Ross Perot on Budget & Economy 1992 & 1996 Reform Party Nominee for President

1992: No experience in running up debt or gridlock

Perot offered a typically forceful, truthful answer that turned the question on its head. Gesturing to the president and Gov. Clinton, Perot shrugged. "Well, they've got a point," he said in his high-pitched Texas twang. "I don't have any experience in running up a $4 trillion. I don't have any experience in gridlocked government where nobody takes responsibility for anything and everybody blames everybody else. I don't have any experience in creating the worst public school system in the industrialized world, the most violent, crime- ridden society in the industrialized world. But I do have a lot of experience in getting thing done. So if it's time for action, I think I have the experience that counts. If it's more time for gridlock and talk and finger-pointing, I'm the wrong man."

OpEd: made deficit reduction a proxy for public virtue

Donated land for commercial airport in Fort Worth

Building new businesses is key to country's future

The giant companies that make up the Fortune 500 were once just an idea. "From small acorns mighty oak trees grow!" We must keep planting the seeds to create millions of good jobs in the US for the 21st century. This is our highest priority. If our government does everything perfectly, and we don't have a growing, expanding job base:

• The standard of living will continue to decline for millions of hardworking Americans.
• We will not continue to have a large middle class.
• We will not have the tax base to pay our bills.

Weak dollar means weak America

King Solomon wrote in Proverbs: “The borrower is servant to the lender.” So it will be unless the US puts in economic house in order-and soon.

Lack of Balanced Budget Amendment caused dollar’s decline

Too much fluctuation in the value of the dollar-in either direction-is not good for the economy of the US or the world. While it is important to all nations that the US maintains a stable currency, it is particularly important to the citizens of this country.

Idea for Balanced Budget Amendment began in 1787

The constitutional amendment in 1995 did not absolutely prohibit the federal government from borrowing money, as Jefferson suggested. The authors of this book believe that there are rare occasions, such as a war or a recession, when the federal government may need to spend more than its revenue. But government spending should not exceed revenue for 27 consecutive years, as we have done.

Balanced Budget in 1970s equals $15,500 more income now

Speaking of balancing the budget, what if a constitutional amendment had been in place in 1980 when our national debt totaled less than $1 trillion? Instead of paying $344 billion in gross interest during fiscal year 1996, we would pay less than $70 billion. Actually the bill would be appreciably less than this amount because interest rates would be much lower. A constitutional restriction would have given us more than $300 billion extra today for education or health care or reducing taxes. Because lower interest rates would have encouraged more industrial investment and home building, our productivity and standard of living would be much higher than they are today.

Tax incentives to encourage corporate & personal savings

The tax code needs to differentiate more between productive and unproductive use of resources. Corporations should be given every incentive to spend money for the following activities:
• Research
• Plant modernization and expansion
• Worker training.

Unless we, as a nation, do a better job of saving, our currency is destined to continue its downhill slide, and will take our standard of living with it.

Stabilize dollar with central bank intervention

OpEd: Balanced budget mania swept country in 1992

Promising to balance the federal budget at the end of a 4-year presidential term was standard campaign fare. Someone suggested that Clinton promise instead to cut the deficit in half at the end of 4 years, a more realistic goal. Clinton approved.

United We Stand America: Focus on economy & debt

The goals of United We Stand America include:
• To get our economy moving and put our people back to work.
• To balance the budget.
• To pay off our nation’s debts.
• To build an efficient and cost-effective health care system.
• To make our neighborhoods and streets safe from crime and violence.
• To create the finest public schools in the world for our children.
• To pass on the American Dream to our children, making whatever fair shared sacrifices are necessary.

Limit power to tax; expand power to intervene in market

Perot has stated in a rather straightforward fashion that he favors:
• Limitation of the congressional power to tax;
• protection of the job base though government intervention in the market apparatus;
• initiation of a national industrial initiative that forges a solid big-government/big-business partnership mimicking the Japanese government’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

More federal involvement in business

Will balance budget in six years by adding jobs

CLINTON: I believe we can increase investment and reduce the deficit, if we not only ask the wealthiest Americans to pay their share; we also provide $100 billion in tax relief and $140 billion of spending cuts. Take money from defense cuts and reinvest it in transportation, communications and environmental clean-up systems.

BUSH: I don't like trickle down government. Clinton says grow government. Government doesn't create jobs. If they do, they're make-work jobs. It's the private sector that creates jobs.

PEROT: We still have a significant deficit under each of their plans. There's only one way out of this, and that is to have a growing job base. My plan balances the budget within 6 years. We didn't do it faster than that because we didn't want to disrupt the economy.

Change rules to foster small business investment & growth

Most new jobs won’t come from our biggest employers. They will come from our smallest. We’ve got to do everything we can to make entrepreneurial dreams a reality:
• Free up credit. The deregulation of our savings & loans was poorly thought through and poorly executed. Now we have to repair the damage. Our small businesses are starved for credit.
• Stimulate investment. We can establish incentives through the tax code and in other ways to stimulate the creation of capital pools for small business where the risk is spread out and thereby reduced. Most new businesses are founded on less than a $100,000 investment.
• No capital gains tax for small business investment. This is the quickest and surest way to convince investors to take the risk of backing entrepreneurial ventures.
• Establish mentor programs. Small businesses fail for two reasons: lack of money and lack of experience. We have a huge resource in our talented retired people. Let’s put them to work.

Congress needs to be held accountable for enormous debt