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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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."