CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera Writes ‘You Know I'm Right’
By: Our CNBC colleague Michelle Caruso-Cabrerais not one you would call shy. Viewers who tune in everyday to see her on Power Lunchknow she is a smart, straight-shooter who calls it as she sees it. Yep, she likes to stir things up - or as Jack Welch former CEO of GE says, “Michelle Caruso Cabrera is very smart and the real deal. Her strong opinions always make you think.”
What's got her thinking right now is what's right and what's wrong with America. And lately, she says there have been too many problems. Michelle says the country has lost its way and in doing so she says, we have abandoned our economic foundations, fiscal conservatism, limited government and personal accountability.
In her new book, YOU KNOW I'M RIGHT More Prosperity, Less Governmentshe takes on today's toughest issues: the deficit, unemployment, health care, education, housing and immigration.
A self-proclaimed fiscally conservative, socially liberal American, Michelle says our political parties have been hijacked by the wrong issues and have abandoned "the loyal Americans who believe that government should stay out of our private lives and out of our pocketbooks."
Michelle's answer is less government, not more; less spending, not more. Placing blame on both parties for the out of control spending and excessive social interference, Michelle says the country must return to the fundamentals of American politics - small government, less spending.
Larry Kudlow, host of CNBC's Kudlow Reporthas written the foreword in Michelle's book and says, "You Know I’m Right, is all about economic freedom in pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. She knows that the principles of freedom set down by the Founders must, as Reagan frequently reminded us, be at the very heart of American recovery."
Continue on to the following pages to read an excerpt of Michelle's new book, You Know I’m Right.
"I USED TO HATE TALKING ABOUT POLITICS"
Text copyright © 2010 from You Know I’m Right by Michelle Caruso-Cabrera. Published by Threshold Editions, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Printed with permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Introduction
I never used to be a political person. In fact, I used to hate talking about politics. I sometimes wish I weren’t covering it now, but I have little choice because politics and business have become increasingly intertwined. In the past I interviewed CEOs to discuss how they made their companies grow. These days on CNBC I ask CEOs how they’ll deal with new invasive policies being dictated by Washington. And although I used to rarely interview politicians, now they’re on the air every day. Government just keeps getting bigger and it increasingly regulates the ordinary affairs of American business.
What I’ve learned from the BP oil disaster, the housing debacle, and the financial collapse is that government is overregulating our lives, and yet it’s never going to protect us. I believe we can do more with less. I believe I’m right when I say less government means greater prosperity for everyone in this great nation. And I don’t just mean the wealthy—I also am referring to the middle class and those struggling just to put food on their families’ tables.
During the last election, as our nation and others around the world were on the brink of economic disaster, I looked at both the Democrats and the Republicans and thought, We’re in big trouble here. Neither political party was looking out for our economic interests. Neither was doing it right. There was a fundamental crisis of leadership.
So I decided to write this book—and not to attack just the left of the political spectrum, because I’m equally frustrated with the right. I always thought I was a Republican, until the party got too caught up in social issues that government shouldn’t be dealing with and lost sight of more important fiscal ones. So neither political party seems to be on the right track to fix our economy. I’m writing this book to urge American leaders to reduce the size and role of government in both our private lives and our free-market economy. It’s time for politicians of both parties to get the country back on track and it’s time for the rest of us to take a little personal responsibility for the mess we find ourselves in.
That’s right, I’m not just blaming Washington, either. I think the media is to blame as well. I know you probably think I’m about to trash the so-called liberal, left-wing media, but I’m not. I’m taking everyone to task—including the so-called right-wing media.
Lou Dobbs, for example, used to call himself a Republican. Then he claimed he was an independent. Whatever his label, he wasn’t in favor of the free movement of labor, capital, and goods. He took his extreme stance on immigration simply to tap into the socially conservative population. It was not a fiscally conservative position. He was a populist opportunist when he should have been a voice for the conservative movement.
