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tv   Tavis Smiley  PBS  February 25, 2011 2:00pm-2:28pm PST

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good to have you back on this program, sir. >> is always a pleasure to be with you. tavis: what is a simple government? is there a way these days to even have a simple government given all the government has involved itself in given the crisis we are enduring? >> the issues that we face are very complex. but the concept of a simple government is that we need to step back and take a macro looked instead of the micro luck and ask ourselves, is there a big picture principle, something that is applicable to that issue. if so, what is it? i think there is a big picture to each of the issues that we face. i tell people, it is so simple that even members of congress can understand it. that is what i wanted to
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accomplish with the book. tavis: there is a great debate on fox news at all the other networks, what the proper role of government is. you believe, having been a former governor, that there is a role for government to play. you're not suggesting that government ought to be out of our lives completely? >> is impossible. i am a republican, not a libertarian. they sometimes go to the extent that we don't need government at all. as i point out, the best government is the most local government and it is limited government. they never envisioned we would have a federal government is so large with states so small. another thing in the last year alone, states get more of their revenue from the federal government than they do from any other source. our founders would be aghast at the thought that states have
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become minimal to the dominance of the federal government. and really one of the things, let's start with the most basic unit of government. it is not washington or the state capital. the most basic unit of government is the family. that is the most fundamental way in which we are governed. it is the first form of government we ever experienced. tavis: i promise i will come back to the family government, but i want you to unpack a couple of these a little bit more. the notion of a zero state government being better than federal government. while there are a couple of them that made some news turning down some of the money, even republican governors have been accepting money from washington. it is one thing to say that we want smaller government, but surely i governor that is turning down washington money.
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>> it is hard to do, because a washington money is critical to be able to fund a highway or cover the cost of medicaid. in a perfect world, what we would try to do is to return a lot of those decisions back to the local governments. we have a medicaid program that is larger than medicare. many people don't know that, but it is. it is, in many ways, a program that helps people afford health care that could not otherwise. it was a godsend to many people in my state. the question is, who ought to make the important decisions of administering it. a lot of times, governors have their hands tied. because all the mandates are created at the federal level. tavis: but why should they take money from washington and tell
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washington we're going to do it our way? >> remember where that money came from in the first place. it isn't like washington created it out of a hat. the to get from the people that live in those states. it is money that started in the states, it went to washington. they took a big cut and sent some back to the states. if the money stayed there and the beginning, there might be an opportunity to do things even more efficiently. >> in your notion of local and state government, you know this well, you and i have been friends for a long time. i have a whole different view on local government and on state government. this whole era of states' rights. you and others are celebrating ronald reagan's centennial. people are making him a demigod, messiah-like.
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ronald reagan started his campaign in philadelphia, mississippi. he built his campaign on the notion of states' rights. it might mean one thing to you, it means something different to a lot of other folks. this notion that states always do best doesn't resonate with me and others in this country. >> i understand in that era, it was less dramatic. and it was used as something they were never intended to be, a way to circumvent the higher law. i am not just talking about federal law, i am talking about the natural law. there is a law that is even higher than the laws that men create. he said that there were some laws that supersede any law that man could do. and when people violate those, it is incumbent upon the citizens to unshackle themselves
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from them. if we go back to james madison's understanding of limited government as he defined it in the federalist papers, it never was that states would get away with bludgeoning people in the streets. that is the polar opposite. it is that the federal government had limited functions for which it was supposed to be responsible. securing borders, protecting commerce. but the day-to-day minutia would be managed at the local level. the reason that we ended up with a federal government is because of the failure to understand the responsibility to protect people under the responsibility -- protect people under the constitution. the sanctity of life to date, we have tried to make that geographical. we have said that what we need to do is overturne roe vs. wade.
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it would turn the sanctity of life to each individual state. this is a great example where the same principle applies. something that is morally right is not geographical. the issue of slavery was not geographical. we could never justify that someone could on another human being. we battle that issue in this country, we decided that slavery is wrong in michigan, in mississippi. and we need to apply that basic principle that goes back to what i said about the natural law. it really is a common-sense perspective. that is the essence of what i try to say in the book. it gets simple when we take it to that level. tavis: we know that your republican brethren and and sisters have taken a stab at
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public television and planned parenthood. since you raised that particular issue, are the right to cut funding for planned parenthood? >> i think they are, it has really missed its mission. its mission is not helping women. it is essentially to push abortion. pro-choice is one thing, you give equal weight to all the choices. planned parenthood does not give equal weight. they are essentially an abortion provider. for those of us whose conscience says it is wrong to take the life of a human being for the purposes of either economic security or the purposes of personal convenience, it is an affront. it is as if we have said it is ok for a person to own and other person, in this case, for a biological mother to own her child to the point of life and death. i don't want my tax dollars
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paying for the destruction of a completely innocent human life. >> he mentioned that that the number one on your list is a return to family values. i always believe in family first, and we both believe in values. where people start to split is when you put those things together. family values mean one thing to your household and another thing to my household. families are not nuclear in the way that they were. how does a country return to this notion of family values when families and values are more different than they ever work? >> where we would agree, at least i think so, is that there is a value in a family and an environment where he has both a mother and gives them both of the parental roles, the examples, the models. i'm understand we don't live in
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an ideal world. my wife was raised by a single mom raised five kids. they had a tough time coming up. it was not easy. i was amazed -- raised by a traditional mother and father. we barely paid rent, but we at least had the model that many families don't have. here is what we know. studies have clearly indicated that poverty is largely the result of the broken this of the family. 2/3 of the children of america would not be in poverty of their mother was married to the father of those kids. there is currently a $300 billion a year-deficit. -- dad deficit. dads who disappeared from the responsibility of their children leaving it to a single mom to
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struggle, and maybe with government assistance, to try to help those kids. i am not taking programs like food stamps away because that is the only way kids eat or have any kind of medicine. i am sympathetic to the fact that we have a problem and we have to address it. the ideal way that that would be present is that the father would be present in those people's lives. i am just walking away. that is a $300 billion a year decision that a lot of dads have made. >> i am not walking away, but my time is just about up. without coloring it too much, the story keeps changing every day, but people are craving democracy and a different way of life. what are we witnessing around the world? >> i recognize that a lot of people are going to get what they want, to be unshackled by
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totalitarian governments. i hope they end up wanting what they get. i fear that in some cases, the most organized entity is a radical form of islam. and that radicalization could be something far worse than what they have been under. tavis: are you running? >> i knew you were going the ask me that. you had to do that. i am very much considering it. they hear these things every day. i have not made that decision. i am very much considering doing this all over again. i will do it on my own timetable and i won't let myself get prodded by the press schedule. this book is my message, this is what i stand for and what i
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believe. and how i think we can address many of the issues of the country. if they say, that guy has some great ideas, that will be an encouragement. if they say, that guy has nothing to offer, maybe that is an answer, too. we will see how people respond. at least they will know what i stand for and who i am. i am pretty plain spoken and i don't give it a lot of political correctness. i pretty much tell it like i see it. tavis: i assume that if you make the decision to run, you will be back on this program? >> absolutely. i always love visiting with you because you're one of the most fair minded engaging people. i am not saying that just to butter you up, but i truly enjoy being with you every time i get the chance to do it. tavis: mike huckabee, the author
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of a new book called "a simple government. 12 things we really need from washington. all the best to you. up next, george schlatter. stay with us. tavis: george schlatter is an award winning producer that created one of the most influential comedy programs of all time. "laugh in." it helped foster the careers of great actors like a lily tomlin and goldie hawn. you can catch highlights of the groundbreaking series. >> we are perfectly compatible. my psychiatrist contracts his psychiatrist and they work it out. [laughter] >> is all and how you look at
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it. what you call right, i call group therapy. [laughter] >> i prefer older men, they can show you a few new wrinkles. [laughter] [applause] tavis: 4 generation that did not see it to but has seen the all the things that it brought that we'd have to watch today, it was all about what? >> it was about having a good time in getting something said. while we were saying something important, next to that, we would do something silly. tavis: how do you combine commentary and comedy and make it work?
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>> if you make it funny and then make it serious, you were never aware of what we were telling you, but we got by with a lot of stuff. we put six of them in the home. tavis: is that a badge of honor? [laughter] >> wearing a canvas coats in rubber room. we did not say anything bad, we just said it very fast. we talked about subjects that were not being discussed. networks were very nervous about the subject of abortion. we said if the man could have an abortion, abortions would be sacrament. it got crazy. everybody who is for abortion has already been born. [laughter] we said, one more vote on abortion, but only women should be allowed to vote.
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we would take a sensitive subject and then have them seeing the things we did last summer. and they came out of a walls. tavis: i assume there is a team of folks working on this. to rule out certain formats that we now known as commonplace, for example, for those of us that have gotten a kick out of saturday night live, we can that day, you guys are the precursor to that. a lot of what john stewart does, a lot of these formats and styles you will started. did you know that you were creating a whole new thing? tavi>> nbc promised me i could o one show my way. we put together this and nbc finally said i could do it
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because they owed me a favor. they said we could do one show my way and they got out of the way. we took a group of very talented writers that could not very get into the mainstream, and we sat down and wrote material. they said no way, but they needed a show to put on opposite lucille ball and gunsmoke. they put it in to get rid of it. by the time sammy came on, it took off and they could not stop it. >> the netwotavis: you said thek owes you a favor. i have tried my whole life to try to get the network to zero me a favor. how did you do that? >> stay on long enough, and they will get desperate. this had to do with the grammy awards. they wanted me to do it but i
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did not want to do it again. this was before it was the grammys. you guys are going to go to jail. [laughter] i will do it one more year if you let me do a show my way. they said, what is this? i said that you laugh, and the audience is brighter than you are. they put it on the air to get rid of it, and it exploded. tavis: what did you make of the fact that people actually like it, it is working and people are laughing. >> i am arrogant now. 40 years ago, you could not talk to me. tavis: you knew it was going to work? >> there was a hunger. is it really funny? it is outrageous. one day, we will do it again.
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we put together a special for pbs. i love them for you and sesame street and all the stuff that appeals to people my age. [laughter] my daughter had produced a show, we took a lot of that and put it together. going back through those clips, it was exciting. those were outrageous people. tavis: we were laughing when we were playing the package. some of this stuff is as funny now as it was then. >> it is almost funny year because we haven't fixed any of the problems. we talked about the president that was not at the top of his popularity, a war we could not win, nuclear energy and the threat of nuclear war. we haven't solved any problems that we were talking about. if we do it again, we haven't
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fixed one problem. tavis: rowan and martin. >> they were one of the funniest nightclub act you ever saw. to sell the show, they wanted a host. there were a little older, there were more of the establishment, so they were in the middle. the crazy happened around them. had they were great. tavis: where people begging you to come on the show? >> not at the beginning. cher had never done a comedy show. she just worked with sonny. sonny was reading the script in cher was laughing. he did not realize that the show had no songs.
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i said, billy, where is the song? you know, the mountie number. they came back in 10 minutes and she did it with tim conway, and billy wound up writing for them. a lot of it was an accident, of the moment. tavis: i assume that you see it as one of the crown jewels in your long and distinguished career in this town? >> i have done a lot of specials with frank and sami, but because it was such a breakthrough show, lorne michaels was one of the writers. they could try anything. we went on stage with a script and if anything went wrong, keep it. the whole thing of 30 minutes of outtakes, the stuff that the
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censors wouldn't do. jack benny screwed up something in he said he would do it again, and i said, no you won't. tavis: well things went right tonight. thank you for your work. not when we do it again, you can come over and say sock it to me. tavis: if nixon can do it, i can. [laughter] thanks for watching, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org tavis: join me next time with a best-selling author and a grammy nominated singer kim. >> all i know is his name is james, and he needs extra help with his reading. >> i am james. >> yes.
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>> to everyone making a difference -- >> thank you. >> you help us all live better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment, one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. >> be more.
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>> this is "bbc world news." funding for this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. and union bank. and union bank.

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