He said that President Clinton's plan borrowsheavily from his own.

But Clinton has made the program too costly byweakening malpractice reform, implementingmandatory cooperative alliances to purchase healthcare and adding new entitlements and regulations,Tsongas said.

He was somewhat kinder in evaluating Clinton'sperformance on reducing the deficit.

Tsongas said Clinton did a "good job" in hisfirst year in office.

But after that initial success, "the attitudeof the administration is, 'We've done it and wehave no plans to go forward,'" Tsongas said. "Theyhave lost the will to [advance on] the budget, sowe given them a very mixed report card at thispoint."

Tsongas also reflected on the 1992 presidentialcampaign and looked towards 1996.

He said that Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot"should have won" in 1992, but only lost becauseof doubts about his character.

"Ross Perot never campaigned for president,"Tsongas said. "The way he did it, he went on LarryKing, said he might run and...[almost immediately]was leading in the polls."

"That only happens when there's a vacuum," headded.

But Tsongas said Perot was essentiallyeliminated from contention by doubts about hisemotional fitness, as well as that of running mateJames Stockdale.

"If Ross Perot had given us more assuranceabout his temperament and had a reasonablyarticulate vice president, he would be president,no doubt about it," Tsongas said.

As for the 1996 race, Tsongas said he thinksthe Republicans are "going to kill themselves."

He said that by catering to the religiousright, the Republicans are ignoring much of theminority population.

Tsongas also said that no Republican candidatecan balance the budget, since the party opposesboth taxes and entitlement reductions