From: alan@auntbea.austin.ibm.com (Alan R. Weiss)
Subject: Re: Perot's "United We Stand America" launched today
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 14:56:53 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: (speaking only for myself from Austin, Texas)

In article <1993Jan21.004735.14256@Princeton.EDU> niepornt@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (David Marc Nieporent) writes:
>In article <C12qnu.17Ko@austin.ibm.com> alan@auntbea.austin.ibm.com (Alan R. Weiss) writes:
>>In article <1993Jan16.182205.2427@mailer.cc.fsu.edu> ipadavic@garnet.acns.fsu.edu (Irene Padavic) writes:
>
>>>> The reality is that every man, woman, and child (the collective "we, the
>>>> people of the United States ...." is up to his/her ass in debt.
>>>> $4 trillion and mounting.  Either we fix it, or we start learning
>>>> Japanese en masse.  Get it?
>
>>>It is dismaying, and funny, I supposed, how those who propose to be so
>>>clear-eyed about the state of the nation lapse immediately into
>>>nationalist and corporatist sentiment as soon as they try to talk
>>>about remedies.  With an urgent sweep of the hand all class
>>>distinctions are swept aside - we are all "up to our ass in debt" and
>>>we all face the prospect of having a serious linguistic deficit added to
>>>our fiscal one.
>
>>Clever.  Except that I'm no "corporatist", although I accept the
>>label of patriot.  Fact is, if the debt is not paid, we all lose.
>>You cannot prove otherwise.
>
>Prove it.   We've had a debt for 200 years.  No problem, unless it gets
>*too* big.

Would a sizable percentage of the GNP being sucked up by interest
charges to service the debt prove it to you?  Because that's exactly
what's happening.  Is $4 trillion biggies enough to prove it?
That's an average of $16,000 for every man, woman, and child in America.

Being a net debtor nation is neither here nor there - being a nation
that has to beg for foreign investment just to service the debt IS.

>He's got a lot; I don't think he's hurting.  What else does he have to
>spend it on besides his ego-tripping?

I dunno.  Ask him yourself.  So what if its an ego-trip?  Many
people do Great Things out of ego.  President Clinton, fer instance,
wouldn't have gotten very far with a weak ego.


>Which explains Ross Perot, who, of course, was a used-car salesman, not
>a politician.

No, he sold computers, and later computer services.  He was and is
a salesman, a noble profession.  One that serves a vital economic
function.  Unless you'd like to denegrate an entire profession?

>>Oh please, Ted Kennedy is one of the biggest criminals in Washington, DC.
>
>Huh?  I've heard some people say Chappaquiddick was criminal, but other
>than that, what are you referring to?


Uh, yeah, that death thing was kinda criminal.  Adultry was a crime
in his home state.  That's two counts. 


>>His tax and spend liberal policies have been one of the reasons we're
>>in this mess.  That he uses a progressive tax structure to cover up
>>for his mindless crimes only means he believes we are suckers indeed.
>
>Oh, and I'm sure Ted Kennedy has been making a lot of policy for the
>last 12 years.   (As an aside, if we had been doing tax-and-spend, there
>wouldn't be a huge deficit.  We were doing borrow-and-spend.)

Of course he has - he's a member of the Senate!  Yes, we borrow -
but in fact my taxes have continued going up, too.  Inevitably,
despite Ed's and Michael's pleadings, we are gonna get higher
taxes to pay for it.  And, I think they are right - I concede
their points.

>>Frankly, you're right:  I'm not a starry-eyed fan of Ross, and I think how he
>>ran EDS was wrong.  But I *am* a fan of straight talk, of
>>action, and of clear goals worthy of committment.  That he's willing to
>>help solve the problem, and put his own money in to do it, says something
>>for the person.
>
>It says he's a meglomaniac.
>-- 
>David M. Nieporent   | "We don't need anymore [sic] wretched refuse.  It's 
>niepornt@phoenix.    |  time to send the Statue of Liberty somewhere else"
>   princeton.edu     |      -- Jack "Not a bigot" Schmidling, 1/7/93
>Baltimore Orioles 93 |

In your opinion.  Maybe he is, maybe not.  Its a nice label,
a ptr to a struct with many members.  Nonetheless, let's say he
got elected Prezdunt in 1996.  Do you think he could suspend
the Bill of Rights?
-- 
   _  Alan R. Weiss   IBM AWS Austin-AIX Kernel   11501 Burnet Rd, Bld 905
 _| ~-. alan%auntbea.austin.ibm.com@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com | Austin, TX 78758
 \, *_} arweiss@netftp.austin.ibm.com  - NEW ADDRESS    | 512-838-8281
   \(   DISCLAIMER:  Working at, not speaking for, IBM  | alan@auntbea
Xref: sparky alt.politics.perot:5948 talk.politics.misc:70145 alt.activism:21467 alt.politics.usa.misc:982 alt.politics.reform:265 alt.politics.economics:260