Free Republic

Brian Williams recently “shocked” many Americans with his disingenuous reporting. His claims of perilous combat coverage in Iraq and dramatic Hurricane Katrina coverage in New Orleans appear bogus. After suspending him for 6 months, NBC is now investigating its top anchor, attempting to “get at the truth.” Right. Same as the Warren Commission. But in fact, Brian Williams’ style of NBC reporting has its adherents. Take the Castro regime. A red carpet, honor-guard and a 21-gun salute (figuratively speaking) is what NBC always finds upon their frequent visits to “report” from Cuba. Gosh? I wonder why? Maybe these quotes provide...

resident Obama sure is consistent. His State of the Union address sounded like his other speeches: What I've done is great! America is in a much better position. We've created a manufacturing sector that's adding jobs. More oil is produced at home. I cut deficits in half! Give me a break. The deficit is lower now not because of any prudence on Obama's part but merely because the $800 billion stimulus spending blowout didn't continue. All the president does is increase spending: free community college, free Obamaphones, free birth control, etc. Yes, our annual deficit is lower, but it's still...

John Stossel’s show invited Bloomberg’s various gun control organizations to send a representative to debate on guns, but, as they have done so many times in the past, Shannon Watts and the rest of Bloomberg’s staff declined to participate. The show discussed Bloomberg’s claims regarding the risks of guns in the home as well as domestic violence. Bloomberg’s PR people did send some statements to be read on the show and they were discussed. This show aired on Fox News on Saturday at 5 PM EDT and will re-air at 10 PM EDT on Sunday, and 1 AM EDT on...

Americans For Tax Reform Tax Policy Director Ryan Ellis said on Wednesday night that he's starting to think tea party activists are "freaking retarded."

Most Americans -- even those who are legislators -- know very little about the details of President Obama's Affordable Care Act, so-called Obamacare. Next year, when it goes into effect, we will learn the hard way. Many people lazily assume that the law will do roughly what it promises: give insurance to the uninsured and lower the cost of health care by limiting spending on dubious procedures. Don't count on it. Consider just the complexity: The act itself is more than 906 pages long, and again and again in those 906 pages are the words, "the Secretary shall promulgate regulations...

Environmental activists and politicians would like you to think that we must love their regulations -- or hate trees and animals. I love trees and animals. But you can love nature and still hate the tyranny that environmental regulations bring. The Environmental Protection Agency just announced it will boost gas prices ("only" a penny, although industry says 6 to 9 cents) to make another minuscule improvement to air quality. In New York City, my mayor wants to ban Styrofoam cups, saying, "I think it's something we can do without." Congress already dictates the design of our cars, toilets and light...

Shortly after I did my first TV special on education, "Stupid in America," hundreds of union teachers showed up outside my office to yell at me. They were angry because I said union rules were a big reason American kids don't learn. The union is a big reason kids don't like school and learn less. Union contracts limit flexibility, limit promotion of good teachers, waste money and make it hard for principals to fire even terrible teachers. But I was wrong to imply that the union is the biggest problem. In states with weak unions, K-12 schools stagnate, too. Education...

Conservative talker Ann Coulter appeared Thursday on Fox Business Network’s “Stossel” to do battle with the show’s Libertarian host — and his 1,400+ Libertarian guests. Their biggest point of contention? Social Conservatism versus the Libertarian “Individuals Should Be Left Alone” approach. The evening began pleasantly enough, the two discussing whether the U.S. should’ve invaded Iraq following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Coulter believes military action was justified because Saddam Hussein was “definitely looking for uranium from Niger.” But then things became a little more heated when Stossel decided to shift gears and brought up legalizing drugs. “Libertarians and pot,” Coulter...

I’m a libertarian in part because I see a false choice offered by the political left and right: government control of the economy -- or government control of our personal lives. People on both sides think of themselves as freedom lovers. The left thinks government can lessen income inequality. The right thinks government can make Americans more virtuous. I say we’re best off if neither side attempts to advance its agenda via government. Let both argue about things like drug use and poverty, but let no one be coerced by government unless he steals or attacks someone. Beyond the small...

When U.S. Rep. Allen West visited GelTech Solutions in Jupiter last week, he expressed both enthusiasm for its “next-generation” products and frustration with the government’s tendency to hinder small businesses’ growth. In an exclusive interview, West said so many government agencies are “stuck on stupid,” continuing their old ways instead of embracing new, less expensive technology. Such archaic thinking, he said, ends up costing the American taxpayer more money. GelTech Solutions, a small, publicly traded company based in Jupiter, is growing at a time when many other businesses are struggling in a crippling economic downturn. Though it is just one...

Fox Business Network host John Stossel appeared on Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends on Thursday to dispel the myth that there are almost no low or no experience jobs available. He also interviewed Fox News Channel’s primetime hosts about their first jobs to show young people that they might have expectations that are preventing them from taking these kinds of jobs. Fill-in host Peter Johnson asked Stossel if young Americans were aiming too high. Stossel agreed and said that older people were also thinking that way too. “Right outside the welfare office where people told us there were no...

Since progressives want government to run health care, let's look at what government management did to K-12 education. While most every other service in life has gotten better and cheaper, American education remains stagnant. Spending has tripled! Why no improvement? Because K-12 education is a virtual government monopoly -- and monopolies don't improve. In every other sector of the economy, market competition forces providers to improve constantly. It's why most things get better -- often cheaper, too (except when government interferes, as in health care). Politicians claim that education and health care are different -- too important to leave to...

Former ABC News reporter John Stossel, in an interview with The Heritage Foundation, explained why he left ABC and how he arrived at Fox News. Stossel left ABC in 2009 after working there for 28 years “because it sucked,” he said. “They were hostile to these ideas that made us prosperous and I consider so important. They tolerated me for years,” said Stossel, “but by the end they were saying ‘Oh, you’re so predictable Stossel, you want to use libertarian economics all the time.’” A turning point for Stossel came when he did a segment called “Stupid in America” about...

We grow up learning that some things are just bad: child labor, ticket scalping, price gouging, kidney selling, blackmail, etc. But maybe they're not. What I love about economics is that it can show that what seems harmful is actually good for society. It illuminates what common sense overlooks. This is all covered in the eye-opening book "Defending the Undefendable" by economist Walter Block. Most people call child labor an unmitigated evil. David Boaz of the Cato Institute and Nick Gillespie of Reason.tv say that's wrong. "If we say that the United States should abolish child labor in very poor...

On my show tonight at 10pm, I lay out a way to completely get rid of the deficit. I don't claim to be a budget expert. But others, such as Chris Edwards at Cato and Stuart Butler at Heritage, are. They found lots of serious cuts. My staff found a few more, and put together a list that would completely balance the budget: Defense cut by 2/3: $475 billion (Federal Budget, pg. 58) Medicare/Medicaid*: $441 billion (Cato Institute) Social Security Means Testing: $170 billion (Heritage Foundation) Eliminate Dept. of Education (includes Pell Grants): $106.9 billion (Cato Institute) Social Security*: $85.7...

Despite slipping mostly under the radar, John Stossel disclosed something on his FBN program last Thursday that should have garnered a lot more attention. As he chatted with guest Andrew Breitbart, Stossel admitted that the conservative publisher had offered him the James O'Keefe/Hannah Giles/ACORN scoop, but the former ABC Newser declined due to politics at the network he used to work for (video follows with transcript and commentary): JOHN STOSSEL, HOST: Speaking of the mainstream media, I am a little bit ashamed of this one, but I am revealing now for the first time publicly that when I worked at...

In America today, the biggest recipients of handouts are not poor people. They're corporations. General Electric CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt is super-close to President Obama. The president named Immelt chairman of his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Before that, Immelt was on Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. He's a regular companion when Obama travels abroad to hawk American exports. (Why does business need government to do that?) "Jeff Immelt is perhaps the CEO who is most cozy with President Obama," says journalist Tim Carney. "General Electric is structuring their business around where government is going ... high-speed rail, solar, wind....

Of the 6 billion people on Earth, 2 billion try to survive on a few dollars a day. They don't build businesses, or if they do, they don't expand them. Unlike people in the United States, Europe and Asian countries like Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, etc., they don't lift themselves out of poverty. Why not? What's the difference between them and us? Hernando de Soto taught me that the biggest difference may be property rights. I first met de Soto maybe 15 years ago. It was at one of those lunches where people sit around wondering how to end...

Taxing the Rich By John Stossel Progressives want to raise taxes on individuals who make more than $200,000 a year because they say it's wrong for the rich to be "given" more money. Sunday's New York Times carries a cartoon showing Uncle Sam handing money to a fat cat. They just don't get it. As I've said before, a tax cut is not a handout. It simply means government steals less. What progressives want to do is take money from some -- by force -- and spend it on others. It sounds less noble when plainly stated.

Click here to find out more! In "Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity," I bet my readers $1,000 that they couldn't name one thing that government does better than the private sector. I am yet to pay. Free enterprise does everything better. Why? Because if private companies don't do things efficiently, they lose money and die. Unlike government, they cannot compel payment through the power to tax. Even when a private company operates a public facility under contract to government, it must perform. If it doesn't, it will be "fired" -- its contract won't be renewed. Government is never fired. Contracting...