Government should help people make healthy choices for themselves. The post office should deliver the mail. Fracking is dangerous. Lawsuits protect consumers. Obamacare is good for business. Government must build infrastructure. Washington D.C. is about serving the public. What you think you know... is often wrong.
John Stossel goes behind the scenes to show viewers what goes into winning the presidency. From the message of the day and deciding on which TV channel a given advertisement will air, to the height of the podiums at the debates and the placement of signage at rallies, everything is micromanaged, rehearsed, planned, negotiated, regimented, and controlled.
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America has become a country where no one can know what is legal. Kids who open lemonade stands are now shut down by police .Want to start a taxi business? Too bad - it's illegal. Illegal, that is, unless you buy a government-issued "taxi medallion" that can cost as much as a million dollars. With government adding 80,000 pages of rules and regulations every year, it's no surprise that regular people break laws without even trying.
Are we stupid in America? When it comes to education, maybe. Kids aren't learning, but school spending is through the roof. Why? What's gone wrong? The bureaucracy is what's wrong.
John Stossel's latest special is titled after an item from The Onion: "Should the Government Stop Dumping Money Into a Giant Hole?" We will soon spend ourselves into oblivion. But finally... movement! Budget slashing proposals from Paul Ryan, the Republican Study Committee, Ron Paul, Rand Paul and even Tim Pawlenty! But politicians and real people across the spectrum still resist change. What should government do? What's its role? What have other countries done? Slashing spending is a good thing.
John Stossel takes a look at how the government has turned people into freeloaders. One can make over $20,000 a year, tax-free, from panhandling. Any black person who has "attempted to farm" can collect $50,000 from the federal government. The most egregious freeloaders are big corporations like General Electric. Stossel interviews American Indians who say that the only reason their tribe is not poor like most others is because they do not receive government funds, as well as operators of a web side that advises people not to pay their mortgages.
Politicians spend so much time creating new laws that they rarely pay attention to one law even they can't repeal: the law of unintended consequences. For every upside to a new law, there is usually at least one downside, often one that doesn't reveal itself right away. Featured: Cash for Clunkers, the minimum wage, Title IX, sports arenas, alpaca subsidies, credit card regulations, health care reform, ethanol subsidies, programs to increase home ownership, and pledges of fiscal responsibility.
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It is the story of who we are and of what we believe. The story of ordinary people who have created an extraordinary place – America.
