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tax rate, and if the private sector can’t create tens of millions of jobs, I don’t know what else it would take.
But that’s the private sector. Meanwhile, you’ll have to make wholesale cuts to hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs. I’m promising to submit a balanced budget in 2013, which would see a 43 percent reduction in federal spending. So let’s start at the top, including the Pentagon budget. Absolutely, a 43 percent cut in military spending. We can provide a strong national defense but we have to end nation building. But wouldn’t that 43 percent cut include significant cuts to veterans benefits? No, we’ve made those commitments and should honor them. I’m talking about reducing our nuclear warheads from 2,300 to 500 and extricating ourselves from all military interventions. Do you know for a fact that you’ll be on the ballot in all 50 states or is that your hope? That’s the plan. We have a couple of states with issues, but Idaho is not a problem. What do you know about Idaho? I lived two winters up in Northern Idaho— skiing Schweitzer Mountain—when I was in college. I’ve been to Idaho many, many times. A fair number of Idaho politicians say they lean toward Libertarianism. A lot more people describe themselves as Libertarian than vote that way.
Sun Valley On Ice runs Saturday nights through September 1 promising a dazzling new spin on our traditional outdoor ice show under the stars. For show tickets or buffet and show tickets go to seats.sunvalley.com or call 208.622.2135.
August 18
September 1
Evan Lysacek
Meryl Davis & Charlie White
2010 Olympic Gold Medalist World Champion 2X US Gold Medalist
Nathan Chen 2012 US Junior Men’s Gold Medalist
August 25 Brian Boitano Olympic Gold Medalist 2X World Champion 4X US Champion
14 | AUGUST 15–21, 2012 | BOISEweekly
2012 World Silver Medalists 2011 World Champions 2010 Olympic Silver Medalists 4X US Gold Medalists (2009–2012)
How will you get on the stage to participate in the televised presidential debates
alongside Obama and Romney? I have to be in the polls that determine who gets to participate. Of the 18 national polling organizations, I’m only included in three of them. Are you saying there’s an active collusion among mainstream media to keep you out of the polls and out of this campaign? Absolutely. It’s a gamed system. We’re asking all of my supporters to call the polling organizations to include my name. We get into the polls and then we get into the debates. How vibrant is your campaign? You need two things, otherwise you’re dead in the water. No. 1: You have to exceed expectations. Well, my expectations were zero. I got it covered. No. 2: You have to have momentum, which I’ve had since day one. But in order to have any showing whatsoever, you have to be on the stage for the debates. You’re right. It’s the only way I can win. I know you have two grown children. Are you married? One of the casualties of my being governor was a divorce after almost 30 years of marriage. She died of heart failure after I left office. It was the worst thing in my life. And today? I’m engaged to a lovely woman named Kate. How did you meet? Cycling. We’re been together for four years. Do you have a wedding date? We’ll have a White House wedding.
RALL now, there’s a valid argument to be made that we’ve outgrown the right to 9 bear arms. We’re no longer a frontier society. We’re urban and suburban, not rural; less than 2 percent of Americans still live on farms; 95 percent of us don’t hunt; those who still hunt do it for fun not food. We haven’t had to repel a land invasion by foreign troops since 1812. Why do we need guns? The NRA may sound hysterical—it’s certainly opportunistic, having called for donations three days after Aurora—but it’s right about gun-control advocates. Anti-gun liberals say they favor “common-sense measures that protect the Second Amendment rights of lawabiding citizens but make it harder and harder for those who should not have weapons under existing law to obtain them, ” as White House Press Secretary Jay Carney says Obama wants. Proposals to tighten controls on automatic assault rifles and reduce the number of bullets
per clip merely nibble around the edges of a serious issue. There are too many guns already out there, too many legally purchased weapons that can be sold privately without being subjected to the Brady Law, for such half-measures to have any effect beyond possibly reducing the body count of the next group killing. If you’re serious about putting an end to America’s bloody love affair with guns, you’re going to have to repeal the Second Amendment. Everyone, including Democrats, knows that. But it’s hard to get behind a gun ban that’s only supported by 26 percent of the public (a record low, down from 60 percent in 1959). Liberal gun opponents must either embrace a radical and unpopular measure— the only one that might stand a chance of having the desired effect—or keep proposing wimpy changes that make them look foolish half-assed and intellectually dishonest. WWW. B O I S E WE E KLY. C O M