Cain calls for 10 % ACB cut in fed budget + 10 % more (audio)

GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain granted Radio Iowa a telephone interview this morning. [Transcript below]  AUDIO 6 min

Henderson: “I’m wondering how you reassure your supporters here and attract back former supporters who’ve been disconcerted and disappointed by what has transpired over the past month.”

Cain: “First of all, some people are going to naturally convict me in the court of public opinion, and so all I can do is ask them to consider the facts. The good news is most of the voters here have considered the facts, that those accusations are baseless, and we are moving on and so where some people are going to believe that, there is nothing I can do other than to continue to put my message out there, talk about the solutions that I offer for this economy, the solutions that I offer relative to energy and move forward because there has been no new information, no new data, no new facts, no new nothing, so there isn’t anything we can do other than to stay on message.”

Henderson: “You’ve said that if elected president you’d surround yourself with trusted advisors who agree with your philosophy, then collect the pertinent data and then make decisions. and then make decision. In regards especially to foreign policy, what is the Cain Doctrine or the core value that your staff would have to share and then try to project around the world?”

Cain: “The Cain Doctrine relative to foreign policy is an extension of the Reagan philosophy. Reagan’s philosophy was ‘peace through strength.’  My philosophy is ‘peace through strength and clarity.’ I believe we need to clarify who are friends are, clarify who are enemies are and stop giving money to our enemies and relative to our friends, let the world know who our friends are. Secondly, with respect to clarity, we need to clarify many of the relationships we have around the world and we need to be real clear what’s in America’s best interest before we go into a country or before we put men and women in uniform in harm’s way. Clarity is a big component of my philosophy about how we approach this and, yes, it starts with surrounding yourself with good people and one of my other guiding principles in addition to ‘peace through strength and clarity’ is if you want to solve a problem, go to the sources closest to the problem and in this case I would always consult with and listen very closely listen to the commanders on the ground.”  

Henderson: “This is a policy question and I’d like you answer it as such. As a chief executive, what sort of edit did you make to staff about conduct in the workplace?  In all this discussion about sexual harassment, I’ve heard you talk about personal conduct, but I’ve never heard you articulate the work standards that you set out for the entire organization when you were with the Restaurant Association and Godfather’s.  And, as the CEO of the U.S. government and the commander in chief of the U.S. military, what standards of conduct would you require of the federal government?”

Cain: “The standards of conduct — in fact in our campaign office we have these standards posted on various boards in various places throughout the office. The number one standard and the number one guiding principle is, ‘Do what’s right.’ I didn’t say, ‘Do what’s politically right.’ We don’t start there. What is the right thing to do when making a decision? What is the right thing to do when dealing with other workers? What is the right thing to do in dealing with the public? That has always been my number one rule wherever I have worked in terms of let’s start with what is the right thing to do and from that, quite frankly, everything else flows. I have never run an organization where I have tolerated any sort of inappropriate behavior. I have never run an organization where I have tolerated any one who might want to do some sort of cover up. That’s just not my style nor my nature and so it’s starts with, ‘Let’s just do what is right.'”   

Henderson: “One of your competitors, Mr. Perry, this morning is outlining some specific changes he would make in the federal bureaucracy. You have talked specifically about tax policy. I’m wondering if in the weeks before the Iowa Caucuses you might talk specifically about systemic changes in the federal government that you would propose.” 

Cain: “Yes, some of those systemic changes that I will propose in the government would start with how I would approach spending cuts. I would start with an executive order to cut a 10 percent cut across-the-board in every federal agency with maybe the exception of the Defense Department, although that would also be on the table.  Then you would do, as business people do, you do a deep dive agency-by-agency-by-agency to find at least another 10 percent reduction. I happen to believe it’s there. The Government Accounting Office documents areas that we can cut and areas that we can reduce all the time, it’s just that nothing is ever done with it so it’s not like we’re going to be starting from scratch and so when I say I want people who share my philosophical approach, I’m talking about my philosophical approach to problem solving, my philosophical approach to how we’re going to cut expenses and I believe that if we do that, at the same time we are growing this economy with that 999 economic growth and jobs plan, we will then be able to get to a balanced annual budget sooner rather than later and, in doing so, we will also be in a position to begin to pay down this horrendous debt.”