [Former Governor] Jim Thompson a good Republican? Nobody wants to say. ...
**************************************
"Public Affairs," featuring as guests Republican Primary Gubernatorial Candidate Ron Gidwitz and his running mate Lt. Gov. candidate and State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger, is airing tomorrow [Monday] night throughout the City of Chicago at 8:30 pm on CANTV, Cable Ch. 21.
The show can also be watched anytime as a webcast on the Public Affairs Cinema Complex [See here, show labelled as Rauschenberger-G...].
******************************************************
The show gives viewers a good chance to see how Gubernatorial Candidate Ron Gidwitz and his running mate, Lt. Gov. candidate and State Senator Steve Rauschenberger [R-Elgin] interact with each other while debating and discussing economic, social and other public policy and state legislative issues with Show Host and Executive Legal Recruiter Jeff Berkowitz.
Of course, the big question for this ticket in the Republican Primary is can Sen. Rauschenberger's legislative experience and knowledge, his conservative credentials and respect by most for his public policy know-how be leveraged into votes for Ron Gidwitz for Governor? That is, can Steve get Ron votes, both from individual voters and from the editorial boards around the State.
In his 2004 U. S. Senate run in the primary, Steve picked up 26 of 30 edit board endorsements around the state. However, Rauschenberger had no money to tell anybody about it, on TV or in mailers. This time, if Team Gidwitz-Rauschenberger gets the endorsements, it is said that Ron Gidwitz has 10 million dollars to tell voters about the successes of Team Gidwitz-Rauschenberger.
Of course, there is the ultimate question of whether Republican Primary voters will connect the dots between Gidwitz and Rauschenberger when they go to a ballot that lists them not as a team, but as separate candidates for the offices of Governor and Lt. Governor, respectively, as is dictated for the primary, but not the General Election, by the Illinois Constitution.
****************************************************
Issues and people discussed on the program include reformers and non-reformers, public corruption, education, health insurance for kids, school vouchers, taxes, spending, pensions, budgets, abortion, gun control, gay rights, capital punishment, Jim Thompson, Jim Edgar, Governor Blagojevich, Judy Baar Topinka, Joe Birkett, Gidwitz's housing investment in Joliet, National Republican Committeeman Bob Kjellander, Mayor Daley, George Ryan and much, much more.
******************************************************
See here and here for partial transcripts and more about the show. Another partial transcript of the show is included, below.
*****************************************************
Tax Pledges: Blagojevich and Gidwitz
Jeff Berkowitz: Economic issues, Senator Rauschenberger said just a few months ago on this program—He looked into the camera and said, “I won’t raise taxes.”
State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: Yes [I did].
Jeff Berkowitz: You’re sticking to it? You won’t raise the income tax; you won’t raise the sales tax?
Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: First of all, I’m now running for lieutenant governor. These questions are more appropriately directed to my boss-
Jeff Berkowitz: But, you’re part of the team here.
Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: [But] I do not believe-- I do not believe you solve our problems by increasing taxes.
Jeff Berkowitz: And, if you had authority to do that, I know you’re going to be the lieutenant governor, if you’re successful, but to the extent that you have got this guy’s ear-
Steve Rauschenberger: I will be helping Ron do a budget that’s honest; the first time in a long time down there. We’re going to try to do one that’s balanced, which is going to be a lot of work. We’re going to do one that’s in the interest of the people of the state of Illinois. And you don’t do good budgeting by solving your problems by taking more money out of the private economy.
Jeff Berkowitz: So, you won’t be recommending any increases in the income tax or the sales tax to your boss if you’re successful?
Steve Rauschenberger: I will not.
Jeff Berkowitz: And, your boss would be Ron Gidwitz, right?
Steve Rauschenberger: Yes.
Jeff Berkowitz: And, when you get that recommendation, Ron Gidwitz, not to raise the income tax or sales tax, once, twice, three times, over four years, from your lieutenant governor, are you going to listen to him?
Ron Gidwitz: Well, we’ve got a problem in this state, Jeff. We’ve got an economy here that is uncompetitive with the surrounding states, and the result is, the job growth that other states are experiencing-- we are not. So, we need to correct that, and the solution is not, add more costs to the people in Illinois.
Jeff Berkowitz: Are you going to look in the camera and say the same thing your subordinate said? Lieutenant governor candidate?
Ron Gidwitz: My teammate.
Jeff Berkowitz: Your teammate. He looked in the camera; he said, I’m not going to raise taxes.
Ron Gidwitz: I have no intention of raising taxes. We’re not going to raise taxes during a Ron Gidwitz administration.
Jeff Berkowitz: For four years?
Ron Gidwitz: We’re not going to raise taxes to pay the current operating costs of the state.
Jeff Berkowitz: You’re not going to raise the sales tax?
Ron Gidwitz: That is not my intention.
Jeff Berkowitz: You’re not going to raise the income tax?
Ron Gidwitz: That is not my intention.
Jeff Berkowitz: That’s not your intention, but that’s not quite the same thing as saying- Rod Blagojevich has taken that pledge. He’s said four years ago he wasn’t going to raise taxes.
Tax and Fee Increases
Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: Think about it. He turned around. He said he’s not going to raise taxes,” and then he added seven hundred and fifty million dollars in new taxes to the economy of the state of Illinois. The kind of things Ron Gidwitz and I say-- we actually believe.
Jeff Berkowitz: I understand, but he didn’t raise the income tax, which he said he wouldn’t do, and he didn’t raise the sales tax. You give him that?
Ron Gidwitz: Which is a gimmick. It’s a total gimmick.
Jeff Berkowitz: It’s a gimmick? You don’t give him that?
Ron Gidwitz: It’s a total gimmick. Ask-
Jeff Berkowitz: The voters don’t think that’s something? The guy says “I’m not going to do this,” and he--
Ron Gidwitz: You think they don’t think that the cost of getting a haircut hasn’t gone up, the cost of going to the grocery store hasn’t gone up, the cost of going to--
Jeff Berkowitz: Grocery store? Has there been a sales tax imposed on groceries?
Ron Gidwitz: No, but the cost of the products has gone up, as a result of the fees.
Jeff Berkowitz: Ah, the fees.
Ron Gidwitz: Absolutely!
Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: And, all the license fees-
Jim Thompson: Cheerleader for Rod?
Jeff Berkowitz: Jim Thompson, who was a Republican governor for fourteen years [1977-1990], said on TV [ABC-7 NewsViews, about a month ago] that he found this refreshing-- that Governor Blagojevich kept his pledge not to raise the income tax and the sales tax. Jim Thompson, you know Jim, both of you guys, right? You like Jim?
Ron Gidwitz: I like Jim.
Jeff Berkowitz: Is he [Jim Thompson] a good Republican? Silence descends on the set.
Ron Gidwitz: [laughter]
Jeff Berkowitz: Am I going to get an answer. Is Jim Thompson a good Republican? Nobody wants to say. But, he [Thompson] did say that [Blagojevich keeping his tax pledge] was refreshing. But, you don’t find it so refreshing, I take it?
Ron Gidwitz: It’s nice, but unfortunately what we have is we’ve got a state that now has sixty five billion dollars worth of debt. Our bonded indebtedness, the amount of money that the state has actually borrowed is double what it was when Rod Blagojevich came into office. And, we’ve got-- who knows how much unpaid accrued bills [we have] that people are waiting to get paid for.
*************************************************
Health Insurance- All Kids
Jeff Berkowitz: The Governor said … healthcare and education were his priorities and on health care, he’s got this program All Kids—he said all kids are going to going to get [health insurance]--
Ron Gidwitz: But the question gets to be--
Jeff Berkowitz: If that’s your priority; what are you going to do? You’re going to repeal “All Kids?”
Ron Gidwitz: But the question gets to be, Jeff-- where do we want the state to go over a period of time, and what are the things we have to do in order to get that? Right now, “All Kids” isn’t a program, because it hasn’t been started yet.
Jeff Berkowitz: People are signing up. Pre-registration. I was there; I saw it.
Ron Gidwitz: Who knows what the rules and regulations are? And, I don’t know that people are signing up because there’s no place to sign up at.
Jeff Berkowitz: I saw them sign up.
Ron Gidwitz: Where did they sign up?
Jeff Berkowitz: They were signing up right at the North Bridge Mall [in the Chicago Loop].
Ron Gidwitz: For what? There’s no program.
Jeff Berkowitz: To be eligible to have healthcare insurance.
Ron Gidwitz: There’s no program!
Jeff Berkowitz: Do you agree, Senator Rauschenberger?
Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: With which part? Well--
Jeff Berkowitz: Would you, would you-
Steve Rauschenberger: The Governor is very happy to do balloons and t-shirts. The Governor is very happy to do circus and bread for the masses. Did he think somehow--
Jeff Berkowitz: He did All Kids. Address “All Kids.”
Steve Rauschenberger: He thinks somehow; he thinks somehow, that by proposing a program that he hasn’t funded, that he hasn’t done the rules for, and hasn’t done the regulations for-- he thinks, by passing out t-shirts and enrollment forms, that somehow we’re going to be convinced he’s providing healthcare. It’s not true.
Jeff Berkowitz: Do you oppose the concept of all kids having health insurance?
Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: … I think all children should get health insurance, but we want those children to get health insurance in the same program with their parents. In the private sector. Where they have choice. You don’t want to take those fifty five thousand kids and put them in the worst healthcare network in the state-the Medicaid program-where providers are overloaded, where bills are unpaid-
Jeff Berkowitz: How are you going to do that? How are you going to give them that option?
Steve Rauschenberger: Well, first of all, you go in and you persuade the Legislature to give us no-frills health insurance. If you want to invest money, invest money by incentivizing employers to offer family coverage at affordable rates. I mean, we all want kids to have insurance, but the idea of dumping them in the Medicaid program before your election so that you can do enrollment rallies is politics that smacks of, I think, disingenuous-
Jeff Berkowitz: Have you heard anything you disagreed with, Governor [want] to be Ron Gidwitz?
Ron Gidwitz: No, I think Steve’s right on.
********************************************
School Vouchers:
Jeff Berkowitz: …On education, would you folks both support school vouchers? School vouchers. School choice?
Ron Gidwitz: How many times have you asked me that question?
Jeff Berkowitz: I think the answer is yes, but I just wanted to make sure you haven’t changed.
Ron Gidwitz: The answer is clearly yes.
***************************************************
Public Affairs, airing here at the Public Affairs Cinema [See Here, click on the Rauschenberger-G… box, recorded on Dec. 18, 2006] and throughout the City of Chicago on Monday night, Jan. 2, 2006 at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 [CANTV]. See here for an additional partial transcript of the show.
**********************************************************
Transcript drafts prepared by Amy Allen, who also does research for “Public Affairs,” and has her own political blog [See here].
******************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Host and Producer of Public Affairs and an Executive Recruiter doing Legal Search, can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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