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- <text id=92TT2147>
- <title>
- Sep. 28, 1992: Perot:Dr. Feelbad and the Deficit
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Sep. 28, 1992 The Economy
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- COVER STORIES, Page 40
- THE ECONOMY
- PEROT: Dr. Feelbad and the Deficit
- </hdr><body>
- <p> With his bitter prescription for eliminating the federal
- deficit by 1998, Ross Perot likes to style himself as the
- straight-talking realist of American politics. Perot was at it
- again last week, appearing on the Today show to chide the
- presidential candidates for failing to tackle the deficit, and
- hinting anew that he would jump back into the race unless they
- faced the issues.
- </p>
- <p> But panelists in TIME's economic forum warned that Perot's
- medicine would be the wrong tonic to give the economy now. "It
- would be an absolute disaster to have a Ross Perot program in
- 1993," said Donald Ratajczak, an economics professor at Georgia
- State. "We would probably go back into recession." Concurred
- Boston economist Allen Sinai: "Deficit reduction at this time,
- when the economy is so weak, is the wrong way to go." That's
- because the painful tax increases and spending cuts that Perot
- advocates would take money away from consumers and companies,
- thus deepening the country's already palpable mood of economic
- gloom.
- </p>
- <p> Yet the panelists agreed that the deficit is a crippling
- burden on the economy that must be confronted in the long run.
- The main problem the red ink causes is soaking up savings that
- could otherwise be used for investments in factories and
- machinery and to create new jobs. Panel members said the
- government should move to reduce the deficit once the economy
- becomes strong enough to tolerate the treatment, which could
- mean waiting until 1994.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
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