UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 3, Page 1                                
September 17, 1992                                             
Sen. Roth presents a plan to improve U.S. economy              
                                                               
     U.S. Sen. William V. Roth Jr. (R-Del.) opened the College of    
Business and Economics 1992-93 breakfast lecture series Tuesday with 
an overview of "JOG America," his plan for creating "jobs, opportunity        
and growth" in the U.S. economy.                                     
     During the 30-minute speech, which was delivered at Arsht Hall, 
Roth said he favors cutting 10 percent of the U.S. government's work 
force, primarily through attrition. He also said the administrative  
costs of national governance should be reduced by 25 percent.        
     The ranking Republican on the Senate Governmental Affairs       
Committee, Roth told the audience, which consisted of about 100      
members of the University and local business communities, that he    
supports no new taxes. "If government taxed and spent every dollar   
Americans earned, some problems still would not be solved," he said. 
     The thinning of the ozone layer, the depletion of the nation's  
wetlands, global warming and teenage pregnancy are examples of       
national problems that persist, despite the fact that nearly 40      
percent of the country's gross national product comes from government
spending, Roth said.                                                 
     "Congress," he said, "needs to learn to live within its means."    
     Roth acknowledged that the United States faces other "very real 
challenges," including poverty, drug abuse and the decay of bridges, 
roads and other components of the national infrastructure.           
     Despite these problems, Roth said there are many reasons for    
optimism in America, including the fact that Americans enjoy the     
highest standard of living in the world. He cited the United States' 
contribution of 25 percent of the world's combined gross national    
product as another reason to be hopeful about the future and said the
productivity of American workers still exceeds that of any other     
people.                                                              
     In keeping with his speech's title, "Toward a Competitive       
American Future," Roth offered his six-point "JOG America" plan as a 
blueprint for the country's future. The plan, he said, advocates     
government reform, technological advancement, the encouragement of   
savings and investment, the education of all Americans, the          
development of international trade as a means of job creation and a  
general improvement in the faith of Americans in their country.      
     Some of the goals of the program could be met if Congress passed   
legislation to reinstate an across-the-tax-brackets tax deduction for
contributions to individual retirement accounts (IRAs), Roth said.   
Other positive changes would follow such changes as the              
commercialization of government-funded research, now worth more than 
$75 billion per year, and the creation of a national economic council
to advise the president of the United States, he said.               
     In a brief question-and-answer period following his speech, Roth
voiced his support of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which 
President Bush recently signed with the leaders of Mexico and Canada,
but which must still be ratified by both houses of the U.S. Congress 
before becoming law.                                                 
     In the long term, the agreement would benefit the United States 
through the creation of the largest marketplace for goods in the     
world, he said. "On the down side," he said, "there is some genuine  
concern on the part of labor, including local Chrysler company       
employees, that plants are going to be transferred down to Mexico,   
causing a loss of jobs."                                             
     Now in his fourth term as a U.S. senator, Roth concluded that, in  
the short run, some Americans' jobs may be lost, including those of  
local automotive workers. As a member of the Senate Finance Committee,        
he said he is working with other senators on an act that, if passed, 
would amend the free trade agreement, enabling American workers who  
lose their jobs as a result of the agreement to qualify for job      
retraining programs.                                                 
     Roth's was the first of six lectures in the College of Business 
and Economics 13th annual breakfast series. The next presentation will        
be Oct. 13, when Edward Ratledge, director of the University's Center
for Applied Demographic and Survey Research, will discuss "A Forecast
of the State Budget."                                                
                                        -Stephen Steenkamer