From: mpye@netcom.com (Michael Pye)
Subject: Perot's Economic Plan (1/4)
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 10:55:15 GMT

                           CONTENTS

     Acknowledgments
     Introduction

     CHAPTER ONE An America in Danger 
     CHAPTER TWO An America that Reforms Its Politics 
     CHAPTER THREE An America that Pays Its Way 
     CHAPTER FOUR An America that Prospers
     CHAPTER FIVE An America that Works
     CHAPTER SIX An America that Heals
     CHAPTER SEVEN An America that Leads

     Afterward
     Appendix



This book is dedicated to the millions of volunteers who accomplished the
seemingly impossible task of getting the petitions signed. You did it
brilliantly.

You changed American politics in just five months.

You made it clear that the people, not the special interests, own this
country.

Everyone in Washington now understands that the American people own this
country, have reasserted their roles as owners, and want the country's
problems addressed and solved.

The creativity, ingenuity, and focused dedication to this task are unique in
American politics.

The founders of our government must be looking down from heaven, smiling on
all of you.



                                 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For years I watched with concern as the national debt mounted and our
competitive position declined. I collected news items, government reports,
outside critiques, and editorial opinions that told the story step by step and
instance by instance. I listened to thousands of people in and out of
government. These people have good, solid, practical ideas about how to solve
our country's problems and put it on the right path.

To all of you who gave me ideas and plans, I offer my thanks. If the content
of this book seems familiar, it is because your ideas are valuable and deserve
to be studied carefully.

To the team that assembled these ideas into a workable framework I owe a debt
of gratitude, especially to: John White, Bob Peck, Richard Fisher, Doug
Austin, Steve Brooks, Carol Cimitile, Cathy Eddy, Eric Hoffmann, Mia Lee,
Steve Ostrover, David Parkhurst, Susan Bruns Rowe, Laura Sainz, Kevin Warmath,
and Andrew Wise. I'm especially grateful to Ashley Chaffin, whose ability to
track down any fact or answer any question is first-rate.

Thanks to Tom Luce, David Bryant, Brad Harris, and Clay Mulford for their
observations, comments, and help.

I told the American people I would study the issues and tell them my positions
on matters that will determine our country's future.

This book and the movement that spawned it are only the beginning. I urge you
to continue to monitor your government and to demand results from all
candidates and officeholders, especially in this election year.

Only the people can rebuild America.



                                 INTRODUCTION

Unless we take action now, our nation may confront a situation similar to the
Great Depressionand maybe even worse. Our economic growth has been sluggish
for nearly two decades. The unemployment numbers remain depressing, while the
Federal Reserve worries about inflation.

The institutions we depend on to preserve our financial security are shaky. If
they fail, millions of people will be devastated. Banks are already weak. The
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which we as taxpayers guarantee,
may incur liabilities greater than those from the recent Savings & Loan
crisis.

In other words, our economy is perched on the edge of a cliff. Either we work
together to climb back to safety, or we must brace ourselves for potential
disaster. This book provides a plan to pull our nation back from the brink. It
is the legacy of a movement unparalleled in American history.

I look at this book as a dynamic plan that will stimulate discussion and
debate. The only objective is to create the plan that best serves the American
people, and then implement it! We want action, not words.

Not everyone who supported me or participated in this great movement will
agree with everything I write. I am only one voice in a loud chorus. I do hope
that people who agree with me about the symptoms of our national disease, even
if they dispute some of my proposed cures, will use this book as a means of
judging candidates for national office in the November elections.

In the space of six months, the grassroots movement roused the nation and
shook the political establishment to its core. They did it working as a team.
That's why they call themselves United We Stand. The result is that candidates
for President, Senate, and House of Representatives are listening to the
people as they haven't done in years. This movement will succeed if it holds
the candidates accountable. Ask them specific questions, and require specific
answers: What about the deficit? What about entitlements? What about the
special interests? What about foreign governments hiring American lobbyists to
write our laws? What about our government's hobbling of business? What about
our loss of jobs to foreign countries?

Washington has created a government that comes at us instead of a government
that comes from us. Slick campaign commercials and entertaining television
spots won't work in 1992 if you ask the questions and demand the answers.

You are the owners of this country. Nobody else can do the job. Our system has
been corrupted because we weren't exercising our responsibilities as owners.

This is the year to reassert your ownership.

One voice is tiny, and alone it cannot be heard above the din of politics as
usual. The people's voice, when it cries as one, is a great roar. United We
Stand: that's the magic. It cannot be ignored.

You can change our country.

You can pass on the American dream to our children.

You can change the world.



                         AN AMERICA IN DANGER (chapter 1)

In June, 117,000 more Americans were thrown out of work. While we were putting
the finishing touches on this book in July, eight companies announced they
were shedding 23,000 jobs. Those were just the announced layoffs.

The Federal debt is now $4 trillion. That's $4,000,000,000,000. Our political
leaders will add over $330 billion to that debt in 1992 alone.

We add about $1 billion in new debt every 24 hours.

Does anyone think the present recession just fell out of the sky?

People are working longer and longer hours to accomplish less and less. New
families can't afford to buy their first homes. In many families, both parents
must work to make ends meet. Young people coming out of high school or college
can't find a job, so even more of a burden is carried by the families that
raised them.

If your family is fortunate enough to have had a child or grandchild born in
1992, by the time that child enters the third grade in the year 2000 the
Federal debt could be double what it is today.

Let's try to imagine that third-grade classroom just eight years from now.

Today we have a $4-trillion debt. By 2000 we could well have an $8-trillion
debt. Today all the income taxes collected from the states west of the
Mississippi go to pay the interest on that debt. By 2000 we will have to add
to that all the income tax revenues from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North
Carolina, New York, and six other states just to pay the interest on the $8
trillion.

If you live in one of those states, take a look at the IRS payroll deduction
that reduces your next week's take-home pay. Your money is going just to pay
interest on this debt, which in 1993 will amount to $214 billion. During the
first 152 years of our nation's existence, we spent less than $214 billion to
operate the entire government of the United States!

Think of the Louisiana Purchase, the westward expansion, the Civil War,
Reconstruction, the building of the railroads, the assimilation of millions of
immigrants, and the industrialization of our economy. All the great
achievements that built America into the world's most dynamic and powerful
nation were accomplished without any substantial debt.

And let me repeat: that $214 billion we'll pay next year is interest only.
Interest doesn't buy a thing. It doesn't spur new business to give people
jobs. It doesn't help people out of poverty. It doesn't maintain our highways.
It doesn't protect our forests and national parks. It doesn't put more police
on the streets. It doesn't restore our inner cities. It doesn't defend us. It
will never build a classroom or fund research to fight disease.




                              TOTAL FEDERAL DEBT
T
R   $5 +
I      |                                                                   **
L   $4 +                                                                   **
L      |                                                                ** **
I   $4 +                                                                ** **
O      |                                                             ** ** **
N   $3 +                                                             ** ** **
S      |                                                       ** ** ** ** **
    $3 +                                                       ** ** ** ** **
O      |                                                 ** ** ** ** ** ** **
F   $2 +                                                 ** ** ** ** ** ** **
       |                                           ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
D   $2 +                                           ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
O      |                                     ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
L   $1 +                               ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
L      |                   ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
A   $1 +    ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
R      | ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
S   $0 + ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
       |_______________________________________________________________________
        1970  1972  1974  1976  1978  1980  1982  1984  1986  1988  1990  1992

Source: OMB




The debt is like a crazy aunt we keep down in the basement. All the neighbors
know she's there, but nobody wants to talk about her. If we allow the debt to
grow, however, we are impoverishing ourselves. An $8-trillion debt would be a
disaster requiring us to overtax our people, slash services, and severely
reduce pensions and Social Security.

We are a great nation. We are a people with a great heart. We want to reach
out to the single mother struggling to support herself and her children. We
want to help the disadvantaged, provide scholarships for deserving students,
and make basic health care available to anyone who needs it. Instead, the
result of the toil, sacrifice, and dedication of our working people will go
into paying the interest on a government debt we shouldn't have created in the
first place.

Elected officials don't like to talk about what that massive runaway debt is
doing to our country. Instead they keep to the time-honored tradition that has
become standard for our elections. They talk about every tiny group's special
interest and do nothing about an economy in sharp decline.

This year it must be different. The movement to place my name on the ballot
has accomplished a major goal. It has focused the nation's attention on the
real problems facing our country. Instead of swatting flies in the kitchen and
stomping on ants in the living room, this year the nation will focus on the
gorilla charging up the front steps -- the debt.

We have to face up to our debt. We have to do it now. We have to do it because
no nation can afford to pay $214 billion a year for nothing. We have to do it
because what happens in that third grade classroom eight years from now will
determine the future course of American history.


                               HOW BAD IS IT?

Not only have the politicians failed to reduce the deficit and the interest we
pay on it, in 1992 alone we will add over $330 billion to the $4 trillion
we've already piled on our children's shoulders. That doesn't include another
$3 trillion in the form of money the government has already promised to spend
in the future. Our leaders keep those liabilities off the books. The weight of
that debt may destroy our children's futures.

Suppose the American people demanded radical action tomorrow to eliminate just
this year's addition to the debt. We've seen much posturing recently about a
Constitutional amendment to balance the budget. Suppose we decided to take one
action this year to wipe out this year's deficit and balance the budget. Here
are some radical but unrealistic choices to show just how big the deficit is:

* Shut down the Defense Department. Abolish the entire army, navy, and air
force. That wouldn't be enough to erase $330 billion of new debt.

* Shut down all the public schools nationwide. That would get us $330 billion.

* Seize the profits of all the Fortune 500 companies. That doesn't get us even
half of what we need.

* Confiscate the wealth of the Forbes 400, the richest people in the nation.
That wouldn't do it either.

* Now for the worst option: raise everyone's taxes. How much would we have to
raise income taxes on every person in the United States just to eliminate this
year's deficit? We'd have to almost double them!

That's how big a $330-billion deficit is, and we haven't even begun to tackle
the $4 trillion we already owe.


                              HOW DID IT HAPPEN?

How did one year's deficit become so large? How did things get out of control?

In 1990, George Bush and the Democratic leadership made a deal. The President
backed off of his pledge of "no new taxes" and agreed with Congress to raise
taxes by $166.5 billion. We were told we would have a budget deficit of only
$96 billion. That's still a lot of new debt, but it was a major step in the
right direction.

So we all went along.

There were secrets in that budget agreement neither the President nor the
members of Congress of both parties who approved it told us about.
Specifically, there were authorizations for $304 billion in new spending$1.83
in new spending for every dollar they raised in new taxes.

Instead of the $96-billion deficit we'd been promised, Washington was
"shocked" to discover a few months later that the deficit would really be $318
billion. A little while later, they raised the estimate yet again.

President Reagan had a reason for the deficit spending that occurred in his
Administration. He wanted to bankrupt the Soviet Union, and he did it by
accelerating the arms race. In the last several years, our debt has grown for
no reason. Government spending has risen to a record 25 percent of our gross
national product, and it hasn't bought us much.

The United States is the largest and most complex business enterprise in the
history of mankind. Elected officials like to say that government can't be run
like a business. I can see why. In business, people are held accountable. In
Washington, nobody is held accountable. In business, people are judged on
results. In Washington, people are measured by their ability to get reelected.
With 96 percent of Congress reelected in 1990, they must be running the most
successful enterprise in the world, and they reward themselves handsomely for
it.

Let's bring it down to the level of a small town. Let's assume in this small
town there has always been one person who has been generous and helpful and
caring all his life, as our country has been. Suddenly he finds that he's
bankrupt from making bad investments and running up too much debt. Can he
still give to the United Way? Can he give to the Salvation Army? Can he endow
the community college or donate food to the homeless shelter or help build a
new house of worship? Can he help anyone anymore? No, he can't. And what's
worse, he's the one who now needs help.

Will that be our country's fate? Is that what all the dreams and hopes of two
centuries will come to? Is that why our mothers and fathers labored or why our
soldiers died, so that the greatest country the world has ever known would
come to this?


                              AN AMERICA THAT WORKED

We used to be the country that did things no one else could do. We created the
cotton gin, and clothed the world. We created the harvester, and fed the
world. We created the electric light and turned night into day. We taught the
world how to fly. We invented the telephone. After a French company tried and
failed, we went and built the Panama Canal.

The integrated circuit is one of our country's great inventions -- created and
first manufactured in America. Yet, 19 out of 20 integrated circuits used in
the United States today come from Japan.

After World War II, Japan and Germany lay in ruins. To(lay they are economic
superpowers. In 1946, Humamatsu Honda was wandering around the streets of
Tokyo looking for scrap iron to make a motor scooter. Today his company's
profits are over $1 billion a year. In 1951, Toyota was bankrupt. Today it is
the third largest car maker in the world. Toyota City, Japan -- not Detroit,
Michigan -- is the car capital of the world.

Did they discover a secret? No. There's no secret. They made the hard choices;
our leaders made the easy ones. For their sizes, Germany invested over twice
as much, and Japan invested over three times as much as we did throughout the
1980s to build their countries. Our political and business leaders seem to
think short term. Their leaders think long-term.

Before the early 1970s, our standard of living doubled every generation and a
half. Now it will take twelve generations for our standard of living to
double! This is not the America our parents and grandparents knew.

We've allowed ourselves to be lulled into thinking that the bills would never
come due. We've been led to believe we could keep on borrowing our children's
money to finance a lifestyle we haven't earned and can't afford. It can't go
on.


                            BETRAYAL BY THE ELITES

After taxes, the average household income in the Washington, D.C., area is the
highest of all major metropolitan areas, especially in the surrounding bedroom
communities of Washington where our political elites live.

How come?

Who are these people who make these big salaries and what do they do to earn
them?

These are the people who go to Washington to do good and stay to do well for
themselves. They take government jobs to gain expertise and add to their
resumes. Then they use what they learned on our payroll to grab $500,000
consulting contracts from foreign governments and big interests. This is the
famous revolving door.

The revolving door is truly bipartisan. Members of Congress, top congressional
aides, cabinet members, aides to the President, and campaign officials are
very happy to join hands across the aisle if it will help in the scramble to
represent the big interests with big budgets to spend. You've seen them
swarming at the national conventions where "hospitality" is often a polite
word for something else.




                      GENERATIONS REQUIRED FOR U.S. LIVING
                              STANDARDS TO DOUBLE

                                                           12
   12 +                                           *********************
      |                                           *********************
G  10 +                                           *********************
E     |                                           *********************
N   8 +                                           *********************
E     |                                           *********************
R   6 +                                           *********************
A     |                                           *********************
T   4 +                                           *********************
I     |                                           *********************
O   2 +              1.6                          *********************
N     |      *********************                *********************
S   0 +      *********************                *********************
      |_______________________________________________________________________
               At 1947-73 Annual                    At 1973-90 Annual
                  Growth Rate                          Growth Rate




I'd like you to ask two simple questions: First, what are they selling?
Second, who needs to buy what they're selling?

To get the picture, look at the system they've created. Elections have become
so expensive that our elected representatives spend most of their time raising
money from special interests to finance their campaigns so they can get back
into office. When they're back, they raise more money to get reelected again
and again. A lobbyist walks in the door with a fat check from the special
interest political action committee (PAC) he represents. If you were that
elected official, you would listen carefully to what he has to say. Pretty
soon, the elected person doesn't have time for his own constituents. He needs
to spend his time listening to these people who give him the money to stay in
office.

If you ever have a chance to visit Washington, drop in on that elected
official. Chances are he won't be able to see you. He's too busy.

It wasn't always this way. When I was a midshipman in the Naval Academy, my
folks and I paid a visit to Washington to see the sights. While we were
touring Capitol Hill my mother decided she wanted to visit one of the senators
from Texas. Here we were, a common family from Texarkana, and we walked into a
senator's office and said we were from Texas and wanted to meet our senator.
Five minutes later we were ushered into the office of Lyndon Johnson, majority
leader of the United States Senate. Don't bother trying that today.

It's easy to see what the Washington lobbyists, political consultants, and
lawyers are selling to their clients. They're selling the access you aren't
allowed anymore. They make their living by "providing access."

Who are the buyers?

More and more, foreign governments and businesses are the buyers. If you
wonder why international trade is not played on a level playing field, don't
point a finger at the Japanese or the British or anyone else. Look first at
our own political elites who enter government to gain expertise and personal
contacts while on the public payroll, then leave to enrich themselves by
taking inside knowledge to the other side. We've had American trade
negotiators quit on Friday and show up on Monday as consultants for the
country they were just negotiating with. What has happened to common decency,
ethics, and patriotism among the people who are supposed to lead our country?


                              WHO'S TO BLAME?

Whenever a citizen raises questions about the conduct of our government and
its officials, our representatives look around for someone to blame. Whenever
a voter asks an embarrassing question about the decline of our economy, the
first reaction is to blame someone else. The President blames Congress, and
Congress blames the President. Republicans blame Democrats, Democrats blame
Republicans, and both of them blame the bureaucracy. The bureaucracy has
caught on, too. Last year when the budget projections were wrong, the Office
of Management and Budget (OMB) actually blamed the Department of the Treasury,
as if Treasury was some mysterious organization located in Mongolia.

Modern politics has become little more than shirking responsibility and
blaming somebody else. There is, however, a very obvious answer to this.

If anyone wants to know who's to blame for the $4-trillion debt, just go look
in the mirror.

You and I are to blame. You and I are the shareholders of this country. We own
it.

We allowed this system to develop where political action committees, the tools
of the lobbyists, have more power than people. We allowed politicians to buy
our votes by promising newer and grander giveaways (with money, by the way,
they didn't have and had to borrow from our children). We allowed them to rack
up deficit after deficit while we reelected them time after time.

As owners, you and I established the incentives. How could we be surprised at
the results?

Why do we find it strange that the Senate voted itself a 23 percent pay
increase last year after it had just approved the largest deficit in American
history? Did you get a 23 percent increase last year? Do you know anyone who
did? Our senators only did what they thought we would let them do. They blamed
that deficit on somebody else and got on to the really important business of
taking care of themselves. We did exactly what they expected us to do:
nothing.

You and I didn't start this country; we didn't build it. Only a few of us have
done anything to deserve or preserve it. We inherited our ownership stock.

We were given only one charge by the generations who left it to us. We were to
do as they did and pass this nation on to our children in better shape than
they left it to us.




                         GROWTH IN DOMESTIC PRODUCT
                                1965-1989
A 
V 
E                                                              8.9%
R  9.00% +                                                ***************
A        |                                                ***************
G  8.00% +                                                ***************
E        |                                                ***************
   7.00% +                                                ***************
A        |                                                ***************
N  6.00% +                               5.5%             ***************
N        |                          ***************       ***************
U  5.00% +                          ***************       ***************
A        |                          ***************       ***************
L  4.00% +                          ***************       ***************
         |         2.80%            ***************       ***************
G  3.00% +    ***************       ***************       ***************
R        |    ***************       ***************       ***************
O  2.00% +    ***************       ***************       ***************
W        |    ***************       ***************       ***************
T  1.00% +    ***************       ***************       ***************
H        |    ***************       ***************       ***************
   0.00% +    ***************       ***************       ***************
R        |____________________________________________________________________
A              United States             Japan             Asian Newly
T                                                         Industrialized
E                                                           Countries




                            DECLINING GROWTH OF U.S.
                             BUSINESS PRODUCTIVITY

P
E  35.00% +        32.60%
R         |    *************** 
C  30.00% +    *************** 
E         |    *************** 
N  25.00% +    *************** 
T         |    *************** 
A  20.00% +    *************** 
G         |    *************** 
E  15.00% +    ***************           13.30%
          |    ***************       ***************           11.30%
G  10.00% +    ***************       ***************       ***************
R         |    ***************       ***************       ***************
O   5.00% +    ***************       ***************       ***************
W         |    ***************       ***************       ***************
T   0.00% +    ***************       ***************       ***************
H         |___________________________________________________________________
                   1967-70               1970-80               1980-90




Who among us in good conscience is willing now to say that this solemn charge
has been fulfilled? Which ones of us loves their country or children or
grandchildren so little that they would leave behind an America weaker or
sicker than the one they inherited? Who among us can look at these facts and
turn away with a shrug?

These are not simple problems that can be solved with a single vote on
Election Day. One person in one office will not restore excellence to America.

There is only one person in the entire world who can with character, devotion,
hard work, and sacrifice create an America stronger and healthier than it is
today.

Go back and look in that mirror again.



               AN AMERICA THAT REFORMS ITS POLITICS (chapter two)

Our political system has lost its moorings. It no longer rises to meet new
challenges.

It seems designed to avoid solving problems.

The first words of the Constitution are "We, the people." We created the
Constitution. We created Congress. It exists for us, not the other way around.
We hire and pay for the bureaucracy. They all work for us.

Before we can hope to face up to our problems, we have to restore the intent
and meaning of the Constitution we created. We cannot repair our economic
engine, retool our economy to be competitive in a new age, and put ourselves
on a solid footing for the future unless we take back control of our
government that has been taken from us.

The first and most important action we can take as a people is to treat our
elections seriously. Candidates for public office must be required to lay out
their proposed solutions to the problems that confront us. They avoid this
like the plague. They'll raise false issues, appeal to the voters'
self-interests, or sling mudanything to avoid facing the tough issues.

The Savings & Loan crisis is a case in point. In 1984, the administration and
Congress believed that the S & L crisis was a $20- to $30-billion dollar
problem. The special interests mobilized. The S & L operators flooded
Washington with lobbyists, campaign contributions, PAC money, and free
airplane trips to fancy resorts. As a result, the issue was swept under the
rug. It didn't reappear on the screen during the 1988 elections. The day after
the 1988 election, our Republican President and Democratic Congress suddenly
discovered we had a $400- to $500-billion S & L crisis that could no longer be
ignored.

In 1990 we were told by Washington that the deficit for the next five years
would be $547 billion. A year later we were told there was a slight mistake.
The five-year deficit would total $1 trillion. As usual, nobody wanted to talk
about it.

Do not allow any candidate in this election to ignore our deficit. When
Governor Clinton talks about his new programs, ask him where the money is
coming from. When President Bush talks about finishing the job he started, ask
him when he's going to start on the job of getting this country back on track.
If you will hold all the candidates accountable, then we'll be on the way to
getting this problem fixed. You will have done your part no matter for whom
you vote.

After the election the real work will begin. The men and women who are chosen
by the people to go to Washington in 1992 should pledge themselves to restore
the people's control over our institutions. That will mean irritating their
powerful friends and big donors. It will also mean shutting the revolving
door. It will mean restoring the intent of the Constitution.


                               START AT THE TOP

Before we can hope to eliminate our deficit, we have to overhaul the political
system that created it. Our Founders built a beautiful ship of state, but the
barnacles have latched on and the hull has rusted. It's time for a scrubdown
from top to bottom.

It's not just a matter of bringing in new people. It's not just a matter of
replacing a Republican President with a Democrat, or a Democratic Congress
with a Republican one. To throw the rascals out is an impulse as American as
apple pie, but it alone won't do the job.

The wave of new members of Congress who were elected in 1974 as reformers in
the wake of the Watergate scandal were as bright and sincere as Congress has
ever seen. Eighteen years later those who remain in office are as encrusted in
the system as the people they replaced. They enjoy the same perks, PAC
payouts, bounced checks, fawning staffs, and personal exemptions from the laws
they pass.

Take any good, decent citizen and put him in a limousine, hold the red lights
for him, give him a private jet for personal use, supply him with free tickets
to any place he wants to go, and he'll lose touch with reality in a hurry. If
we replace every person in Washington tomorrow but keep the present system
intact, in a few weeks the new people will be just like the old people.

The British aristocracy we drove out in our Revolution has been replaced with
our own version: a political nobility that is immune to the people's will.
They have created through our campaign and lobbying laws a series of
incentives that corrupt the intent of the Constitution.

It's time to make a few changes. Specifically, we need to insist on a sweeping
package of reforms for our political system:

* Restrict campaign contributions to $1,000 period. No more "soft money"
contributions of up to $100,000 from corporate interests, labor unions, and
rich people. No more $8-million extravaganzas where the dinner seating is
determined by how much money you gave to the President's campaign. Think of
it. This is the presidency of the United States. This is the office George
Washington once held. We will no longer allow it to be demeaned and cheapened
by pandering to wealthy donors from all over the world.

* Curb political action committees. In 1974 PACs contributed nearly $13
million to congressional candidates. About that time lobbyists noticed that
congressmen returned their phone calls if their PAC had given money. In 1990,
PACs contributed over $150 million, an eleven-fold jump. Who are we trying to
kid here? We know what they're out to buy. It's time for the owners of the
country to declare that the United States Congress and the White House are not
for sale.

* Give the Federal Election Commission real teeth. Right now, the President
appoints six members. By tradition there are three Republicans and three
Democrats. Guess how many tie votes there are. You can also guess at the
amount of winking and nodding that goes on around the table. No wonder it's a
paper tiger. It must be revamped. Let's have five members appointed at
staggered terms. Give it criminal prosecution powers to enforce our election
laws.

* Change the way we hold elections. First, shorten the campaign season. Five
months is long enough for anyone to make a case. Hold elections on both
Saturday and Sunday so working people can go to the polls. Release no
information until all polls are closed. Since the airwaves belong to the
public, require equal free time for candidates for federal office. Joined with
easier voter registration, these measures will improve our elections and
stimulate more voters to go to the polls.

* Eliminate the electoral college. There's no reason to filter the people's
vote. Why shouldn't we let the people directly choose their President and Vice
President? Whoever gets the most votes of the entire country should be the
President.


                         PUBLIC SERVICE IS A PUBLIC TRUST

Reforming our campaign laws is only the beginning. We have to restore the idea
that public service is a sacred trust. Being an elected, appointed, or career
public servant is a noble calling. Some of our elected and appointed officials
see their terms of office as interim steps to high-paying lobbying jobs. We
need to make it abundantly clear that anyone who enters the federal government
comes to serve, not to cash in.

* Make it a criminal offense for any foreign government or individual or
company to attempt to influence American laws or policies by means of direct
or indirect campaign contributions. Tighten laws requiring full and prompt
disclosure.

* Rewrite the foreign agent registration and lobbying laws to close the
loopholes. Today there is not even a clear definition of what lobbying is. For
example, if you don't want to be accused of hiring a lobbyist, you hire a law
firm to accomplish the same task.

* Forbid any former President, Vice President, cabinet officer, agency
director, Federal Reserve governor, commission director, White House staffer,
trade negotiator, member of the Senate or House from accepting one penny for
any reason from any foreign interest ever. Anybody who holds one of these
high offices does so because the American people gave them their trust. That
trust should be honored.

* Forbid anyone who has held any position in the federal government to be a
paid lobbyist for any domestic interest for five years after leaving
government. Slam the revolving door shut.

* Draft a tough ethics code for private citizens who serve as consultants and
advisers to the federal government. The federal government contracts with
these private citizens, most of whom used to work for the government, to do
the work that federal employees could do. These people usually get paid much
more than workers on the federal payroll. Establish stiff criminal penalties
for any abuse or fraud.

* Forbid anybody on the payroll of a foreign government or foreign interest
from serving in any capacity, volunteer or paid, in a presidential or
congressional campaign. Right now, foreign lobbyists play key roles in both
the Democratic and Republican campaigns. That is inexcusable.


                         CLEAN UP THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH

At a time when we're asking the American people to make sacrifices for their
country, why do we allow our political elites to live like pampered royalty?
No wonder the American people have grown disgusted with their government; we
need to take severe steps to restore that sacred trust.

* Move immediately to sell off the 111 civilian aircraft maintained for
discretionary use by federal government executives. Conduct a case by case
review of the remaining 1,100 civilian planes owned by the federal government
that are allotted to different legislative and executive agencies. Keep the
few that are essential.

* Eliminate the 89th wing of the air force. It exists solely to transport top
officials around the country. The Cold War is over. The Vice President doesn't
need an air force jet to go play golf. I don't understand how a chief of staff
to the President could even consider using a government jet to take him to the
dentist. People might say, "Aren't you being a little hard? These people have
giant responsibilities while running huge departments of government. Most
corporate executives never run anything so large and complex, and they all
have corporate jets." These people work for us. They are our employees. Unless
we take steps like this, they will continue to believe we work for them. We
need to capture their hearts and minds. No matter how high their office or how
lofty their titles, members of the next administration should fly
commercially. They should go out to the airport, get in line, lose their
baggage, eat a bad meal, and stay in touch with how normal people live. Then,
if there's a recession in this country, it won't take three months for them to
figure it out. The person in the seat next to them will let them know in no
uncertain terms.

* Have the cabinet members spend most of their time outside Washington
answering tough questions and solving real problems. What good can the
Secretary of Education do behind a desk while our schools are falling apart?
How can the Secretary of Health and Human Services tackle the massive
bureaucratic problems of this system without really understanding the people
who encounter them?

* Encourage federal employees to treat citizens as owners. When any owner of
this country walks into a federal office, that person should be treated with
the courtesy and respect that an owner should receive. We need to restore
pride in the federal service so that our employees will smile every day at the
office and be polite.

* Reduce civil service restrictions and allow more discretion so that federal
employees can be more responsive. The word 'bureaucrat" conjures up some
bloodless, uncaring robot with a rubber stamp. In truth, I've found almost
every federal employee I've encountered to be a dedicated, intelligent
professional. We need to lift restrictions that keep our employees from doing
their best jobs. We need fewer employees and more rewards. We need to give our
officers the tools to do the job. Right now, for example, the Secretary of
Housing and Urban Development presides over a department of 13,000 people. By
legislative statute he can only hire or fire 105 of them. It's not surprising
that public housing is a mess.

* Drastically cut the White House and executive branch staffs. John F. Kennedy
had a White House staff of 600. George Bush has 1,850. In 1960, Congress had a
total staff of 5,610. Today it has a staff of over 20,000. What do all these
people do? From my experience, their main mission is to insulate executive
officials and members of Congress from you, the owners. Their secondary
mission is to make sure their boss gets reelected. Congress and the executive
branch have grown fat, complacent, unwieldy, and unresponsive. The White House
and Congress could easily reduce their staffs by 30 percent.

Never forget that staffs accomplish very little. All of the action is in the
field.

Look at the Agriculture Department to see how much the bureaucracy in the
executive branch has grown. In 1948, farms employed 20 percent of our
population, and the Agriculture Department had 67,000 employees It was
considered a huge bureaucracy. Today only 2 percent of our people work on
farms, but the Agriculture Department has swollen to 118,000 employees.
Instead of creating a new cabinet office every time a special interest group
wants more attention, we should overhaul and permanently reduce departments of
government so that we can apply our resources where they will do more good for
our people. We don't need staffers in Washington to hold a cabinet officer's
briefcase. We need hands-on problem solvers out in the field where they will
do some good.


                        RESTORE CONFIDENCE IN CONGRESS

Congress needs to take a good, hard look at itself as an institution. It has
been through trying times. It has in large measure lost the respect and
confidence of the American people. We cannot afford to let this go on. A
representative democracy depends on the essential trust the people place in
their institutions. We should urge Congress to regain that trust by taking
four measures immediately:

* Slash the current $2.8 billion budget that supports Congress, its agencies,
gymnasiums, staffs, barber shops, free mail, and all the other perks that have
been built up over the years. Cut congressional staffs by 30 percent and other
perks by 40 percent. Congress could apply nearly $1 billion toward cutting the
deficit. Suddenly the people, the financial markets, our allies, and our
competitors would realize that the United States is serious about facing its
problems. Congress would rise to new heights of respect in everyone's eyes by
becoming more productive.

* Reform the retirement system. Up to 93 members of Congress are eligible for
lifetime pension benefits exceeding $2 million apiece. This is much higher
than their constituents' pensions! The people consider such excesses a breach
of trust.

* Reorganize the legislative system. As many as fifteen committees and
subcommittees must be involved for any significant piece of legislation to
pass the House. Negotiations among all these committees and subcommittees
become so complex that loopholes and special favors get enacted with only a
handful of people knowing about it. Congress needs to streamline this process
so that they and the people can follow the progress, or lack of it, on bills
before the House and Senate. Members of Congress should be acutely aware that
the people run this country, not the lobbyists in the hallways and offices.

* Turn in excess campaign funds to the Treasury. Some congressmen have racked
up campaign war chests which hold many millions of dollars. Every two years,
the PACs pour more money in just to stay in their good graces. Clean it up.
The owners want that money back.


                  RESTORE A SENSE OF OWNERSHIP TO OUR PEOPLE

Owners have responsibilities, too. If you have guests in your house, and you
allow them to pocket the loose change on the dresser, you have nobody to blame
but yourself when you discover they've stolen your television set. The most
honest people in the world will be corrupted by a pattern of winking at minor
misdemeanors. By the time they get to the television set they've lost all
sense of proportion. They've begun to believe that they deserve it and that
nobody will mind. If that's the psychology at work with people in your own
home, magnify it a million times to understand the problem that festers in
Washington.

Again, if you want to know who's to blame for our political system that
encourages and rewards people who cash in on public service, look in the
mirror.

We have abdicated our responsibilities as owners. Our political system can
only be repaired if we take charge of it.

* First, all of us must vote. We need legislation to make voter registration
more accessible. How can anyone disagree? We should change the voting time
from Tuesday to both Saturday and Sunday.

* Second, we must stay informed. I've suggested we have an interactive
"Electronic Town Hall" so that as a nation we can lay out the issues, review
the choices, argue over the merits and demerits, and reach a consensus. This
has aroused a lot of controversy, but why? Most of us carry on a quiet debate
with our leaders every morning while we're reading the newspapers. I remember
that FDR's "Fireside Chats" united us as a country and set a national
direction. President Reagan used the same medium to explain his ideas. The
only difference between the Fireside Chat and the Electronic Town Hall is that
the first was one-way, the only radio technology available at the time, and
the second is two-way, which we can do today. Instead of passively listening
to the radio or watching members of the political elite debate on television,
our citizens will be able to engage their representatives and appointed
officials in a direct conversation. This may be a conversation our political
elites would like to avoid, and I can understand why. That doesn't mean they
should be able to avoid it. For our system to work, our elected officials must
listen to the owners (us) we, the people.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, and citizen participation is the
price of responsible representative democracy. This is what our Founders
intended and what we must restore.


                             FIX THE SYSTEM FIRST

We must repair the political system. If we don't, the actions we take to
repair our economic engine will be just another series of temporary fixes. We
have to change the incentives if we expect our political leaders to hold the
course in setting this country right. Let's tackle this like our grandparents
would have. Let's fix it. Then let's keep it fixed. Do it as an act of love
for our grandparents and parents who gave us this country, and also for our
children and grandchildren. They deserve the very best government we can give
them.

Newsgroups: alt.politics.perot