The Unsorted BBS Collection/thegreatunsorted.tar/thegreatunsorted/texts/txtfiles_misc/ideas91.txt

Text File | 1992-04-25 | 7KB | 146 lines

Here are some of the ideas and sayings I've gleaned from televised
speeches and interviews of H. Ross Perot, the Texas businessman who now
is a prospective candidate for U.S. president. Most of this material
comes from speeches and interviews on C-Span and CNN circa
Oct. and Nov. 1991.

In 1991, Perot said he was not interested in being president. People
asked him to reconsider. Later he said if people, through their own
initiative, got his name put on the ballots in all 50 states, he would
run and serve as president (and he would do it for free). Now
incredibly, as I type this, people are working in all 50 states to get
Perot's name put on the ballots.

I have no affiliation with the Perot-for-president movement -- not yet,
anyway. This is just something I keyed into my computer when I had a bit
of spare time and more than enough disgust with politics as
usual. - R.R. 3/24/92

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                           Perot's ideas

-- Take away Congress's power to tax. If Congress wants to raise taxes,
let them put it on the ballot. If we think they need it, we'll grant it.

-- If members of Congress want a pay raise, let them put that on the
ballot, too. If we think they deserve it, we'll grant it.

-- End deficit spending, close loopholes and clean up governmental
accounting procedures.

-- Dramatically reduce the White House staff and all departments of
government. Says Perot: "Headquarter staffs accomplish very little. It's
the soldiers in the field who are important. All that overhead is a
waste of money."

-- Cut election campaigning to five months. Make television stations
give equal and free time to the candidates. (Americans tend to forget
they own the airwaves.)

-- In answer to a question at the National Press Club in March 1992,
Perot said of the abortion issue he would support a woman's right to
choose.

-- Perot wants members of Congress to empty their campaign war chests.
He would put a limit on the amounts they may keep. Make them deposit any
leftover funds in the treasury when they leave.

-- Hold elections not on Tuesdays but on weekends when working men and
women can get to the polls more easily.

-- Make Congress rid itself of "strange freebies," such as free
haircuts, free gymnasiums, free parking, free prescription drugs, free
ambulance rides and most free flights (with the possible exception of
Air Force One). Perot says the importance of this is not the money it
would save, but the example it would set.

-- Congress must play by the rules it makes for everyone else. It shall
not exempt itself from equal opportunity laws, occupational safety,
civil rights, fair labor standards, disabilities and other laws it
passes.

-- Reduce government pensions to "real-world levels."

-- "American people are the nicest and most stupid people in the world,"
says Perot. Example: They fell for Bush's "no new taxes" shell game, and
they graciously continue to send whopping chunks of their money.

When Congress approved $166.5 billion in new taxes in fall of 1991,
Perot says, "We the people were told that will take care of it. They
didn't tell us at the same time they authorized new expenditures of $304
billion." For every new tax dollar raised, Perot says Congress approved
$1.83 in new spending. He calls this pickpocketing.

We were told in 1990 that our 1991 budget deficit would only be $63.1
billion, Perot recalls. But by next April, the deficit was up to $318
billion. That's a $255 billion mistake. Then we were told if we agreed
to all these new taxes the deficit after five years would only be around
$90 billion. Then a few months later, we were told the deficit would be
a trillion dollars. "That's a $900 billion mistake," Perot said. And in
this irresponsible financial environment, the Senate gave itself a
23-percent raise. "It's your money ... and you're so good-natured about
sending it...." Perot notes that in 1993, the interest alone on our debt
will be up to $320 billion a year.

-- "Our Number 1 challenge is to keep the job base intact and expand
it," says the Texas businessman. "Both sides [business and government]
should be protecting and creating jobs in America -- not in Mexico."

-- Perot says he would like to gather the "Who's Who in American
Business" in Washington and insist that "starting tomorrow we've got to
make `Made in America' the world standard for excellence."

-- Perhaps the most important thing Perot is saying to fellow Americans
is this: "We've got to start acting like owners. We've got to change the
system and put it back in your control."

-- Of his 2-year experience with General Motors: " The problem was not
on the factory floor.... No one on the factory floor whined.... It's the
guys at the top determining the quality of the product."

-- World War II cost us $288 billion, "and we paid for it as we went,"
Perot says. "Today interest payments on the federal debt take 58 cents
out of every income tax dollar you send to Uncle Sam." In 1993, the
interest alone on the debt will be $320 billion for the year. "In the
first 155 years of our government," Perot says, "we did not spend that
much to operate the U.S. government....

"With this much expenditure, we ought to have Utopia," Perot continues.
Yet he says we're the largest debtor nation in the history of humankind.
We're the most violent, crime-ridden nation in the industrialized world.
We rank at the bottom of the industrialized world in terms of academic
achievement. We have the largest number of functional illiterates in the
industrialized world in our workforce. We're the most litigious society
in the industrialized world. We've got 5 percent of the world's
population, two-thirds of the world's lawyers, "and the average citizen
can't afford to hire one." We've got the world's most expensive health
care system, but we rank 16th in life expectancy and 23rd place in
infant mortality.

-- Give the president the line-item veto on the budget. Perot gives
three reasons: "One, I'd like for him to quit whining about not having
it. Two, I'd like to see what he does with it. And third, if we get
lucky, he'll cut out a lot of pork barrel."

-- "Absolutely get the Orkin man and get rid of all the PACs. That's a
curse on our country." Cap the maximum contribution to a candidate at
$1,000. "Anything else is criminal both for the guy who gets it and the
guy who gave it to him."

-- No former federal official, elected or appointed, can serve as a
lobbyist until 5 years after they leave office. And none may lobby for a
foreign country for at least 10 years. And no former president may lobby
for anybody, foreign or domestic -- ever. "I would want strong criminal
penalties," Perot says, "because I am sick and tired of former
presidents going to Japan and making two 20-minute speeches and getting
a $2 million payday. That just breaks my heart." Public servants should
go to Washington to serve, not to cash in.

-- "My personal goal is to leave our children what our parents left us,"
Perot says, "a better world, and a better, stronger country than they
found."