What Exactly Is Under Ross Perot’s Hood? : Politics: The electorate’s lecturer again will be asking the hard questions Friday when his road show stops at UCI. But where are <i> his </i> answers, anyway?

Ross Perot is coming to the UC Irvine campus Friday as part of his national tour to tell people what he thinks needs to be done to fix the economy. It’s amazing how the media and the public continue to pay attention to Ross Perot.

While Perot buys time to lecture us about our problems, he seems to offer few solutions. He talks about “the people,” but who are these people he talks about? He refers to his many volunteers but what are they volunteering to do?

Perot’s idea of a town meeting is a paid-for platform with one-way communication. Talk show hosts seem unwilling to ask him tough questions. And why are the members of Congress pandering to this man’s ego? Was not much of the 19% vote which seems to scare them so much a protest against Bush and Clinton as much as support for Ross Perot?

Perot keeps telling us to “look under the hood,” but we’re not told what to do once we look.

He tells us not to hire him to do brain surgery (because he doesn’t know how) but says Clinton should hire business people because they’ll know how to fix government. He tells us the “devil’s in the details,” but where the devil are his details? “Put everything on the table,” he whines, but his charts don’t tell us what to do once they’re there.

Perot’s “cut the deficit” and “raise some taxes” are worthwhile ideas. But what programs should be cut and which taxes should be raised?

Perot has made a great contribution to the public debate about the economy. He has forced the President and Congress to keep their eyes on the deficit. For this we are in his debt.

However, if Perot would begin to take responsibility for fixing what he sees under the hood, I suspect his ego trip would be less annoying. He’d soon discover the difference between business and government. Giving orders in one’s own firm is quite different from working with Congress and an electorate with diverse interests and needs.

So, Mr. Perot, it’s nice you have the time and money to tell us what needs to be done. It would be nice if you would also tell us how to do it.

I’m not sure what the $15 you’re asking us to send you is used to accomplish, but if it would produce a list of specific cuts and taxes, it might seem like money well spent. As it is, I wonder if it’s not merely a gimmick to justify the personal costs of your ego trip.