Jeff Crank Show, Bob Beauprez, July 5, 2014

Station:   KVOR, 740AM

Show:      Jeff Crank Show

Guests:    Beauprez

Link:        http://www.kvor.com/page.php?page_id=321

Date:       July 5, 2014

Topics:            Forty-seven Percent (47%), Income Tax, Dairy Farmer, Rancher, Community Bank, Jill Repella, Selection of Lieutenant Governor, Douglas County, Immigration Reform, Humanitarian Crisis, Unaccompanied Minors, Central America, Arthur Brooks, AEI, Earned Success, American Dream, Unity Tour, El Paso County, “Socialist” Steve, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, George Soros,  Consumption Tax, Fair Tax Idea, Rotary Club speech, Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Pathway to Citizenship, Amnesty,

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[The following represents notes taken during this interview.  All portions, except where identified as transcribed sections, are paraphrased from the questions and responses between the host and the guest.]

  GUEST HOST JIMMY BENSBERG:

  • Welcome

GOP CANDIDATE FOR COLORADO GOVERNOR, BOB BEAUPREZ:

  • Good to be talking to the both of you

GUEST HOST ED JONES:

  • I’m going to just start calling you Governor

BENSBERG:

  • What are the key issues, leading up to the November 4th election – and the 25 days of voting that lead up to the Election Day deadline

BEAUPREZ:

  • People want government out of their way
    • Teachers
    • Truck Drivers
    • Farmers and ranchers
    • Small business folks
    • Big biz as well
    • Everyone invariably says it’s government
      • One issue after another
        • Immigration thing, happening right now
          • It’s driving people mad
          • The unpredictable nature of the economy
            • The uncertainty they feel
            • The environment out there
            • People are hanging back
    • People want freedom!
      • Perfect weekend to be talking about getting government out of the way and restoring our freedom
      • That has been my pledge
      • “Liberty’s Promise” I wrote it, it’s on my website
        • outlines 5 key points in restoring the belief in individuals
        • instead of the belief in big government

BENSBERG:

  • You have a unique perspective, having been a Congressman, you know how things work – or don’t work, as the case may be,– and we DO have a problem with immigration, not just on the border, but here in Colorado.  Tom Donahue (US Business Chamber) says we need to address this as Republicans or there’s no hope of winning in presidency 2016 – might as well forget about fielding a candidate.  The Business Chamber is always about cheap labor, and I don’t see that that’s how we should drive our policy, do you?

BEAUPREZ:

  • We ought to drive American policy by rule of law
  • We’re going to need immigrant workforce
    • But that’s not just cheap labor, as some are inclined to talk about
    • WE may very well need – in fact, Everybody says in the short term, we’re going to be needing a lot more help with
      • Medical professionals
      • High tech fields.
    • The chaos we have been through for a generation or more now—of pretending that we can just ignore border security,
      • As is the case right now
      • Unfortunately let anyone in who says they want in
      • That is no way to maintain an orderly society, nor protect our national security
      • Both of those are at risk
    • You’ve got to start with – it’s not about “comprehensive” immigration reform
      • I said that in Congress
      • What that really amounts to when Others say, “we’ve got to pass a comprehensive bill”
        • they always start at the back end
        • And include a path to citizenship
        • Many times they’re talking about amnesty
        • We need to secure the border
        • We need a modern, 21st century legalimmigration system
          • Where folks that want here can apply for it
          • They can get an answer in short order
          • We can get the kind of help we need
          • And enforce the rule of law
          • So employers have a system, that they can live within the rules
          • And people know that if somebody is here illegally , they’re going to be found and sent home
  • JONES:  You talk about a stronger CO.  And to the audience listening, what is that?

BEAUPREZ:

  • Colorado has always been a place that is big enough for my dreams, for Claudia dreams
  • Now, lately, a lot of that opportunity, that fulfillment, that individual liberty is slipping away
  • And government is the thing that is getting in the way
  • When I talk about stronger CO, I mean one that is:
    • Full of that chance, that ability to do great things
    • Be the envy of the whole nation
    • And The example of the greatest nation on God’s green Earth
    • Not the butt of some late-night television joke
    • and at best, a middle-of-the-pack performer
    • We should be the best
      • And on my watch
      • My pledge is  to get us to the point again
        • Where we are the best nation
        • The best state in the that great nation on God’s green Earth
    • And we do that by:
      • Believing in People, Ed.
      • Enforce the rules
      • Protect our rights
    • And get government out of folks’ way

BENSBERG:

  • First time I heard you speak, you talked about your life as a dairy farmer.  Reminds me of the difference between commitment and involvement.  Bacon and eggs.  The chicken is involved, the pig is committed.

BEAUPREZ:

  • Yes, sir

BENSBERG:

  • When you’re a dairy farmer, you don’t get a choice.  You don’t get a day off.  I imagine that’s how you’ll be in the Governor’s mansion

BEAUPREZ:

  • It is
  • For the record, we upped the ante – we milked three times a day
  • You can’t get enough of a good thing
  • Learned from a Master – my mother and dad get a lot of credit-they taught me by example
  • You show up – the day I announced for Governor, I had a radio journalist ask me what I would do differently than Hick
    • Immediately, what fell out of my mouth was, “Show up!” How ‘bout we start there!”
    • “Do the job”
    • That’s how I am =- I can’t live any other way
    • Learned a great work ethic from my parents and I think it’s still there

[The following section is transcribed from the Beauprez interview on the Jeff Crank Show, July 5, 2014.]

HOST ED JONES:  Let me go back to something, and –Goll — Governor, again, you are so right!  Now, the Dems have come out with this ad on this Rotary Club speech you made four years ago about the forty-seven percent, [chuckles] – and you were right!  And you’re still right!

GOP GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE BOB BEAUPREZ:  Well, I was right. Forty-seven percent of folks don’t pay income tax,

JONES:  That’s right.

BEAUPREZ:  I want to make sure people understand that – income tax.  And what I was lamenting in that, Ed, is not that some do and some don’t.

JONES: Yeah.

BEAUPREZ:  What I was harkening back to was a lesson, again, taught to me by my folks

JONES: Yeah.

BEAUPREZ:  They went through a period of time when they were so poor that they—not only they didn’t owe any taxes, if they did, they wouldn’t have had any cash to pay it.  But what brought it to mind, was I overheard them talking about what their tax bill was going to be and it seemed like a lot of money at the time, and so I said something, “Wow! That seems like a lot!”  My dad took that as an opportunity to point out to me, he said, “Bob, This–we’ve been there before. We were so poor we didn’t—and troubled, during dry years on the farm, we didn’t owe any taxes,“ he said.  “I don’t ever want to go there again.”

JONES:  Mmm-hmm.

BEAUPREZ:  And he took it as a sign that not only they had achieved some degree of success and prosperity, but they were paying a part of the load to carry this state and this great nation.  And he was proud of that fact. What I was lamenting in those comments I made, was that more people don’t have that opportunity for something Arthur Brooks at AEI calls ‘earned success’.

JONES:  Yes. Uh-huh.

BEAUPREZ:  And I think that’s always something that has identified certainly this great state and this great nation, is the opportunity to earn a piece of that American Dream and make your mark.

JONES:  Mm-hmm.

BEAUPREZ:  That’s my frustration, is we’ve now about 250,000 jobs short of where we normally would be in Colorado [sic].

JONES:  Right.

BEAUPREZ:  A lot of the jobs that have been created are entry level jobs.  So we’ve got to get to the point again where we’re really a society, a state, a culture, where big dreams can happen.  Not just “a” job, but a real career opportunity and the kind of opportunity that’s always been a part of Colorado.

HOST JIMMY BENSBERG:  Well, Bob we’ve got a fellow on the line who is familiar with providing jobs right here in Colorado Springs.  Let’s see if we can get him on the line, here, it’s Ed Bircham.  Ed, welcome to the show.

ED BIRCHAM Yeah, good morning!  You guys [are] doing a great job and a great get-together at the headquarters the other day [referring to the GOP unity tour passing through El Paso County].  And Mr. Beauprez, as a businessman myself, [a] successful immigrant from England, here’s my problem with people like [“Socialist”] Steve [a regular listener and caller to the Jeff Crank Show] calling in.  Steve would have you believe that the only people who have and money is Republicans.  But, look, we’ve got Buffett.  We’ve got Gates. We’ve got Soros.  So, get out off this kick of ‘just the rich people are Republicans’.  What Steve doesn’t understand, Governor – and I’m calling you Governor because you will be, and you’ve got a great Lieutenant Governor [Jill Repella], I was very impressed with her the other day.  But my point to Steve is corporations hire people.  And your question about the forty-three or forty-seven percent, the only way we’re going to get these people, in my opinon, is we’ve got to go to a flat tax, a consumer tax, get rid of the IRS.  And if you’re going to live in this great country, you have to pay something, Governor!  Wouldn’t you agree that we just can’t have this number of people –we can take care of the poor people.  We have a way to do that.  But we just can’t have people not paying something.  Do you agree with that?

BEAUPREZ:  Yeah, in fact, when I was in Congress, I did endorse a –the consumer –the consumption tax, typically called the Fair Tax idea.  John Lenders was the sponsor of it.  He sat next to me on Ways and Means [Committee], and we had a whole lot of discussions about it, and I think taxing consumption is a whole lot better idea than taxing work, or the income from work.  And I think it is more equitable and more fair.  So yeah, I think we ought to move that direction.  I wrote a book, published in 2009, and I said we ought to take the entire tax code –the whole thing– light it on fire and start all over.  And if we start over with that kind of a tax system, I think we’d be far better off and really stimulate this economy

JONES:  [laughs]

BIRCHAM:  Well, we’ve got a great ticket.  And like I said, I think we can take back the governorship, I’m sure we can.  And we can take back the Senate seat.  And if we take over the Senate, I think then we can undo what Obama has done and turn this country around to the country that I came to in 1960 and live the American Dream.  It is the greatest country in the world. It is still the shining city on the hill.  We need another Reagan running for president.  I don’t know where we’re going to find him, but let’s start out with Colorado first, and win Colorado.

[The following represents notes taken during this interview.]

JONES: 

  • Let’s talk about your running mate!  I was so impressed with her!

BENSBERG:

  • Yeah, Jill Repella from Douglas County

BEAUPREZ:

  • Isn’t she a great lady??

JONES:

  • What went in to your selecting Jill?

BEAUPREZ:

  • I hope everyone understands the obvious piece, that if I weren’t around to function as governor, and she had to take over, she could do it capably at a moment’s notice

BENSBERG:

  • Your running mate, County Commissioner Jill Repella, labelled a rising star in the Republican Party.  What went into your process to select a running mate

BEAUPREZ:

  • I wanted somebody who could be governor at a moment’s notice and she certainly packs that kind of gear
  • She’s a proven performer
    • In her community
    • In Douglas County
    • They are ranked as the number two job creating county in the entire nation
      • And that kind of proven performance–
      • Not only talking the talk of conservative principles, free market principles, believing in people
      • but having proven that she can apply those apply those principles to benefit her community
      • that’s what I was looking for
      • she’s a very articulate, as anybody that’s now heard her – very articulate messenger
      • that I think will help us appeal to a broader electorate now
      • as well, so, -Big political advantage, I think but a proven performer, someone who can help

BENSBERG:

  • We talked about National specter of Immigration and how that might affect us here in the state of Colorado … but as chief Executive officer of the state, you’re in a unique position to send a message to the rest of the businesses in this nation on why they should relocate here in Colorado.  How would you approach that as governor? How would you reach out?

BEAUPREZ:

  • Great question
  • First thing we’re going to do is freeze all non-essential regulations in this state
    • Every agency
    • Every rule
    • Every regulation
    • Every function that government does
    • We’re going to look at it, And if it isn’t:
      • Pro-job
      • Pro-opportunity
      • Pro individual liberty
    • We’re going to do our best to get rid of it, get government out of the way, and hang a big sign over Colorado again, saying, “We are OPEN for business!”
    • And then, I look forward—I’ve done this before when we had our community bank, I went and found customers, I went and found businesses to be clients of our bank. I want to do the same thing for this state
      • First and foremost, grow –create an environment where  the businesses that are already here – the dreamers [that] are already here, feel like this is a good time to re-engage, hire some folks, invest some capital, grow organically, from within –
      • But then we want to do what Texas has done successfully, what Utah has done so successfully
        • And go out and recruit and attract businesses right here to what I think is the greatest state in the nation
        • Where else would you rather be than here in CO?

JONES:

  • You’ve said that we have fallen in rank.  Explain to listeners.

BEAUPREZ:

  • Yeah, Ed
  • Every year, two very noted economists –Art Laffer, of the Laffer curve guy, from the Reagan era, and Steve Moore. If you watch Fox News or read the Wall Street Journal.  They rank states based on economic outlook and opportunity.  And four years ago, and historically, I might add, Colorado has been ranked near the top.  Four years ago, Colorado was still number two, in the entire nation.
  • Today, we’re twenty-two, in just four years
  • And that opportunity has gone to the states around us
  • That’s just as bad as government coming and stealing a money out of your pocket, or taking away your 2ndAmendment rights
    • Something you had or would likely have had the opportunity to do
    • Went somewhere else
    • And that’s just wrong
    • That’s denying our citizens what they otherwise should enjoy
    • And we’re going to restore that luster to Colorado –that shining city on the hill.

JONES:

  • Thank you so much, Governor! Can’t wait till Monday morning to get out and talk to my friends again about the next governor of the state of Colorado.

BEAUPREZ:

  • Thanks
  • Happy birthday America!