Thread: Ross Perot says national debt is off the charts

Ross Perot says national debt is off the charts

06:43 PM CDT on Saturday, June 21, 2008

PLANO – Ross Perot has no intention of discussing presidential politics or entering the election fray. Instead, the two-time candidate for the nation's highest office says he has a peaceful revolution in mind.

He wants the American people to rise up to fight the budget deficit, which he calls a deadly cancer devouring the country's future.

Last weekend, Mr. Perot launched www.PerotCharts.com, a Web site of charts, graphs and visual tools designed to put the nation's $9.4 trillion debt into an easy-to-comprehend package.

COURTNEY PERRY/DMN
Ross Perot (foreground) and Mike Poss put together www.PerotCharts.com to show the American public the depth of the national debt. Mr. Perot says 42,000 people visited the site on its first day. Mr. Poss worked on the charts Mr. Perot made famous in his presidential bids.
View larger More photos Photo store "I wanted something Forrest Gump could understand," Mr. Perot says.

Still, the numbers are mind-boggling. Mr. Perot points out that 9.4 trillion dollar bills placed end-to-end would reach the moon and back 1,900 times.

"The ideal time to treat a cancer is when it's small," says Mr. Perot, in his office last week. "Well, this has gotten way past small, but there is still time to treat it. We're trying to discuss it now to keep it from going to $12 [trillion] to $15 [trillion] to $20 trillion."

But is Mr. Perot's Web site a launching platform for a third run at the presidency?

"No! I'm 78 years old," Mr. Perot fires back.

Also Online
Mike Poss: Man behind the Perot charts

Link: Read more of Ross Perot's ideas
So I point out the obvious – that one candidate is about his age – hoping for some indication of his closely guarded political leanings.

In response, Mr. Perot levels a penetrating yet expressionless, eye-to-eye stare that lasts seconds. My take on his unspoken message: "I won't go further on this topic – nor should you."

Later I try a different tack. Given his belief that strong families are critical to a strong nation, did he like Barack Obama's Father's Day message urging more fatherly involvement?

"I don't pay much attention to what politicians say," he says. "The sad thing is they all have handlers, and the handlers tell them to say what the people want to hear.

"If Abraham Lincoln or George Washington ran today, neither would have a chance. How would you like to see a guy with wooden teeth on television? It's all show business.

"You need to tell the people what the facts are and what we need to do – that includes sacrifices by all of us – to get this situation straightened out."

That's where the Web site comes in.


Glue and poster board

Mr. Perot hopes to focus attention on the deficit much as he did in 1992 with his color charts glued to poster board and again in 1996 with another round of infomercials.

This time, Mr. Perot is turning to the Internet to reach the masses in his same folksy manner.

Call it virtual grass-roots politics. And it seems to be working. In just one week, his site got 300,000 hits.

"I thought a book would be easy to read," says Mr. Perot, who founded Plano-based Electronic Data Systems Corp. and later Perot Systems Corp. "But we had 42,000 people key in the first day. You're not going to get 42,000 people to pick up a book."

The charts and Web site are the product of Dallas attorney and CPA Mike Poss.

Most of the numbers come straight from the government.

PerotCharts.com runs on blog software that allows two-way interaction.

"It's very democratic," Mr. Poss says. "It's like an open town hall meeting that goes on 24 hours a day."

"It's just too good to be true," says Mr. Perot, who's like a kid with a new toy. "The size of the audience increases day after day."

Mr. Poss speeds through the 35 charts and graphs, stopping on a few favorites. "I don't make it easy to skip around. I want people to go through sequentially to get the educational value out of it."

One chart lists five painful fixes:

•Restructure existing entitlement programs.

•Raise payroll taxes.

•Borrow more money each year to make up the shortfall.

•Cut discretionary spending even further.

•Enhance economic growth.

At the suggestion of Internet visitors, Mr. Poss is preparing additional charts on trade, energy, taxes and education – and, yes, several on the cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We're spending $130 billion a year on the war," Mr. Poss says. "That's a big number. But if you take the total of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, that's a $1.1 trillion number. So if you get rid of the Iraq war ..."

"You haven't solved your problems," Mr. Perot interjects. "But I think the American people need to know what the war is costing us. But it also shows you the magnitude of the problem when $130 billion doesn't help much."


Tough love

Mr. Perot's tone isn't preachy or frenetic or academic.

He sounds more like a father who's about to impose some tough love, and he seems entirely comfortable with the role.

A replica of Norman Rockwell's 1954 painting Breaking Home Ties hangs in a place of honor right outside Mr. Perot's office door at Perot Systems, where he's chairman emeritus. A farmer sits on the running board of his pickup truck at a whistle-stop with his son who's heading off to college.

"This painting is the essence of what we're talking about," Mr. Perot says. "That farmer probably never went to college, probably never even finished high school, but he was determined that his son would have opportunities he never had. That's been a driving force of our nation: Each generation would pass on a better, stronger country to the next generation."

But things have gone dramatically awry, he says.

"Our children are going to inherit a debt that is just unconscionable if we continue in this direction. We want to explain the magnitude of this problem and communicate to the American people that they can't be gullible to politicians who vote for things that our country can't afford to pay for."

Asked if he considers himself an elder statesman, he again responds in Perot shorthand: "No. Citizen."

Does he expect this discussion to enter the presidential debate?

"We'll do everything we can to help that happen," Mr. Perot says. "Maybe it will. Maybe it won't. But we're not going to just sit here and say, 'Woe is me.' "

So in a sense, he is entering the election fray.

ROSS PEROT'S WISH LIST
• If I had just one wish for my country, it would be a strong moral, ethical base. I had that when I grew up as a boy in the Great Depression. People did what they said they would do. That's all changed. We've got to get back to that.

• If I had two, it would be a strong family unit in every home.

• Third would be the finest public schools in the world. Having great young people coming from strong family units being properly educated today would do more for our country than anything.

PEROT UNPLUGGED
On recession

"I would say everything is in place for one. It's a question of what triggers it. Time will tell that. I'm not smart enough to know. It may be more than one thing."

On removing the gas tax

"Well, if you're running for office, it's a super idea. But if you're running the U.S. Treasury, it's not. If you remove the gas tax, you have to get the money somewhere else. And gasoline is still going to be very expensive. The real challenge is to get the price of gasoline down."

On China

"We need to remind ourselves when we get up each morning that we're a nation of 300 million people. China is a nation of 1.3 billion. We're the point three.

"We sure don't ever want to have a war with China when China is the shipbuilding capital of the world, the steel-making capital of the world, becoming the manufacturing capital of the world.

"It's amazing what they are doing and amazing how well their students do when they come to this country. They have a long way to go. But look at who's moving forward and who's moving backward."

On India

"India is an interesting country. They will be bigger than China in 30 years. Indians are brilliant and have a good work ethic.

"Children have to speak 12 different dialects to talk to each other in the neighborhoods. They have very good public education. We're just not providing those same fundamentals for our children."

On solutions

"If you can't afford six cars, you shouldn't buy them. The point being, we have to live within our means, get our economy back stable, we have to get our government debt paid and keep moving forward.

"More than anything, we need a strong and growing job base, which gives us a strong tax base. We're shipping some of our best-paying jobs overseas."








http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 96b15.html

Cancer Yes . But we the people didn't OK this . Our Crooks in our Government did this damage and imo should have to pay for their Lies !
Wooden Teeth i can deal with ! Lies and Treason are tuff on my Attitude. Illegals real get my goat and their Ok'ed by the U.S Government . There goes another Trillion