ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 20, 1996 TAG: 9610210100
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Tom Roberts says he would be happy to be likened to Chicken Little in the years ahead. He hopes the fiscal sky is not really falling.
``I really hope people call me a fool five years from now,'' said the Blacksburg engineer who is the Virginia Independent/Reform Party candidate for the 9th Congressional District seat held by Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon.
As an engineer, ``when you look at a dam, you're not looking at how big and beautiful it is, you're looking for cracks in it. What could go wrong?'' he said. ``Well, the same attitude has to be looked at with the fiscal responsibility of the government.''
It is a subject on which Roberts becomes truly passionate. How, he asks, will future generations view this one? ``With total contempt'' is his answer, once they realize their prosperity has been stolen from them.
``And that's total destruction of America right there,'' he said. ``It's thievery. I don't know what else you want to call it.''
His fixation on the debt and deficit goes back to 1981, when Ronald Reagan - whom he supported for president after Reagan warned against deficit spending - brought in an unbalanced budget. ``At that time, their attention was on the `Evil Empire,''' Roberts said, and he was even called unpatriotic for suggesting that too much was being spent on military boondoggles.
If it gets to where the country can no longer afford the interest on the debt, he said, the outcome would be worse on the nation than war. And it has gone from $1 trillion to $5 trillion in 14 years.
``And that's why I'm here. It's not so much to get rid of Boucher, but to get people aware of the facts,'' he said. ``It's not going to be solved by replacing all the guys there,'' he said, if what he called the system of ``legal bribery" - meaning huge campaign contributions - stays in place.
He cites this comparison: Take the total value of all governmental assets, all the U.S. oil still in the ground, all the money printed since 1779 in or out of circulation, the assets of the top 50 U.S. banks, all the gold in banks or the ground.
``You still don't have $5 trillion,'' he said. ``If I thought there was any way out other than to get the public informed and involved, I would not be here. I wouldn't be doing this. It's not over after the election, either.''
``I think the average person, the average American, if faced with these issues would say `I'm willing to have a little less in benefits myself coming back from the government to get this fixed.''' But, he added, ``I don't believe the other parties believe that.''
He has even scheduled talks on the subject for after the election, win or lose, before organizations unable to work him in before Nov. 5.
``I could be labeled as being wrapped up in this,'' he admitted with a grin.
Roberts lived in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., until he was 14 years old. An uncle and aunt who were missionaries invited him in 1976 to join them for a few months when they returned to Pakistan.
``I took it more as a joke,'' Roberts recalled. ``I said, `Sure, give me a plane ticket. I'll go.''' His grandfather took him up on it, offering to pay for a three-month stay. Two weeks later, Roberts had his passport, his shots and was on his way.
He attended a school for missionary children at the base of the Himalayas, where teachers had about seven students per class, in contrast to more than 70 students in his school in Maryland. ``I was fortunate enough to be wise enough when I was 14 years old to realize this was a deal I shouldn't give up.''
It was no sunny vacation spot. Student accommodations were unheated. It was not uncommon for a glass of water by his bed to freeze overnight. ``Even with those minor inconveniences, I had a wonderful time...I stayed for four years and I think I got a real education.''
Roberts came home in 1978, sold a coin collection he had accumulated over the years, worked for a month and a half, secured student loans and entered Virginia Tech with little financial support from his father. ``He said it would build character.''
He met his future wife, Betsy, at a student party in 1981, but it was not until two years later that they started dating after running into each other again. They were married in 1983 and have a 6-year-old son, David.
If elected, Roberts said, he will serve only one two-year term. ``It's sort of like signing up for a tour of duty in Vietnam. You'd be crazy to want to go twice.'' His wife and son would stay in Blacksburg and he would freeload with friends in the D.C. area, he said.
Roberts subscribed to the principles of the Virginia Independent Party - the state wing of Ross Perot's Reform Party - including campaign reform, a balanced budget, term limits, and one he added of his own: no contribution of more than $100 from any individual.
``Now you see why we have most of our equipment borrowed or donated,'' he said, gesturing around rented campaign headquarters off U.S. 460 in Christiansburg. ``I've already given back checks that were written for more than $100. It was not easy.''
Likewise, he would take no pension. ``It's not because I don't want the money. It sends the wrong signal,'' he said. ``It creates a situation where people are in an ivory tower.''
Roberts enjoys tweaking reporters, quizzing them on such matters as the difference between the national debt and deficit. ``I go by the assumption, right or wrong, that the press is ignorant of the situation.'' He reads voraciously, everything from economics to almanacs, collecting volumes picked up at used-book sales.
In 1988, shortly after President Bush's election, Roberts heard Perot address the National Press Club on National Public Radio. He was so impressed that he ordered his first program tape.
By 1992, he and his wife were convinced that neither party was going to address their fiscal concerns. Forty-eight hours after they learned Perot would be a presidential candidate, they had an information line run into their home and started campaigning for him.
In March, Roberts became the Reform Party chairman for Montgomery County. Rocky Wilkinson, now his campaign manager, convinced him that one way to get the fiscal issues before the public would be to run for Congress.
``And I have no illusions. If I was elected, they'd do everything they could to roast me alive,'' he said. ``Unlike the other candidates in this district, I am not promising to bring anything backI am not going to promise a tax decrease until we get this budget balanced.''
LENGTH: Long : 115 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: color photo KEYWORDS: POLITICS CONGRESS PROFILEby CNB