92 : POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE : How Business Views the Election

To monitor business’s pulse on politics, The Times will present Southland executives’ and business owners’ opinions about the presidential election. This is one in a series of snapshots. Name: Gary K. Judis Company: Aames Financial Corp., the Los Angeles parent of Aames Home Loan Position: Chairman, chief executive, president Registration: Democrat (but voted for Bush in 1988) Q. Who are you going to vote for? A. Initially, my reaction is one of Olympian frustration and a less than enthusiastic endorsement of Bill Clinton. Q. Why? A. Mr. Bush is telling us to “Please don’t vote for me if you want change unless you can deliver a Republican-controlled Congress next year,” which is as likely as me being able to fly by wiggling my toes. He basically says, don’t vote for me if you want change. I want change. I think we desperately need change. We can’t have a continuation of what we have because there will not only be a leveling off, as we have now, but a decline. Q. What are the main issues for your business? A. There are three: the economy, the economy and the economy. I’m terribly preoccupied with that as a business man. As a private citizen, I’m concerned that we have a national health care program that makes sense, and I’m concerned that the national government has not been run as a business. Q. What needs to be done to right the economy? A. I think that we really need to sit down just like a family or a business would and look at our assets . . . how much is coming in and how much we owe and come up with a budget. Somebody has to come up with a plan for how we’re going to deal with this financial responsibility (of the federal budget deficit). A 50-year or 80-year fully amortized plan. Something that says we’re aware of this and we’re going to accept this responsibility. In the short run, we are going to have to make some sacrifices if we are going to win the peace. Defense spending has to be cut way back from what’s projected. We have to deal with the infrastructure (perhaps by creating a federal conservation corps like those of the Depression era). . . . The economy is much more about perception than money. If people don’t have confidence, they won’t go out and spend.