Earlier this week we got a rare moment of honesty from a politician, when Congressman Tom Perriello (D-VA) said:

"The only way to get congress to balance the budget is to give them no choice"� whether it's balanced budget acts or pay-as-you-go legislation, the only thing -- if you don't tie our hands, we will keep stealing."� [Video here]

Couldn't have said it better myself. In the same clip he gives an accurate description of the problems with Medicare:

"Part of what has happened with Social Security and Medicare is that when they...]]> Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500 I like my hometown, but I must admit that New York has problems: high taxes, noise, traffic. Forbes magazine just ranked my city the 16th most miserable in America. Ouch! Of course, that makes me wonder: What's America's most miserable city?

Cleveland, says Forbes. People call it "the Mistake by the Lake. " Cleveland, once America's sixth-largest city, has been going downhill for decades.

Why do some cities thrive while others decay? One reason is that some politicians smother their cities with the unintended consequences of their grand visions, while others have the good sense to limit government power.

In a state that already taxes its citizens heavily, Cleveland's...]]> Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0600 March 12, 2010 12:27 PM EST by John Stossel

As the Democrats scramble to pass health care legislation, talk still returns to the idea that at least the health care bill is "deficit neutral". That is, while it spends more than a trillion on a new entitlement, it pays for itself mostly by cuts in Medicare. Of course, the doc fix -- scheduled Medicare cuts to doctors which Congress has no intention of making -- will dwarf those savings and add $89 billion to the deficit.

But leave that aside. Medicare already faces a $30 Trillion deficit. The bigger issue is that Democrats are poised to make cuts in Medicare -- something that is incredibly difficult to do -- but...]]> Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0600 The people of Louisiana must sleep soundly knowing that their state protects them from ... unlicensed florists.

That's right. In Louisiana, you can't sell flower arrangements unless you have permission from the government. How do you get permission? You must pass a test that is graded by a board of florists who already have licenses. To prepare for the test, you might have to spend $2,000 on a special course.

The test requires knowledge of techniques that florists rarely use anymore. One question asks the name of the state's agriculture commissioner -- as though you can't be a good florist without knowing that piece of vital information.

The licensing board defends...]]> Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0600 March 3, 2010 01:19 PM EST by John Stossel

The astute Holman Jenkins once again gets to the heart of a matter.

In this case, the heart is the rarely discussed, boring but powerful facet of our current health insurance system that distorts all efforts to cut costs, and discourages individuals from taking control of their own health care: the tax deduction for employer-provided health insurance.

Everybody knows this turned "insurance" into something else. Call it prepaid health care, as Milton Friedman did. Call it a giant tax Laundromat for the nation's private health spending.

It became a...]]> Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0600 "It's a free country."

That's a popular saying -- and true in many ways. But for a free country, America does ban a lot of things that are perfectly peaceful and consensual. Why is that?

Here are some things you can't do in most states of the union: rent your body to someone for sex, sell your kidney, take recreational drugs. The list goes on. I'll discuss American prohibitions tomorrow night at 8 and 11 p.m. Eastern time (and again on Friday at 10) on my Fox Business program.

The prohibitionists say their rules are necessary for either the public's or the particular individual's own good. I'm skeptical. I think of what Albert Camus said: "The welfare of humanity is...]]> Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600 February 25, 2010 07:24 AM EST by John Stossel

Last night I blogged about the Rhode Island school district that got up the courage to fire their teachers' union. Unfortunately, reform isn't going as well in my town. The NY Times has a surprisingly fair article this week about the near-impossibility of firing an NYC public school teacher:

[I]n the two years since the Education Department began an intensive effort to root out such teachers from the more than 55,000 who have tenure, officials have managed to fire only three for incompetence. Ten others whom the department charged with incompetence settled their cases by resigning or...]]> Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600 People suffer and die because the government "protects" us. It should protect us less and respect our liberty more.

The most basic questions are: Who owns you, and who should control what you put into your body? In what sense are you free if you can't decide what medicines you will take?

This will be the subject of my Fox Business program tomorrow night.

We'll hear from people like Bruce Tower. Tower has prostate cancer. He wanted to take a drug that showed promise against his cancer, but the Food and Drug Administration would not allow it. One bureaucrat told him the government was protecting him from dangerous side effects. Tower's outraged response was: "Side...]]> Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600 February 18, 2010 12:30 PM EST by John Stossel

As I prepare tonight's show (FBN at 8pm & 11pm ET) on the battle between school choice and the government school monopoly, I keep seeing similarities to the health care debate.  The majority of Congress and President Obama seem to believe that more government control will improve consumer service.  Betsy McCaughey writes wonderfully about why the current versions of Congress' health care bills miss the mark:

These bills reduce American freedom. Forcing people to buy insurance and empowering government to dictate what your doctor does "� There can be no negotiation between...]]> Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600 The government-school establishment has said the same thing for decades: Education is too important to leave to the competitive market. If we really want to help our kids, we must focus more resources on the government schools.

But despite this mantra, the focus is on something other than the kids. When The Washington Post asked George Parker, head of the Washington, D.C., teachers union, about the voucher program there, he said: "Parents are voting with their feet. ... As kids continue leaving the system, we will lose teachers. Our very survival depends on having kids in D.C. schools so we'll have teachers to represent."

How revealing is that?

Since 1980, government...]]> Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600 February 15, 2010 09:52 AM EST by John Stossel

This month's Atlantic cover story makes dire predictions  about the impact of the recession:

It will likely change the life course and character of a generation of young adults... It could cripple marriage as an institution in many communities. It may already be plunging many inner cities into a despair not seen for decades. Ultimately, it is likely to warp our politics, our culture, and the character of our society for years to come.

The dreary article quotes nearly every liberal economist and concludes that because we are in "such a deep hole,"� "solutions""�like...]]> Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600 Government is taking us a long way down the Road to Serfdom. That doesn't just mean that more of us must work for the government. It means that we are changing from independent, self-responsible people into a submissive flock. The welfare state kills the creative spirit.

F.A. Hayek, an Austrian economist living in Britain, wrote "The Road to Serfdom" in 1944 as a warning that central economic planning would extinguish freedom. The book was a hit. Reader's Digest produced a condensed version that sold 5 million copies.

Hayek meant that governments can't plan economies without planning people's lives. After all, an economy is just individuals engaging in exchanges. The...]]> Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600 February 6, 2010 11:00 AM EST by John Stossel

This week the President again showed how thin-skinned he is about criticism in the media. Maybe he's so sensitive to criticism because he's gotten so little of it.

The president's advice came in answer to a question from Sen. Mike Bennet, D-CO, who is facing a difficult re-election fight back home and wanted to know what Democrats and Republicans can do "to fix this institution so that our democracy can actually withstand the test that we're facing right now."

"You know what I think would actually make a difference, Michael? I think if everybody here --...]]> Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600 Many window-making companies struggle because of the recession's effect on home building. But one little window company, Serious Materials, is "booming," says Fortune. "On a roll," according to Inc. magazine, which put Serious' CEO on its cover, with a story titled: "How to Build a Great Company".

The Minnesota Freedom Foundation tells me that this same little window company also gets serious attention from the most visible people in America.

Vice President Joe Biden appeared at the opening of one of its plants. CEO Kevin Surace thanked him for his "unwavering support." "Without you and the recovery ("stimulus") act, this would not have been possible," Surace...]]> Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0600 January 29, 2010 10:50 AM EST by John Stossel

During the President's State of the Union, Obama laid down a challenge to opponents of his health care plan:

If anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know.

This is a tiring theme from the President: Pretend your opponents don't have their own ideas. As Reason's Peter Suderman put it, "Here, Obama, Let Me Google Some Health-Care Reform Alternatives For You":

It's simply not true that reform...]]>