for children and grandchildren. god bless you and god bless america. [cheers] [applause] [cheers] [applause] spume republican rockstar. his name is chris christie. i don't care whether you are right or left,, that is what you call a heckuva speech. and that is what you call a memorable keynote. i've had the opportunity to cover political conventions since 1980, and rarely does the speech, even on the part of nominees bring the house down. chris christie, the guy who took a blue state and turn it red and

who is still facing record high unemployment in the northeast, the highest unemployment rate in the northeast, proved that change doesn't come overnight, but a passion to do so does -- he did more to help this reticent reserve republican nominee, mitt romney, than anybody in this room. that is not to say that it's going to be impossible for mitt romney and paul ryan for that matter to be president in their own speeches. but there is something about the big guy from new jersey. the political boss. he brought it home tonight. >> i have to tell you that i am stunned by that speech. i want to tell you a couple of other things that are really important. he never mentioned the word obama. he did not deliberate intent to literally make a keynote address

about him. he spoke to something much bigger than all the lines. he stunned the audience when he started talking about proof and truth. >> someone who would get up what america could be and he spoke to that with a conviction. this rivals the greatest keynote address mario cuomo. neil: i was thinking the same thing. "the shining" city on a who criticizing the ronald reagan approach but this was a different week. >> the indictment the challenge to america if he

was the nominee right now the election would be over. i don't know how obama fights this. mitt romney has to match the speed. he deserves credit. they know what are they have set, but he moved to the debate beyond the b.s. of politics. neil: but you are a great writer but twistings the old jfk line ask not what you can do but new jersey. >> our job is not to read the polls mr. president but to change the polls. listen to the liberation of.

we change the polls with our principles. i don't know how many times he used the word truth. it was not an attack speech but he framed in the election for the urgent voice which i have said the country is worried. neither party can do anything other than run for office. he laid down a cause. it is about us, our generation, what our children will read in the history books about us. that is powerful, powerful. neil: we are a nation of many people. but it is not so much in the

kid from jersey who speak powerfully. but then speaks to our frustration. >> you cannot dispute the budget. he said we are the party of teachers they are the party of teachers unions. neil: he drew a distinction. i have nothing against policemen, firemen, teachers policemen, firemen, teachers , transit workers, but a big beef with those unions that represent them. i am not anti-the common man but those who represent your suppose said common interest >> the political line i have

been preaching when he said about political leaders in driving the car car off the cliff all's they care is a fair behind the wheel, i have to read the speech there are very powerful words. neil: talk about the speech there will be some blunt lines but the way he delivered. >> with a passion. he did not write it but he spearheaded every word. it was an urgency with the wonderful optimism. we can do this. he just gave them a new definition we are the party of we can do it. this is a major event.

he did not attack obama. neil: through mitt romney and listening to the speech speech, paul ryan is tomorrow night, d you think maybe i should have picked him? >> i always thought he was a game changer. i don't know if he could be number two. neil: do attire look like number two? all the people who wanted him to run are reaping. he carved out a definition for his party and the first

to speak to the urgency. neil: the convention and has adjourned now the pressure is on paul ryan wraps things up with his big speech. he is a great gifted speaker but to look at chris christie. >> a remarkable speech and it works for chris christie. not just dial which is confrontational but you never hear politicians say that you need to sacrifice, a shared sacrifice, and that is something that went over very well. mitt romney and ann romney sat right there. you could see them live on

the air. they were grinning as they walked out immediately after. it went well here on the floor. paul ryan is a different tone but along the same lines. only leadership will do so indicating obama is not providing leadership. neil: i thought he had a brilliant point*. you have to tell people i've of medicare but it cannot go on. i would love to tell you social security will be okay. you will have to adjust. but the way he framed that to i believe we can get past

these problems and we're up to the task. it is not comment not me but yes, and the. it turned great society on its head. >> a sense of resiliency and hope that you can change a country to put it on a more sustainable path you can make for a better second american is century. people talk about the end of the american century. chris christie tries to let you down in a different way.

he is talking seriously but it is that connection he has made with the third republican governor in 30 years in the state of new jersey. neil: to bring back the notion it is okay to be passionate, it is okay to sound pissed off and the related and cross and tell people get the hell off of the beach. it is okay to be human. their right or the left, be who you are. >> the first line about his mother telling him? in this time when everything is so packaged. neil: nothing package about

that. >> when he spoke to this he gave a sense of purpose. the second american century century, you can be proud to build, there will be real sacrifice, everybody will pay. he gave the payoff. neil: fdr, john kennedy, and ronald reagan could sell that. change is okay. we have responded. talk about nazi germany and since ronald reagan, we have missed the voice. as the party of no he said we are the party of yes we can. >> foo a good purpose not to

just cut taxes but to make the country work. neil: and not by the size of government but the effectiveness. >> he took the republican party out of the place because he raised to higher levels. >> mario cuomo stands out. 1984. >> standing on the shoulders of giants. neil: 1992 convention, those that galvanized the dna trying to be fair and balanced but you speak to hear and not here, it is a game changer.

if i am mitt romney i say maybe? paul ryan his big speech and john mccain. it is only half over. chris christie, this is your night. the capital one cash rewards card gives you a 50% annual bonus. and everyone, but her... likes 50% more cash. but, i have an idea. do you want a princess dress? yes how about some cupcakes? yes lollipop? yes!

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stossel: that pile of regulations. that is just what the feds have im es a >> more. ofttn even stupid or more intrusive rules. that is why i have found that i could not legally sell lemonade outside fox business studios. i guess i could have opened a stand legally, but it would've taken me months. even stores that hired lawyers to help them with the rules sometimes discover they are in trouble because they broke laws they didn't even know about. in a low income section of brooklyn, and in immigrant from

yemen started a dollar store. he employed dozens of people until now. now he's about to be put out of business because he has the nerve to sell these. a kid's halloween costume that includes a plastic gun. a toy gun, to be very clear. this is likely to put them out of business? new york says the gun might be mistaken for a real gun. they hit the store with a 5000-dollar fine. the owner can't afford that. when the sheriff comes, wel, i will let andrew explain it. you are a lawyer in that neighborhood. he comes due for help? >> he came to me for help. he had six of these toy guns. there was a 5000-dollar fine imposed for each toy gun. that made it eight there 30,000 dollar fine. we received a settlement offer i don't know how many items you need cell to make $5000, but i

am certain that it is more than 5000. my client didn't believe that he could pay the fine, so he went to trial. we produced our evidence and we produced the toy gun that is clearly fake. it has an orange cat. it comes from the 99 cents gun store toy store, and it doesn't look real. it looks like a toy. after hearing the evidence, a 30,000 dollar fine was imposed. we feel that kind come and -- it is only a matter of time before it the city comes and put my store out of business, shuts my doors, and puts all the employees on the street. stossel: and the city says when they are asked about this, realistic looking imitation guns are legal and dangerous. a 15-year-old in texas was killed while holding one of these toy guns.

stossel: my understanding of the story in texas is that the 15-year-old pointed the gun at the police and refused several produced several lawful orders to drop the gun. in this case, the toy gun is clearly a toy, and i don't believe under any circumstance would a police officer view this as a fake toy gun. i believe we substantially comply with the law, other than the fact that the gun is not an acceptable color of pink or yellow -- stossel: i think that is why you lost in court. the law is clear. acceptable colors are white, bright orange and bright green and so forth. >> i represented 99-cent store owners for many years now. my clients have been accused of selling cigarettes to minors and alcohol to minors, which are serious offenses. the fines for selling cigarettes and alcohol to minors pale in comparison to the 30,000 dollars that was imposed upon my client. stossel: do you think these

bureaucrats don't care about business? do think that this is just evil and in different? >> i think that they believe that there is a magic pot out there and this business owner has a magic pot that he can dip into, he can raise the prices, past the prices onto the consumer, and he will pay the money to stay in business. in this case, my client doesn't have the funds to pay a 30,000 dollar fine to stay in business to sell these 99-cent items. stossel: think you answered to him. coming up, store owners are being sued because they didn't

stossel: with 160,000 pages of federal rules facing us, even liberal politicians occasionally talk about reducing regulations. >> is why we are getting rid of regulations that don't work. stossel: that would be good if true, but they barely illuminated anything. for every row they have repealed, they have passed a dozen new ones. some of the regulators step on people. i recently reported on this family who did nothing wrong. they got a legal permit to build a house, but then they were bankrupted by epa bureaucrats. basically, they made up their own rules. recently, we got a taste of that mentality when does epa official was copying unusually candid about his enforcement strategy. he compared it to the romans conquering villages. you crucify the first five guys you find and then it is easy to manage. one person you should know is the gentleman who holds the

congressional budget office. >> honestly, in some cases it is. we saw that some epa officials stepped down from the position because of the backlash against the strategy. it was not for the public good. there are times when the implementation was over the line. there were times when the regulations themselves don't make any sense. i was listening to your show earlier, and one of the guests made the point that this is taxes in disguise. the risks of trying to do this in disguise get bigger and bigger. stossel: we have some new weird regulations that your regulation rodeo is looking at. the justice department has now decreed that miniature horses must be allowed in stores. as you say, no horses, please, they can't toilet train him, you

could be in trouble. >> hard to believe. saddle up. it is the classic case of well-intentioned regulation. one make sure that the disabled have access to the same places as those of us who have complete functioning. the question is what is next? if it's going to be miniature horses, what are we going to have, pulling the disabled next? this is an extremely difficult place to put a store owner. it travels on their abilities to run their business on the way they see fit. >> this is a question of if one regulation will spawn 1 million more. how do you know that they are qualified? what is the certification? what is going to be this display? are they going to have a sign or barcode? how does this end? pretty soon, this will regulate in multitude and explode. >> in florida, i saw a picture of a vending machine that had a sign on it. >> this is my favorite. you have a telephone number on it.

it says, by law from the, the sending machine has to have a sign next to it. if it doesn't, please call this number. which raises the question, how do you know the number if the sign is not their? that is not a highly productive regulation that has a purpose. stossel: we checked it out. the site has no purpose other than -- [talking over each other] i thought they'd be embarrassed and think it was a mistake. >> they should be embarrassed. the company that provides vending machines are subject to labeling regulations, they have to say what is in the food -- i know what i'm getting when i go to the vending machine. some of those are my favorite restaurants. stossel: the presidents of some encouraging things in his recent state of the union messages. he talked about getting rid of some rules. he said they got would have one rule that classified spilt milk like an oil spill that required

a hazmat team to clean it up. that rule was in existence for 40 years. the other one, 12 different agencies deal with exports, my favorite example. the interior department is in charge of salmon and fresh water. the commerce department and saltwater. i hear gets even more comforted once there is smoke. everybody laughs and there is applause, but they still haven't gotten rid of that craziness. >> these regulations almost never go away. even if they do, and congratulations that our family farmers no longer have to wear hazmat suits clean up a spill. huge in american history. we are still spelling this out in an astonishing pace. the net burden is huge. some of the new ones make as little sense as the old ones. there is one now about clean energy. it was a new kind of ethanol. a couple of years back, everyone was hot on its future. the trouble is, it doesn't

exist. now we have mandates for product that does not exist -- the president should work it out. stossel: thank you, douglas. washington regulators make me wonder if some of them want america to fail? coming up on the story behind a surprisingly popular video that asks that question [ female announcer ] they can be enlightening. hey, bro. or engaging. conversations help us learn and grow. at wells fargo, we believe you can never underestimate the power of a conversation. it's this exchange of ideas that helps you move ahead with confidence. so when the conversation turns toour financial goals... turn to us. if you need anything else, let me know. wells fargo. together we'll go far.

♪ john: people want government to keep us safe. keep us from being cheated. and so politicians and bureaucrats keep passing it, adding more rules. here they are. that is how many the fed alone has passed. they add that thousand new pages of this garbage -- no, laws, regulations every week. i say it does not help us spirited beverages lawyers and bureaucrats. it makes us poor and left -- less safe and less free. one of the few politicians to understand that is utah senator mike lee. i am glad you're there with all those socialists. i'm glad you understand it. you've got it. your father used to talk about the constitution at the breakfast table. >> yes. and the lunch and dinner table as well. we talked about it a lot. >> what is going on? how do you see this happening? how do you see it ever being solved?

>> it's easy. they want to speak and flossie glowing terms about things that some property an exemption will. let's have clean air. >> i'm for clean air. >> to visit. then we outsourced the task of defining what clean-air means and how that's going to be enforced. those people who make those rules which are, as you point out polos. those people aren't elected and don't work for anyone who is elected. that's a problem. john: you wrote a book. tapis 70 talk about the federal regulatory monster. >> yes. lost among most of them, are not being passed, not being put in place by people who are elected. this is utterly incompatible with article one section one an article one section seven of the constitution which went out of their way to make sure anyone making laws, rules carrying the force a generally applicable law has to be passed by people in congress are elected every two years in the case of the house and every six years in the case of the senate.

john: of play devil's advocate. so what. it's all stuff that is supposed to make life better. >> supposed to make life better, and we want to believe that it will. we want there to be clean air. you want to pursue all the broad, lofty goals that are promised to us in these broad laws passed by congress. but one of the problems that we have is when you insulate those who write the laws and who are also the same people who aren't forcing them from the people affected by them and from the voters then they don't look at the fact that there are not always a compass and what they're supposed to. sometimes they're having exactly the opposite effect. they're making all those poor. john: intuition tells us that passing laws is a good thing. kids to toward the state capitals in d.c. don't come up to you and say, senator, what laws did you repeal. what is even passed. that is being a good citizen.

>> politicians tend to be given the most accolades. that is when we give praise the most. we need to start recognizing that individuals regulate themselves much better than government can in most areas. i've roebuck, no, they can't playing up obama's yes, we can which argues that it is intuitive to think that government has to do these things. without these new rules life would be ugly. the poor would suffer. i have read your book. john: oh, good. >> i love it. this sends a message that people need to reach. and it is absolutely correct that intuitively we want to believe those things. john: as you point out in your k sometimes our intuition is wrong. one of those areas where human intuition often is wrong. perhaps it's something primal. perhaps the something cultural

that wants us to think, let's have some of these important decisions made village white. village wide, of course it feels good. it does. village what is very different the nation might. especially in a nation like ours. john: so odd to hear a senator say this. it's great. you went to law school at byu. as soon they taught you, like the teach all lawyers, that life can be managed through paper and procedure top down. >> the law itself lends itself to that kind of thinking. and it's not altogether wrong. there are after all some areas in which it is totally inappropriate for us to have this sort of village elder difference on a national scale. for instance, when it comes to us matters of national defense, time to go to war we need to rally behind a common leader. we have identified that leader as the president to. john: anything else? >> regulating trade. that has to be handled at the national level. john: why does it need

regulation? >> well, it is the extent of the regulation, the critical question that we have to answer. congress of the last 75 years, a little assistance from the supreme court, kind of scene that as a perpetually green light. john: in terms of the regulatory burden where, as you say, they are on automatic pilot to my thousand pages a week added, you have a subset proposal that would stop that? >> yes. the best proposal up there right now to deal with the mission creep associated with the modern federal regulatory state is a proposal called the range act, reins. when the man. >> are in demand. it is a measure of which an original co-sponsor in the senate. and here's what it says. anytime you have a new regulation carrying theorce a generally applicable federal law, if it qualifies as a major rule under the omb review standards, meaning it as an economic impact in excess of

100 million annually nationwide, relatively easy girl to satisfy by the way, then that regulation will be viewed as a proposal, and it won't take effect until it has been passed into law by the house of representatives and by the senate and submitted to the president for signature of veto. in other words, we are requiring that congress follow the same procedure to enact these into law sets that no such regulation meeting these criteria could become law without congress acting. that is exactly what the founding fathers intended and what we need to do here. john: senator lee, thank you for joining us. i hope you can get rid of some of these rules. more on stupid government rules next. ♪ all energy development comes with some risk, but proven technologies allow natural gas producers to supply affordable, cleaner energy, while protecting our environment. across america, these technologies protect air -

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that is harsh. even is in the regulators don't want that. you don't want to go prosperity. suppose i wouldn't change a thing. john: that video was made bd

about 2 million times on youtube the guy speaking in the video is the executive director of free-market america. what is free-market america? >> free-market america is a group of true believers. we began as a florida-based organization battling environmental extremists and in essence, national. john: is that what made you a believer? >> partly, yes. we had a preview of the occupy wall street movement a couple of years ago. it is scary stuff. these are folks who, as the videos says, resent success. john: he think they resent success or just want a safer, cleaaer world? >> i think the recent success. these folks are no longer interested in conservation. this is not our grandfathers environmental movement. these are folks who are more interested in micromanaging the daily elements of everyone's life. and so we view it as a threat to liberty. the purpose of free-market america is to make the pro freedom case on environmental extremism.

john: you and a couple other people, sitting around talk about it. you shoot this in seven days. in your office, go home on friday. it has been viewed 200 times. >> 265 *. we had no expectation it would be this big. frankly, it has been a source of a lot of optimism for me. i think that history teaches would never have bet against america. this country but that tablet the torch of freedom. the cellist today, the challenge of this generation is simply to wake up and remember what those things happened. they happen because of the essential ingredient, liberty. so we made this video based on the things we know to be true. ya need a focus group or pull tested. that is what resonated. john: suggesting president obama wants america to fill? >> no. i'm not here to question anybody's patriotism, only their common sense.

our point is a broader critique of the environmental movement. since 1960 and permit deregulation has increased by over 7,000 percent. more than $281 billion each year john: air and water are cleaner than they used to be. >> everyone wants clean air. everyone wants clean water. these environmental regulations now cost the average small business owner more than $4,000 per worker. we have catapulted past common-sense and reach the point where we are producing little environmental benefit the still producing extraordinary cost. john: i would totally agree. when i was a kid you could not open the window in this town that's it would come in. the effect that has been even more after they already get the air and water clean, plenty plane. aikens from in the hudson river. >> the regulator always wants more. >> the problems created by government command government has always had the same solution , we now have an extremely aggressive epa.

often using lawsuits to drive regulations. on top of that we have a professional bureaucratic class, the sole purpose of which seems to be set on foil new regulations every day without any regard for the cost and regardless of who is in the white house. john: one part of your video i quibble with. let's play that. >> if i wanted america to fail i would empower unaccountable bureaucracy to bully americans. -ohn: i quibble with the word unaccountable. the same complaints were made up of obamacare, unelected bureaucrats would decide who gets what. electing them would not make it better. it's still top down. at think we should just say bureaucrats or politicians. >> i think both of them. you have a problem with unaccountable bureaucrats. professional class that is long since moving beyond common sense soda speak. and on top of that yet the fact

that they are seated in the distant capital. one part of your video that i think a lot of americans would argue about is this one connected to wanted america to fail how to convince americans that europe has a right. john: a lot of americans think europe has it right. a kind country, it's nice to be environmentally clean when you go there. they help poor people. >> its $8 per gallon of gas and france. in the united states we have a get up and go culture. my ability to get my car and drive and visit someone, a family member, friend, colleague and the other side of the country is important and an essential ingredient of freedom. the other thing here that we are, perhaps overlooking is the regulatory climate in europe despite the climate we have here is far worse. john: less job growth and innovation. >> absolutely. john: one last point, take us back to that moment, you went

home for the weekend and checked the youtube score. what was it like? >> it was incredible. we were absolutely blown away. when i left it was to order the 65 use. by saturday it was a few thousand. by sunday it had exploded. hundreds of thousands of use. by monday we were off to the races. you're talking to a guy who that a couple hundred people might watch this. john: thank you. next my take on the regulators. do they really want america to fail? ♪

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♪ john: popular web video we just showed parts of suggests that some politicians and regulators want america to fail. i don't believe that, except

maybe some do. after all, the environmental group earth first used to use the slogan back to the pleistocene. the pleistocene was a time before civilization. some environmentalists believe that only pure nature is more. civilization is harmful. some will be happy until they reduce our carbon footprint to zero, and that is basically the end of civilization. think about who becomes a government regulator. you are the people who want to spend their lives creating these rules? do you want to work at the epa? i don't either. i don't want to work at a dreary bureaucracy. so who is most likely to be an interested epa bureaucrats? environmental zealots. that video said this. >> if i wanted america to fail and would make cheap energy. john: some people and our government to want the price of energy to rise. then they will achieve their

vision, americans love to live in small holes, apartments, our fuel to burn your fossil fuels. great. after all, once you decide that industry is destructive there are endless resisted district -- restricted. higher energy costs will do that. if they want to make america poor they ought to come clean about that. just a soap. in the name of our pristine environment we will live in caves and freeze in the dark. not a kid's a political slogan, but appealing to some environmentalists. there is one part of the video that i really like. >> if i wanted america to fail for every concern and for every crisis, shutting down entire industries and killing tens of thousands of jobs in the name of saving the spotted owls. john: i get to the spotted owls in the second, but the regulators to constantly in debt crises. those overhead power lines would

give you canner. so will cell phones, hair dye, breast implants, nutrasweet, coffee. all of those and more where government our media pushed scarce i was asked to cover during my abc career. plus global warming, mad cow disease, lawn chemicals and so on. is all this a crisis and is all this requiring giving more money and power to government? the spotted owl story had some with me because my first tv job was in oregon. i know some of those loggers who lost their jobs because the al had to be protected. this year the report that all the logging restrictions, despite the 30,000 jobs lost a number of spotted owls continued to fall. now the administration plans to shoot parallels, rival birds that crowd out the spotted owl. and what about the 30,000 humans who lost their jobs?

don't they can't? no. not much. not to the regulators to our always protecting us from crises. crises that the inventors -[ taste buds ] donuts, donuts! -who are these guys? -oh, that's just my buds. -bacon. -my taste buds. -[ taste buds ] donuts. how about we try this new kind of fiber one cereal? you think you're going to slip some fiber by us? okay. ♪ fiber one is gonna make you smile. ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing new fiber one nutty clusters and almonds. for many, nexium helps relieve heartburn symptoms caused by acid reflux disease. osteoporosis-related bone fractures and low magnesium levels have been seen with nexium. possible side effects include headache, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. other serious stomach conditions may still exist. talk to your doctor about nexium.