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We're going to fix that through a series of incentives for private investment, including a 10% investment tax credit, a permanent R. and D. tax credit and other incentives. We're going to do that through the Governor's Rebuild America plan, on which we will spend an additional $20 billion a year on infrastructure of the future.
Secondly, we're going to upgrade the skills and training of our work force, which is the most important national economic resource we have. We think we have a far more comprehensive program than President Bush does in that regard.
Also, technology. Clinton will reinvest every dollar of savings from military R. and D. into civilian R. and D.
Lastly, I would hope that there would be an improvement in consumer psychology in the early days of the new Administration because of the advent of new leadership. There's precedent for that. It happened when President Kennedy replaced President Eisenhower.
Q. Why don't either one of your programs move faster to balance the budget, as Ross Perot and others have urged?
ALTMAN: I give Perot credit for advancing the debate. It's a real contribution.
Our view is that the Perot plan really would be too much, too soon -- that it would hurt the economy rather than help it.
DARMAN: The Perot plan and other serious plans have something in common with the Bush plan, which is that they recognize the importance of dealing with mandatory spending, which the Clinton plan does not. There are some differences. We do not favor tax increases. Do you favor any of those?
ALTMAN: None of those is in our plan.
DARMAN: Do you like any of them?
ALTMAN: Clinton has talked publicly about subjecting Social Security income for affluent Americans to a higher rate of tax.
DARMAN: Would he accept the Perot proposal to do it for everybody with income over $25,000?
ALTMAN: I don't know. I think if anything, it would not be that low. But the concept of that proposal is something Clinton's already said he thinks makes sense.
The notion that no tax increases of any kind are acceptable is the biggest hole in Bush's approach. I know that you have said the budget can be balanced without any tax increases. I don't know anyone who agrees with that. You would, for example, try to cut mandatory spending by $294 billion over five years rather than raise one dime on Americans earning $200,000 a year or more.
DARMAN: I think the truth of the matter is to say you don't care about the deficit, because that's basically what the Clinton plan says.
ALTMAN: Given the Administration's record, it's absolutely a joke for you to sit here and say we don't care about deficits. That's like Jeffrey Dahmer accusing the police force of brutality.
DARMAN: That's a line you should have saved for the debates, the real debates. Could we press further on this?
ALTMAN: Let me add one thought. There's no way that Clinton will do as badly as you have done on the deficits. Among other things, the financial markets don't give Democratic Presidents the leeway that Republican Presidents have to run these massive deficits. In fact, a Democratic President with this deficit would probably be impeached.