Top Clinton, Bush Aides Court Perot Backers on Budget : Campaign: At the end of a day of political theater, Perot has kind words for both sides. Texas billionaire says supporters to be canvassed before he decides course.

In a remarkable political pageant, top Democratic and Republican officials journeyed here Monday to persuade a polite but skeptical audience of Ross Perot supporters that the Texas billionaire should not rejoin the presidential race.

All-star campaign contingents led by Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.) and Bush-Quayle campaign chairman Robert M. Teeter laid out their budget and economic plans in separate, 2 1/2-hour sessions with state coordinators for Perot, who said he may decide by Thursday whether to re-enter the race he quit in July.

Perot called the daylong meetings and press conferences he organized at a North Dallas hotel “historic,” and said there was “a great deal of overlap” between his economic views and those of President Bush and Bill Clinton. But many of Perot’s 50 coordinators said they still saw substantial differences between the two parties’ platforms and their own--particularly on deficit-cutting--suggesting they will urge Perot to rejoin the fray.

And even as Perot insisted his decision was not yet made, his Colorado state coordinator, Ron Ellsworth, said he doubted the volunteers “will accept anything that Bush or Clinton say . . . This is an exercise in courtesy.”

Although Perot insisted that his state officials were maintaining an open mind about whether he should run, their partisanship seemed evident later Monday evening when they gathered to watch Perot’s appearance on CNN’s “Larry King Live” show. King asked how many had been more impressed by the Democratic presentation, and how many by the Republican appearance. He was greeted by silence. But when he asked how many wanted Perot to run, the volunteers erupted in applause.

The day was one of the more curious moments of political theater in a jarringly unpredictable campaign year. In July, Perot said a re-energized Democratic Party made his independent bid unnecessary, but of late he has complained that neither Bush nor Clinton had a credible deficit-reduction plan and has said he would enter the race if his supporters wanted him to.

At the end of the day, Perot, who was denounced by Bush campaign officials last spring as a “monster” and “temperamental tycoon,” rose at a podium with top Republicans to describe his warm feelings toward his “old friends.”

Even the meeting’s goals were somewhat cloudy. Perot says the 50 supporters who attended will now contact local backers over the next three days to decide whether he should run. But who these supporters are, how they will be canvassed--and why they would even consider abandoning him after carrying his standard through such adversity--is unclear.

The meeting, carried on in a frenzy of press coverage, certainly demonstrated the continuing influence of Perot, who in three-way polls still wins about 1 of 6 voters. While many analysts don’t believe he could win the race in the five weeks that remain, he could be influential, particularly if other events tightened up the contest.

The Democratic contingent included Bentsen, Clinton-Gore campaign chairman Mickey Kantor, retired Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., Oklahoma Sen. David L. Boren, former Urban League chief Vernon E. Jordan Jr., New York financier Felix Rohatyn, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), former San Antonio Mayor Henry A. Cisneros and Clinton economic adviser Gene Sperling.

The Republicans, in addition to Teeter, included Brent Scowcroft, the President’s assistant for national security affairs; Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas; Jack Kemp, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and Mary Matalin, the Bush-Quayle campaign’s political director.

Perot had nothing but praise for the Clinton delegation after the morning session. “There is a lot of commonality,” Perot said. “Where there are differences of opinion they are honest differences of opinion, with both sides looking for answers and neither side frozen in its positions.”

After he had heard from the Bush camp, Perot had similarly kind words for that side.

And, asked if he also found a “lot of commonality” with the Bush program as well, Perot told reporters: “There is a great deal of overlap.”

Which plan did he prefer? “It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to say,” Perot said.

While the Republicans and Democrats sought to play up their agreements with the Perot platform, both sides also pointed to differences. And the campaign brass indicated they had no plans to adjust their programs to oblige Perot.

The Democrats said they did not want to cut the deficit as quickly as Perot’s plan would, for fear that such spending cuts and tax hikes would further damage the economy.

Rohatyn, a longtime friend of Perot’s, said the difference between the Perot and Clinton plans “is an issue of judgment: How hard do you want to step on the brakes at a time when the economy is very slow? Gov. Clinton’s judgment, which I share, incidentally, is that the risk of stepping on the brakes too hard and too quickly at this point, with the economy as fragile as it is, is pretty high,” said Rohatyn, who helped lead New York City back to financial health in the 1970s.

Clinton has claimed his deficit cutting plan would halve the deficit in four years. Perot’s is aimed at eliminating it within five years.

The Republicans sought to stress how they joined with Perot’s supporters in wishing for a better managed economy and well controlled government. But they made no secret that they disagreed with Perot’s plan to raise gasoline taxes 10 cents a year for five years and increased taxes on Social Security benefits for upper-income individuals.

“We’re against massive taxes on gas--we’re against putting taxes on Social Security benefits,” said Gramm.

Those two proposals are among the more politically explosive elements of Perot’s plan, and the reference prompted Perot to interject that the plan does not envision taxes on Social Security benefits.

“That’s not true,” he said. “That’s not in the platform.”

Perot said the intention was instead to trim the cost-of-living increases on the payments by one third. However, in his book, Perot proposes increasing taxation on Social Security benefits for retirees earning $25,000 or more. The cost-of-living proposal referred instead to pension programs for federal civilian and military personnel.

Perot and the Republicans faced an awkward moment when a reporter asked Teeter whether he still believed, as he had said in June, that Perot “lacks the judgment, or temperament, or respect for our laws, to be President.”

Teeter said only that he thought Bush is “by far the most qualified man to be President.”

Perot interjected, after a moment, “I’ve told you (Republican) guys for months that to know me is to love me.”

Perot’s 50 state officials said they would keep open minds as they reported to Perot supporters at home about the day’s discussion. But many did not hide their coolness toward the two parties’ programs.

“Some of it was the same old gobbledygook,” said Shirley Hamm, the Idaho coordinator, after the Republicans spoke.

“I got the impression the delegates didn’t hear anything they didn’t already know,” said Jan Hunt, from Nevada.

“This is a ‘run, Ross, run’ crowd,” said Ellsworth, the Colorado coordinator. “I don’t think there was a swaying.”

The coordinators asked if Clinton would commit himself to resigning if he didn’t come through on his campaign’s deficit cutting promises. The request was declined.

Wolfe Schmokel, the Vermont coordinator, said the Perot backers might not be easily dissuaded from wanting their man to run. “I suspect it may not be easy to convince them that one of the parties has got religion,” he said.

Again and again, Perot insisted that the unusual meeting was an example of how democracy should work.

“I think it’s a historic day, because we will only talk about the issues,” he said. “The issues are now being discussed by millions of Americans who came together.”

Asked what he will do if he does rejoin the race, Perot pledged he would conduct an “all-out” campaign across all 50 states. But he declined to say whether he would travel, or do more than simply use the free TV appearances of which he has shown such a mastery.

Perot said that retired Vice Admiral James Stockdale, a former Vietnam prisoner of war whom he had designated as his interim running mate, would be his vice presidential candidate if he decides to make the race.

Perot said he plans to ignore attacks if he comes under the kind of close scrutiny he was subjected to by the press earlier in the year.

“You say, ‘What are you going to do when they bring up all this stupid stuff about you?’ ” he told a roomful of reporters. “I’m going to ignore it . . . I’m going to ignore it unless it’s the issues, OK?”

Perot also referred to reporters who might want to “spend all day on dirty little stories about a guy’s cat.”

Orson Swindle, the national director of Perot’s effort, said the campaign will make its nose-count of volunteers through a variety of means, including faxes, meetings and phone calls.

As a campaign event, the day was highly professional, and included several photo opportunities, and adequate facilities for the horde of photographers and reporters who attended. But some absences served as reminders that the Perot campaign is not the large apparatus of last spring.

Tom Luce, Perot’s longtime lawyer, and Morton Meyerson, head of his Perot Systems computer company, have now distanced themselves from his political efforts. And Edward J. Rollins, former co-manager of the Perot campaign, has been taking shots at his former boss from the sidelines.

In an editorial-page article in the New York Times on Monday, Rollins said Perot should “leave the country to its serious business without distraction. He ought to be content and should quit tampering with our Democratic process simply to massage his ego, badly bruised when the country learned he wasn’t who he pretended to be, and didn’t have the courage to go the distance with a presidential campaign.”

In a television appearance Monday, Rollins alleged that Perot offered him $500,000 to keep his mouth shut after leaving the Perot campaign.

“That’s not true,” Perot said on the King show. “This is a never-ending saga from a man I barely spent any time with. . . . It’s just another in a long series of unprofessional statements. We had to terminate him. I have to be blunt.”

Times researcher Lianne Hart contributed to this story.

Today on the Trail . . .

Gov. Bill Clinton campaigns in Kentucky, Ohio and Virginia.

President Bush campaigns in Knoxville, Chattanooga, Johnson City, Nashville and Clarksville, Tenn.

Competing Economic Plans

Here is a look at the economic plans offered by President Bush, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and Ross Perot.

TAXES

Bush says he would cut income taxes for all Americans and has floated a 1 percentage point rate cut as a possibility. He would increase the personal income tax exemption by $500. He would cut the capital gains tax in half and eliminate it entirely for newly issued small business stock held for at least 10 years. He would reduce the corporate tax rate for small businesses by one-third, create a permanent tax break for research and development and increase deductions for newly purchased income-producing equipment.

Clinton would raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans and offer others a tax rate cut or children’s tax credit. He would toughen tax collection on foreign companies doing business in the United States and end tax breaks to U.S. companies that move plants and jobs overseas. He supports an investment tax credit for new plants and equipment, a permanent research and development tax credit, and a 50% tax exclusion for long-term investors in new businesses.

Perot would raise marginal income tax rates on individuals making more than $55,550. He would raise the tobacco tax and increase the gas tax 10 cents a gallon every year for five years. He would eliminate capital gains taxes on investments in new small businesses and reduce the rate for long-term investments. He supports investment tax credits. He would cut some mortgage deductions and trim business-lunch deductions.

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DEFICIT REDUCTION

Bush says he would cut spending $300 billion in five years and devote the savings to reducing the annual deficit, currently $334 billion. He says he wants to cap entitlement growth but hasn’t specified which programs; he also would freeze domestic discretionary spending and federal employment. He has proposed a checkoff box for taxpayers who want to earmark 10% of their returns for deficit reduction.

Clinton says he would cut the deficit in half in four years. He would cut 100,000 federal jobs and impose a national ceiling to hold down private and government health care costs.

Perot says he would save $754 billion over five years and end up with a $10-billion surplus. He would cut 15% from programs other than debt costs, defense and entitlements. He would eliminate farm subsidies to large corporations. Upper-income Social Security and Medicare recipients would pay more in taxes and premiums.

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DEFENSE CUTS

Bush would cut defense spending by $50 billion by 1997.

Clinton would cut defense spending by at least $100 billion by 1997.

Perot would cut defense spending by about $90 billion by 1997.

Source: Staff and Associated Press