Perot’s Back on Scene With Charts, Criticism : Politics: On television, he informs the nation of his latest views on Washington and Clinton’s early moves.

Ross Perot made his reappearance on the national scene Sunday--complete with charts--as he delivered his report on President Clinton’s performance in a 30-minute TV program and as a guest on “Meet the Press.”

Fewer than 100 days into Clinton’s term, Perot, the once and possibly future presidential candidate, let the nation know what is right and wrong in Washington and, in particular, with the new President.

Indeed, after Perot first suggested he saw some good in the investment tax credit that Clinton has proposed--Perot himself offered one during his presidential campaign--and then found reason to criticize Clinton’s plan, a television interviewer said with some frustration: “One gets the suspicion that you want to criticize Clinton just as you criticized (President George) Bush no matter what they do.”

Clinton was not the Texas billionaire’s only target. Perot delved into what is likely to be one of his key issues this year as he instructed the Senate on the folly of the three-way trade agreement with Mexico and Canada that is bubbling just below the surface of public debate.

Aid to Russia. Jobs in America. Gays in the military. The war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. On each subject, Perot offered his commentary--and signaled his readiness to return to the center of public attention as he seeks to influence the nation’s course.

And in his second, half-hour paid television commercial this year, Perot homed in on Clinton’s economic plan, hammering away at the tax increases the President would impose to bring down the budget deficit and to boost spending on jobs, highways and social welfare programs.

“Here is the President’s deficit reduction plan. He’s going to add $273 billion in new taxes. That’s 72% of how he reduces the debt, just by taxing,” Perot said in the Sunday night NBC broadcast, which by one account cost him $300,000.

“During the campaign, President Clinton promised that he would not raise taxes on Americans earning less than $200,000 a year,” the businessman-politician said. “After becoming President, he now admits that his new tax program will affect people making as little as $30,000 a year--a major change.”

On “Meet the Press,” Perot gave a wholehearted endorsement to increased aid for Russia. Clinton has over the past month unveiled two programs, totaling $3.4 billion, to assist Russia’s conversion to a supply-and-demand capitalist economy and to demonstrate support for the fledgling democracy there.

“Costs us pennies on the dollar to help Russia achieve success in democracy, compared to going back to the Cold War,” Perot said. “It’s one of the most cost-effective things we could do. The whole world must participate. Shouldn’t be put on our shoulders, but this certainly beats having our sons and daughters go on the battlefield or certainly beats having a nuclear war or all the things we’ve faced for 45 years.”

Bosnia? Take care, Perot warned.

To the debate over whether the United States should end the embargo on the shipment of weapons to Bosnian Muslims, or take part in air strikes to muzzle the Serbs’ artillery aimed with devastating effectiveness at the Muslims, Perot added this:

“You’ve got another Vietnam sitting over there. The countries that ought to take the lead are the European countries. They’d be the ones that would be most affected. The last thing we should do is put our troops at risk on an undeclared war.”

The problem with dropping the ban on allowing gays and lesbians to serve in the armed forces, Perot said, is this: What happens in battle, when a gay soldier “gets terribly wounded, needs mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. There’s blood all over the place. Are you going to dive in there and save your buddy or are you going to sit there and freeze for a minute?”

After reserving judgment on the North American Free Trade Agreement, which over 15 years would drop all tariffs on trade among the United States, Canada and Mexico, Perot in recent days has landed squarely in the camp of the agreement’s opponents.

The pact was negotiated by the Bush Administration, and strengthened provisions intended to protect the environment and workers’ rights are being hammered out by negotiators from the three countries. Their goal is to gain congressional approval this autumn so that the agreement can go into effect next Jan. 1.

Appearing in late March before the House Small Business Committee, Perot said that the new round of talks might be sufficient to meet his concerns. But appearing Thursday before the Senate Banking Committee, he dropped any suggestion that Clinton could gain his support on this issue.

Asked Sunday about his opposition, he pulled out a copy of an advertisement seeking to draw U.S. business investment to Mexico.

“Here is one of my favorites right here,” Perot said, as he began to read from the ad built around a business executive’s search for inexpensive labor: “ ‘I can’t find good loyal workers for a dollar an hour within a thousand miles of here.’ ”

“ ‘Oh, yes, you can in Yucatan,’ ” the ad continues.

“This is going to deindustrialize our country,” Perot said. Indeed, its ramifications could mean the end of the United States as a military power, he said.