Beatty Gives Schwarzenegger Political Tips

Monday, March 14th 2005, 10:06 am

By: News On 6

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) _ Warren Beatty, an actor who has been politically active for four decades, has some words of advice for fellow film star and now Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Schwarzenegger should raise taxes on the California rich and ``terminate'' his fund-raising and dinners with ``the brokers of Wall Street'' and the ``lobbyists of K Street,'' Beatty said.

Receiving a political award Friday night, the actor who played Sen. Jay Billington Bulworth in the 1998 movie, ``Bulworth,'' said: ``Arnold. Be the action hero I know you can be. Be strong. Stand up and confront the wealthiest 1 percent of Californians who have benefited $12 billion a year from the Bush tax cuts.''

Beatty received the third annual Phillip Burton public service award Friday from the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights for a lifetime of political work. Burton was a liberal San Francisco congressman who died in 1983.

Beatty said Schwarzenegger should lead the rich in helping California.

``It's called the haves giving a little more to the have-nots,'' he said. ``Nobody likes taxes, but everybody likes a peaceful, compassionate, law-abiding, productive, protective society.''

Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Vince Sollitto replied Saturday: ``Tax and spend rhetoric aside, California needs budget reform because it's not a revenue problem, but a spending problem.''