[speaker001:] topic today
[speaker002:] there's a sound like a panel topic we're talking about uh what we can do to make uh make uh our government get a little more for it's money in other words
[speaker001:] short and long long-term goals yeah
[speaker002:] short long-term goals to be able to get a better value out of what we already pay
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and I wanted to say something to you about Ross Perot are you familiar with the man
[speaker001:] uh I've I've watched him yes he's he's I've been told that that he uh well his ideologies won't work because he's too much of an authoritarian
[speaker002:] yeah but he does raise some interesting points like
[speaker001:] he does I I I from just his speaking I I I hear a a very a strong tinge of integrity
[speaker002:] uh-huh the uh the the question he raised in my mind was uh he was speaking in front of the National Press Club the other day and he said let's think of some wild and crazy things to do to wipe out the four hundred billion dollar deficit that we've got
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] um remember we're thinking about wild and crazy things we'll throw anything out he said um let's say we take all the profits of the fortune five hundred
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] for a year
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] not enough money only half as much as we need
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] so another words four hundred billion dollars is hell of a lot of money
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] uh and that's just he deficit just this year
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] there's apparently a hundred and eighty billion dollars that the president's own controller will tell you is fault and mismanagement
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] I think that would be the short-term goals
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] get rid of the fraud and mismanagement
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] um apparently they have plenty of time the boards right now for computer systems and other tracking methods to get rid of the fraud and everyone says well it's going to cost a billion dollars to implement this well a billion stacked against a hundred and eighty billion sounds like a good investment to me
[speaker001:] but are we what do you think are we talking about the the mechanical element you might say or are we talking about the human element I think it's the human element
[speaker002:] it's a human element but the mechanical element of it can I mean mechanical meaning a computer could help
[speaker001:] exactly yes
[speaker002:] could help track
[speaker001:] oh sure
[speaker002:] uh and and find out what's going on you know statistical cross-referencing and and uh you know the the pork barrel and all that other stuff that they uh you know
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] they do to keep in office to stay in office uh I think term limitations are a viable a viable way to cut the amount of money we spend in government
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] um if uh you know we we say the president can be limited to two terms and we don't limit
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] congress critters at all
[speaker001:] I think Dave I think one of the another thing is that we have such a great disparity between the consumer and the businesses and that all reflects into the budget also
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] we we the American people don't have faith in the government and they don't have faith in business
[speaker002:] yeah especially now after this rubber gate thing you know they uh it's something that everyone can identify with and
[speaker001:] exactly
[speaker002:] and uh if they can't even balance their own check book how in the worlds are they going to balance a trillion plus dollar budget
[speaker001:] well then you have you have President Bush going over to Japan to try to do some wrangling over there to for the trade deficit and they send the send the top executive from GM and they're they're making four and five times they're making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year
[speaker002:] um oh that
[speaker001:] GM is trying to market their products and is that that's another way is that the consumers just don't trust big business they just don't there's so right there you have an element of of the political government you have an element of big business and you have the consumer watching and they're just going what's this
[speaker002:] um-hum yeah I think um it's uh I've been studying some libertarian views
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and I've been thinking more and more that maybe we need to get government out of out of business and away from business and out of everybody's hair
[speaker001:] you know I I I mean I agree with you to a certain extent but the problem is with democracy with you know our capitalistic government
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] the almighty dollar doesn't have any ethical code with it
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and I it's just like how you know what would you do the Exxon Valdez you see what what are we just just say are we taking government out of it we need those controls because the in the our capitalistic society it's just those controls it's just it's the business it starts going and if they can its its the dollar that that dictates and if they can find someplace to dump something or their pollution and we're polluting something unfortunately
[speaker002:] well