Ross Perot, hammering away at his theme that wasteful government spending is strangling the economy, Saturday said an upcoming town hall meeting he will host will send Washington a wake-up call.
"There's no discipline in Washington, and you and I are going to give them discipline," Perot promised 3,000 boisterous supporters at a hotel rally.The billionaire businessman turned politician said he would appear on an electronic town hall meeting March 21 on NBC to discuss government reform.
He said his grass-roots movement "United We Stand, America" will place "ballots" in upcoming issues of TV Guide so people can send in their opinions before the town hall meeting on how government should change.
He promised to install a 900 call-in telephone number and a computer electronic mailbox to receive messages.
Perot, who unsuccessfully ran for president as an independent candidate in November, was back in the limelight Tuesday when he lectured Congress on the evils of the massive U.S. budget deficit.
Colorado is fertile ground for Perot. He received wide support here, a state with a heavy concentration of independent voters.
While not taking any swipes at President Clinton, Perot told his Denver audience he feared upcoming proposals to overhaul the U.S. health-care industry would turn into just another round of overblown government spending.
"Look at the history of our social programs, and you will see we go from great ideas to mass production and pay for it again and again and again and again. We can't afford to do that this time," he said.