Initial credits

Introduction

Is this your first time in Guatemala?

What was your expectation of Guatemala?

You became the House Majority Leader of the United States Congress in 1994, as a result of an event. Could you describe that event and the role that you played inn it?

Do you remember that night in 1994, with the long faces of the talking heads on the networks?

Were you surprised by the results of the election?

A senior State Department official said to me, just two nights ago, that he had never seen such a polarized political situation in Washington. Yet there is at leastn one area in which democrats and republicans must get along, that is the area of free trade and CAFTA . . .

I had a fuzzy notion that representatives voted in the interests of their districts, but senators were supposed to take a more national point of view, and that's not inn the Constitution . . .

One of the main issues in CAFTA is something that is relatively important to Guatemala, which is sugar. We are the fifth largest sugar exporter in the world. The USn sugar import situation is very highly protected. Even republican senators in the sugar beet states vote for this protection. It seems to me that the national interest, the consumern interest, should take precedence over the interest of a relatively small group, the sugar beet farmers . . .

There are 17,000 protected cotton farmers in the US . . .

The leadership of the party in power in the House has certain tools available to him to enforce party discipline. In fact, I think that one of the senior partyn leaders is referred to as "The Whip". What could you do, if you were working for the President as the House Majority Leader, to bring party members into line with party discipline?

The issue of CAFTA and Guatemala seems to have been thrown in the bathtub with the issue of China, because they think that we shouldn't let the Central Americansn disturb our economy the same way the Chinese have. It seems to me that we have a special interest in this area. We have a lot of ties, including a very large Hispanic componentn in the US electorate. Shouldn't that be the deciding factor?

Years ago there was a program called the n BraseroProgram. It allowed people to come to the US to work. It was killed by organized labor. Maybe it's time to come up with a program like that, so that people could comen to the US to work legally. Do you see this as a political possibility?

Do you think it's politically feasible to think that the US is ready for another sort of n BraseroProgram? Isn't that part of Homeland Security? (If we brought them above ground, we would know who they are)

You are an advisor to the ACLU . . .

The Wall Street Journal called you "a think tank in cowboy boots". How do you feel about that?

If the formula of "fulfilling your promises" worked so well for Republicans in 1994, and recently for Governor Schwarzenegger, why has it not been repeated?

Our previous president, when asked if he had lied during his campaign, said: "Yes. That's what you do. You lie to get elected" . . .

What were you doing before you ran for Congress? How did you avoid delivering yourself to the political hacks that were around?

Without politicking, how did you become House Majority Leader?

The democrats seem bent on making sure that they don't elect another president. Is there a real philosophical difference that's expressing itself politically, between what In refer to as the "old America" and the "new America"?

In Congress, one would think that the leaders in both sides would not introduce the CAFTA legislation if they thought that it would fail. Is that always the case?

Do you believe the filibuster rule should be changed?

In 1994, the US electorate seemed to change course. Do you believe that was the right course?

What have you been doing since you left the House?

What do you think of the social security problem?

Give us your impressions of the Francisco Marroquin University

Did you teach the libertarian philosophers when you taught economics?

Closing lines

Final credits