20080424 Jason Chafetz US 3rd candidate

This was a meeting that he had gotten announced late, so there were not many attendees (3). There were a number of questions and plenty of time for Jason to give his answers.

5/15/2008 3:02:23 PM    Information    Jason Chaffetz    “Immigration is a serious concern for me.
They don’t have a plan. I have a seven point plan. Any system that requires an attorney shouldn’t be right. We should not have a lottery either.
There are tools but we lack the interest to use the tools”
4/24/2008 7:05:50 PM    Question        There are only 3 ways to come in legally. Family, Work, or National interest. We are the only country that lets birth here mean citizenship.
4/24/2008 7:06:26 PM    Answer    Jason Chaffetz    Being an american should be earned. You shouldn’t be able to just be born and become a citizen. There are some 40% of people who come in on a Visa who don’t leave. That’s a shame and needs to be fixed. I have the political will to get it done. Immigration is the single largest expense.
4/24/2008 7:07:39 PM    Question        What would you do with visa ‘extenders’?
4/24/2008 7:07:51 PM    Answer    Jason Chaffetz    One of the 7 points of my plan is to get right of the employment incentives. If you can’t get a license and tuition. Or if it is more difficult to get medical care, then it will be less palatable. Every day we transfer billions of dollars using social security number.
4/24/2008 7:08:55 PM    Question        How do you do this and keep privacy?
4/24/2008 7:09:06 PM    Answer    Jason Chaffetz    “Say you were going to get a job from me. I type in your social security number and the information you do or don’t know. If you don’t know it, your birthday for instance, then you are known by the business to not be legal. You should not have to carry papers like East Germany. The technology is there but the political will is not there.
We need a working solution for those who want to go home and come back.
The Western Governors Association said that we need more prisoners and funding. In Arizona they set up tents and barb wire fences, “”if it is good enough for our troops, then it is good enough for our prisons.””
We have 600,000 fugitive aliens. Those who are illegal and have been caught. They have been ordered to leave the country and haven’t. I think you need to incarcerate them and deport them.
I am offering a seven point plan. There is no simple answer. I will be endorsed by Tom Tancredo. I have worked with him.”
4/24/2008 7:12:42 PM    Question        One of your points is assimilation. What does that mean?
4/24/2008 7:12:57 PM    Answer        English should be the official language of this nation. If you are going to function and be citizen you should speak english. I do not want us to spend money to support another language. I love diversity, but english helps to bind us together.
4/24/2008 7:13:40 PM    Question        Anything else?
4/24/2008 7:13:46 PM    Answer        You should have to document that you are a citizen in order to vote.
4/24/2008 7:14:06 PM    Question        “I was a state delegate 2 years ago. We went through this discussion with Cook, Jacobs, and Cannon. We spent a lot of time on this. It always seemed strange to me that I got to hear from everyone else why “”Cannon was so soft.”” And the speech that was given and after talking to Chris Cannon there seemed to be a disconnect between the 2. Why do you think he is soft?”
4/24/2008 7:15:31 PM    Answer        “I have stated what I have believed in. I have taken the approach that immigration is one of the many issues. I would work on fiscal discipline first. He has sponsored amnesty and I believe that he has the worst voting record. The landscaping association has given him 30,000. Do you think they would give it to him for not supporting immigration. He will say that he has 100% record on border. 9/15/2005 vote came up at 9:30pm and he didn’t vote. He didn’t vote yes or no. He has missed 500 votes in the Congress. It is on the internet. This is where he chose not to vote. He has one of the worst records in the history of the Congress. He was in the bottom 10%-45% of votes. He has missed almost 7% of all votes. If you are in the Congress for 11.5 years, you will miss votes sometimes. But missing votes when you are there as a pattern is a problem. He has been on the wrong side of the issues. You can go to govtrack.us. If you look at the graphs you will see that his performance is not good. The washingtonpost.com. Click on Chris Cannon and missing votes.
The aggjobs bill, student adjustment act and others, have been amnesty bills. He says that he has won a lot of awards. You all think that you are conservative but you are not. Our budget doubled in the past 10.5 years. What is conservative about voting for the budgets? He voted for the omnibus and stimulus package he voted in favor for it. You can ask whether the stimulus package was a good idea or bad idea. NCLB did he vote for it?”
4/24/2008 7:22:06 PM    Information        He says that he would reveal it now.
4/24/2008 7:22:19 PM    Answer        The veracity of my answer is not aimed at you.
4/24/2008 7:22:34 PM    Information        When he first saw the legislation it was not a bad piece.
4/24/2008 7:22:50 PM    Answer        “When I talked to Sen Bennett who voted against it, he said that it was the smartest thing I could do. You start with the premise as the Congressman that the President is wrong versus helping. You are not his lap dog, but his watch dog. He says different things along the way. The national defense authorization act. They were allowing more power to be given to the president over the national guard. The governors thought that it was wrong. Mr. Cannon voted in favor of the bill, but then said about the governors answer that they were right and the federal government should back off. It might be hard to stand against the president. I have those guts and that political will.
I think the people of Utah are starving for someone to represent Utah. I am afraid that the delegation is representing Washington to Utah versus Utah to Washington.
He has a paid staffer to do political work. The staffer is working on moving forward a bill to help with our national resources. You are given a 1.3million dollar budget to spend on staff and office. He has not used it well. You got my long winded answer.
My veracity is not aimed at you.
Jazz might win tonight. When we schedule activities during American Idol night then we don’t have many people come.”
4/24/2008 7:27:58 PM    Question        One of my friends said that you were a kicker for BYU. Although I work for BYU I did not know that.
4/24/2008 7:28:22 PM    Answer        “I came in in 1985 so that I was here after the big bowl and just as Ty was warming up. We went to five different bowl games while I was here. When we played Freedom bowl in 1988. I kicked 2 field goals and we won by 3.
My senior year we lost to Penn State. It was a very exciting game. We lost but it was great to play against Joe Paterno.”
4/24/2008 7:29:45 PM    Question        What can be done about the housing bail out.
4/24/2008 7:29:57 PM    Answer        I don’t think there should be a housing bail out. Markets correct themselves. Sometimes you have to get through the pain. I was opposed to the Bear Stearns. Look at ethanol that we gave credits to. We made the situation much worse. Governments role is to get out of the way. The 2 things he created in the last few days was a new body to regulate credit card companies and transfer fees. One of the things that he is doing to trying to give things to the American people that they don’t need.
4/24/2008 7:32:44 PM    Question        What is the difference between Republic and Democracy?
4/24/2008 7:32:57 PM    Answer        In a republic we vote for people who take time to study.
4/24/2008 7:33:14 PM    Information        I realized that as a state delegate I cast a vote.
4/24/2008 7:33:26 PM    Answer        I want to earn your vote. I am running a different kind of campaign. Dedra and Dale Smith have volunteered. It would be nice to have 23 year olds hired and doing my work. I am not spending any money on polling. They have. I know what my principle are and I know what the issues are. I am not going to give you a free meal. I said from January 2007 that I was going to spend 100,000.00 for this campaign. My competitors will spend more. It is very different. Mr. Cannon is 199,000 in debt and so is Mr. Leavitt. I am walking the walk of fiscal discipline. I am not going in to debt. I hope that you consider that as you look at this vote.
4/24/2008 7:35:44 PM    Question        Just like being a kicker from BYU, someone said that you live in a different district.
4/24/2008 7:36:02 PM    Answer        “I used to be a democrat until I learned to read and write. I was with Dukakis for President and I came to realize that I was a very conservative person. I got married had kids and got a job. I became a convert to the Church and realized that I was very conservative. I have lived in Utah county for 20+ years now. We lived five years in Highland, then five years in Alpine. In 1996 I worked for Cannon for Congress campaign. I have lived in the 3rd district until 2001. In 2001 they moved Alpine and Lehi in to 2nd district. When the fourth seat comes in then we are likely going to be in the 3rd district. Alpine is 2 miiles from Cedar Hills. I meet the constitution requirements and legal requirements.
Mr. Cannon says that I should run against Mr. Bishop, but Mr. Cannon runs one of the worst offices. Until we can clean our own house, we can’t move others out. When we get it right and can share that with America. Right now we are suffering. I am not here to blame the world on Mr. Cannon, he has done a lot of good things. I would love to get rid of Matheson and Cannon. I am doing it according to the law.”
4/24/2008 7:40:37 PM    Question        David Leavitt is saying the same thing, that we need to get rid of Chris Cannon.
4/24/2008 7:40:54 PM    Answer        “I have been very specific on principles and issues. Mr. Leavitt is a great emotional story teller. I hope that I am clear about how I would vote. He was a Juab County prosecutor for 8 years. He lost the first time he had a challenger. Do you think that the people in a county would vote you out the first chance they got based on one case? I don’t believe that everyone would vote you out because you prosecuted criminals.
Would you even think about voting for this person if his name wasn’t Leavitt. I don’t think his experience is compatible with what I have done as part of the Governors staff. I come from the business community. I think someone from business community should go back to Washington.
I love this brochure. “”Stop borrowing money from nations that don’t share our interests”” That is not much of a real answer and doesn’t show that he understands the issues. I have demonstrated that through direct mail and website.
I have been doing this for 15 months. This is not my first meeting. David Leavitt is a good man and is my second choice. I would encourage it for you too him being your second choice.”
4/24/2008 7:45:36 PM    Question        How do you feel about Iraq?
4/24/2008 7:45:43 PM    Answer        “I think it is irresponsible to just pull out. I want to wean our way home. We need to be honest about why we are there. Until we get to energy independence we will be stuck on this. NEPA is something that we started that has tied our hands so that we couldn’t get the resoureces. When we had the House, Senate and Presidency we should have done the right thing. We could have repealed the Escalante monument.
I see Mr. Cannon on the eve of the elections throwing things out there so that it looks like he is doing something. If we want results we have to elect different people. We need to reassess where and how we are using our forces around the world. We have to have better positioning of our troops and take care of them when they get home.
These guys are given 1400.00/month when they get home.
We do not need to be working on the credit card issues. The things that Chris Cannon has been working on is not on your top 200 list of things to work on.
I want to earn your vote. I do understand all the issues. I do not have all the answers but I have the tenacity.”
4/24/2008 7:50:00 PM    Question        What is your plan if you get to the primary?
4/24/2008 7:50:23 PM    Answer        “When the vote happens I believe that the answer will come down to the Convention and with 5, then 3, then 2 running we will come out of convention with someone. David Leavitt will come with 22 paid staff.
I have Dale Smith who has been in the military.
I was not qualified to be John Huntsman’s campaign manager when I was there, but I am now. It is true that the Karras name didn’t move the votes far enough, but I plan to win.”
4/24/2008 7:52:35 PM    Information        “Let me comment. People in my caucus think that Chris Cannon has done a good job. There was one person who said that they were in favor of Leavitt. The one man that felt so strongly said that he couldn’t get a hold of him.
I have some questions for him and will go to the breakfast tomorrow morning. Will you be more responsive than he has been?”
4/24/2008 7:53:52 PM    Answer        “The person who steps up and wins this must be a good listener and communicator. The people of Utah are starving for this. He continues to be in trouble and had to go through a primary a number of time. I went back to DC and would be stood up by Mr. Cannon. The fraternal order of police stand for me. They did not support Mr. Leavitt. I have been on ride alongs. They have seen me. They unanimously endorsed me. I have been out to see the FAA controllers and BLM people. I have already laid down that foundation. You will see more of that in the closing days of this campaign.
I believe that the person who is responsive and with you. You can forgive a guy and give them the benefit of the doubt, but 500 votes.
People will jump behind me.”
4/24/2008 7:57:19 PM