then decide if these questions about this guy were warranted. now, stfu. oh, i see where you're going here. the -- good night. >> targeting of preliminary groups. veterans left to die while seeing a doctor. federal prosecutors knowingly withheld evidence. scandals and broken lies. >> when people come to d.c. they never leave. stossel: why don't they leave because some live really well? >> you can see the crown molding when you get to the top. stossel: and here they get to exert power over you. they have privileged parking here at the national airport. that's why i say clean house. vote the bums out. but the bums not only spend our money they rig the system so they stay

in power. you think you're untouchable. what would america's founders think of today's washington, d.c.'s overlord. that's our show tonight. it's election season, and this year i keep hearing that voters are angry. president obama's approval rating is way down and approval of congress is even lower. it almost makes me feel sorry for our overlords in congress. they're all going to lose their jobs. voters will vote in new representatives. except they won't. voters almost never throw the overlords out. remember what was called the bloodbath election of 94. republicans took back the house. time magazine calls it a g.o.p. stampede. peter said voters were

like two years old throwing a tantrum. in the bloodbath of 9/4/90 percent of congress was reelected. here's a chart of reelection rates. see any trend there? i don't. the election rate never drops below 85 percent. and 98 percent is not unusual. once in washington, the overlords are almost never pushed out. this year reporters say it will be different. there's this anti-incumbent if he everror. that's just nonsense. (?) even this year, it's going to be 90 percent again? >> even this year. the challenge for anybody trying to change the system is getting voters to know you exist and raising money and breaking through this very complex set of rules written by incumbents to protect incumbancy.

it's a virtually impossible wall to penetrate. >> people hate congress. but they're much less likely to hate their congressmen. stossel: when he says that they rig the system to favor the incumbents. explain that. like they have networks of supporters. >> once you're in office, you have network ties usually with a big party organization. you have ties to donors who helped you in your previous round of fund rising. you can continue that cycle on and on. money plays a big role, but so do network connections even in the united states where we don't have kings we have political dynasties in connected families even. stossel: outside groups are now allowed to speak about politics via campaign ads. today, democrats tell us that kind of spending by outside groups is a threat to democracy. harry reid calls it dark money that's threatening to tear apart the fabric

of democracy. they introduced a constitutional amendment to allow congress to limit constitutional spending. >> an amendment is necessary to allow meaningful campaign finance rules. >> all of this money is suffocating the airways. suffocating the voices of the many. stossel: suffocating the voices of the many. big money. >> they're trying to paint their party as the party of the rich. but democrats let's clear the air. there's a lot of big money on both sides of the ales when it comes to politics. they want to silence those other billionaires. they want to rig the system so that their donors are able to give whether that's labor unions or people who typically support democrats, but they want to silence the opposition. stossel: they probably won't get that. it's hard to pass a constitutional amendment for a good reason. expensive tv ads do allow unknowns to break

through. a state legislator in, iowa, got my attention. >> i grew up casstrating hogs on a farm so when i get to washington i'll know how to cut pork. stossel: she backed off from that now, but it's joni earnest who is leading in the race in iowa. thank goodness for more money. (?) >> i like more money and more competition and equal rules that apply across-the-board. the problem with campaign finance regulation it allows for an insane amount of discretion amongst the regularities so they can pick and choose who is punished for what. stossel: the insider says this is okay. the outsiders says it's not. >> that's what lois learner did. stossel: on my facebook page a lot of people want term limits. >> i think that's a good

way to rotate people out of office. put fresh faces into office. people who have spent more of their lifetime -- stossel: congress won't pass it. some states have. and it causes more turnover. the longer they stay in office, the more they spend. >> the ultimate job of our will d litigators is to uphold the constitution. (?) when they have -- they get so far outside of their important duties of passing a budget and doing basic legislative duties that's when we see more money flooding into politics. people attached to the power that public office can bring. stossel: thank you matt. one reasons why american's politicians fight so hard to stay in office because they are a little like overlords. they get privileges that you and i don't get the senate has a

senator's only shop. >> you can also get manicures. waxing. stossel: the barbershop loses a third of a million dollars every year. maybe that's why they didn't want kennedy taking pictures. >> you can't film this. >> the house once had a subsidizing barbershop. now, it doesn't cost taxpayers any money. pete of the national taxpayers union explains why the senate hasn't done the same. >> the sergeant of arms says i will get to it. i will get to it. part of the problem is some very expensive legacy employees getting paid 70, 80,000. stossel: another understood congress gets is an exclusive system that's so they can be whisked to the office and back. it's often empty, but it costs millions. congressmen get their

own parking lot at airport. kennedy tried to park there. >> can i park here? >> no, ma'am, you can't. you can park in the garage. stossel: how much do the overlords in your state spend on their state. a website called open the books.com lets you put in your zip code and track what your representatives do. it's run by adam. he tries to keep track of the more secretive ways that they spend our money. no longer does the senate barbershop give muchures. money as they used to. you find that many of these guys continue to act like overlords. >> certainly i think the political class in america has learned to gain the system for personal profit. how do they do it? they pad their payrolls. they set up payroll

farms. stossel: employment farms? >> like on the phoenix va veterans couldn't see a doctor because there were only 200 of them. at phoenix with where the scandal broke there was 3,000 employees. these were employment farms that we have determined in government. not a medical system. another way they do this is through passing bloated contracts to their friends. stossel: examples of egregious spending. >> $65 million. they've been backing congress asking for another $70 million of appropriation. we don't even have approved plans yet. no foundation built. >> the idea of 65 million for nothing. >> we're just falling the rules. >> in my home community college. the college of do you page, the president has a half million compensation package.

he built a wine seller and an upscale french restaurant. stossel: and i was surprised to read in massachusetts that the governor was going to spend $9 million renovating his office. i thought this has to be a typo. i checked it out. it's not a typo. $9 million. >> and some of that is probably warranted. it's a historic property. there are broken windows. things like that. stossel: we contacted his office and they said, oh, this is a historically significant landmark. okay. it is. the state didn't meet federal accessibility -- we installed blast resistant storm windows. maybe some of those things are good, but $9 million on an office? real people don't do that. >> exactly. if the governor of massachusetts wants to do something good on behalf of the great people in his state he can start by opening the

pensions. stossel: that's the big money, the pensions. >> for instance, i'm from illinois, john. stossel: i'm sorry. i'm from illinois too, but i don't live there anymore. >> a lot of people are moving out. one of the reasons is recently we discovered a union lobbyist had caught for one day in the public schools and then they stood in line to receive a million dollar worth of state teacher pension. stossel: you go into government you're paid less. but you get a pension. now, they're paid more and they get twice the pension, american enterprise institute says 22 states pay so much more in lifetime retirements, and the workers in eight of 23 states get -- become a pension millionaire. >> if you're a retired educator in the state of illinois we've done the analysis, every single dollar you put in the

system, you get all that cost basis money back in your first 20 months of retirement. stossel: let's go back to the ugly scandal at the va. people weren't treated. some may have died. and yet, $5 million in bonuses went to va executives. >> over a three-year period into that scandal breaking $5 million of bonuses was paid to the -- even in cheyenne she cannies office. the top legal counsel got bonuses. the inspector general themselves got bonuses. stossel: remy describes what the va officials did. >> going to grab a piece of paper. and we'll make a second list. (?) wait what? we'll just say that wait times aren't that long and that no deadlines were missed because there ain't no doubt we can't be -- god bless the government. (music).

stossel: they can be be fired, but it's almost impossible. >> this is why we need citizen engagement because when we showcase the bonuses in phoenix, the director of that facility sharon she received in 2013 the largest bonus out of the 3,000 employees. stossel: she got fired? >> her bonus was rescinded. she's still there, but her bonus was taken back. stossel: thank you, adam. to join this argument you can tweet hashtag overlords or post on my facebook page. i'd like to know what you think about this. coming up. >> this is why people think libertarians are -- stossel: ann coulter will explain why she wants to drown me. federal prosecutors who torture people and cheat to do it. >> federal prosecutors knowingly withheld evidence. stossel: are they then punished for that? no. they got promoted.

obama: we're getting rid of regulations that don't work. stossel: ha-ha. i so wanted to believe him, but he never does it.

it's not just president obama none of the overlords do it. president george w. bush actually hired 90,000 new regularities. it's always more. here's a graft that shows the increase of wages in federal regulations. today there are 175,000 pages of rules that all of you are supposed to obey. that's 175,000 pages of rules looks like. have you read all those to make sure you're not breaking the law? of course, not. and yet any of them could get you in trouble. and this is just -- what the federal overlords impose. states and local governments have more rules. susan dudley was in charge of president bush's office of regulatory affairs. she's the author of regulation. you didn't get rid of many regulations, did you. >> no, i didn't. the pressure to regulate is intense.

we never look back to see whether it's working or whether there's thing we can remove from the books. stossel: and we get more regulations because of an evil partnership that baptists and bootleggers explain. >> bootleggers of the 20th century benefited from the ban of liquor sells. so instead they relied on the baptists who also favored the sunday bans for moral reasons. you see that again and again. this bootlegger baptist -- stossel: that's how we get the ethanol subsidiary ease. >> it's been shown to be harmful to the environment. it hurts people domestically and internationally. stossel: and even the environmentalist have wised up to it. >> the baptist argument is a little different now. (?) let's protect american farms and way of life. stossel: and the business side

are the ethanol producers of the farmers. >> it's the corn and soy farmers that benefit. the today show recently ranked des moines idaho as the richest city in the nation. sounds good. save people electricity. >> when you look at the two dishwashers. one costs a lot more up front. it's better. it will save you money over the long run. we choose the cheaper one because we make trade-offs. they ban the cheaper ones so we have to buy the expensive one. stossel: the manufacture who had the expensive one wanted gets together with the environmental zealots and you might get a law. >> you might want a dishwasher that gets your dishes clean. john: now we have egraduates

which may help people quit, but the busybodies are piling -- >> they are proposing standards for egraduates that would regulate them like other cigarettes. all the car any generals aren't there, but also the secondhand smoke isn't there. (?) stossel: it's new, but it frightens people. then the overlords bring us the stupid rules like it's illegal to own a small turtles. >> turtles under 4 inches. you might put them in your mouth and get sal mosamnil a. stossel: why would you put it in your mouth. >> wouldn't you think you would get what you deserved? (?) stossel: the regulation said they would come and kill your turtle if it was under 4 inches? okay. then there are confusing regulations. the fda regulates frozen

cheese pizza, but the agriculture department regulates pepperoni pizza? >> yes, meat and cheese pizzas are regulated separately. it has identity standards. it has to pass approval of these agencies. stossel: this allows the overlords to lawyer up and spread work to all their colleagues. >> it's complicated because they're from age-old statutes. they accumulate. and often the accumulation doesn't make sense and it goes back to your pile of regulations. stossel: they almost never go away. they're encrusted like barn cals. they keep adding more. speaking of old ones. people are type one diabetes are not allowed to drive commercial vehicles across state lines without getting special permission from the department of transportation. >> you can't take your cupcakes across the

line -- stossel: well, if you have this diabetes -- there are 3 million people with type one diabetes. >> the controls for diabetes have changed so much since those regulations grew in. john: but the regulations are still there we have to live with that. thank you susan du dudley. coming up. ann coulter says you libertarians are wimps. >> oh, but we

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stossel: american lawyers like to say our justice system is the fairest in the world. if that's true, i pity the rest of the world. because in america, a small powerful group of washington overlords, federal prosecutors, sometimes break rules to win cases, often wrecking the lives of people who did nothing wrong. you can read about this about this in this new book called "licensed to

lie" exposing corruption in the department of justice. she writes that overzealous, ambitious, narcisse particular and dishonest prosecutors destroy innocent people by deliberately withholding evidence, evidence they knew contradicted their cases. for example, remember the arthur andersen accounting firm 80,000 people worked there, but they lost their job after they claimed anderson patterns helped enron commit a fraud. the prosecutor complained employees -- once they saw the government was coming to investigate. >> tons of documents for stwregd. a year later they won -- and the company was ruined. it was the whole company. instead of charging the individuals who allegedly destroyed evidence, but that might have taken more time, more trials, might have gotten less publicity, they instead indicted the whole company.

anderson lost most of its clients. they aren't even allowed to do business with a company under investigation. anderson went ouch business. the prosecutors' purpose was to chill resistance from any other company that might dare resistant the feds. cooperate or we will destroy you. and this was necessary, they said, because shredding documents is a crime that attacks the justice system itself by impeding discovery of the truth. well, maybe. but who actually hid the truth? the prosecutors, writes powell. despite the prosecutors claims about shredded documents, anderson had in fact saved its documents and produced them to the government. powell says the prosecutors simply lied. once that was revealed, the supreme court overturned that conviction. too late. 80,000 people lost their

jobs. so the prosecutors were then jailed or at least punished, disbarred? no. the overlords protect their own. believe it or not they were promoted. next, they accused four merrill lynch investors for falsifying enron's books. the government told the media that enron aspired with to carry a sham transaction. three to four jail sentences. powell writes that the government never alleged anything that actually stud a crime by merrill lynch execs. it cobbled together parts of different statutes to make up some new kind of crime to that didn't even make sense. at appeal courts, tossed most of the verdicts and the merrill lynch executives were released after they spent a year in jail. that led paul of the washington legal foundation to say this. >> we hope this decision will send a strong message to the justice

department to stop this kind of abusive misconduct. stossel: you would hope, but it didn't. the prosecutors next went after republican senator ted stevens of alaska. >> it all came crashing down for ted stevens. >> the federal jury here in washington found he ted stevens of alaska guilty on all counts. seven felony counts of making false statements. he accepted gifts. >> he said the prosecutors got 250,000 gifts from rich donors and never reported that. >> i recall believe that i've not done anything wrong. stossel: and it turns out it may not have done anything wrong. for example, he did not get $250,000 in gifts. >> an explosive report alleged misconduct against ted stevens. the report is alleging that federal prosecutors knowingly withheld

evidence. >> there was clear misconduct by prosecutors in that case. stossel: they found they hid and evidence witnesses lied under oath. a judge threw out that conviction. were the prosecutors punished for their misdeeds. matthew left for a higher paying job at a private law firm. the director of the enron task force became an assistant attorney general at the justice department. &andrew weisman who helped prosecuting the merrill lynch employees was made deputy director of the fbi and merrill lynch prosecutor was promoted to deputy attorney general then promoted again to white house counsel and now it's reported that she's president obama's first choice to replace eric holder to become the first woman attorney general. they were rewarded for abusing their power. they always have an

advantage anyway. they have endless time and money. if they sue you, you have to stop your life and probably spend all your savings on lawyers. you never know when their attack might end, if you fight all the way to trial, you might lose. so everyone settles. even those who think they're innocent. unless you're very rich, you can't afford to fight the feds. if they want you, they'll probably get you. and then they may get promoted even if they lie. we invited prosecutors friedrich, caldwell, to reply to the charges laid out in powell's book, but they did not respond. next, life is good for our overlords in washington, d.c.. today most of america's richest counties surround the capital. more excess of our imperial overlords next.

live. >> upon first entering the home you have this incredibly gracious staircase. >> washington's real estate market is hot. you can really see the crown molding when you get to the top. stossel: there are lots of expensive homes here. >> beautiful gourmet cooking. culinary delight. stossel: all glass ceilings. this home is a steal at $2.8 million. 2.8 million is a steal he says because our real estate market has been relatively recession proof. >> because government is its main industry. we continue to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. stossel: because government keeps growing. so much so that today, for the first time, most of the richest counties

in america surround washington, dc. the rest of america had a housing recession. >> everybody else housing prices went way down not in washington. stossel: hirch say people that control the government and get to tax you live here. >> they move there and they like it there. >> lobbyists, politicians, government contractors. >> there's a reason they go there and stay there. stossel: consider where they work. the architecture is grand. many office buildings resemble pal i says. the whole french nobility they spent their lives in the rich neighborhoods and they didn't know what else went on outside that world. people never leave washington. stossel: congressmen ran again and then he run. grayson says if there is royalty in america. >> it's not the congressmen, it's the lobbyists. lobbyists are the

royalty in washington, dc. and who made it that way? you congressmen made it that way by passing all these laws. if you have big government, there is more money to fight over. >> there's that argument, but the real royalty is not in washington, dc. stossel: it's on wall street he says. and there is lots of money here, but there's a big difference. >> in the private sector if you can find a way to cut costs, you're a hero. if you can find ways to cut costs in bureaucracy, you're a goat. they measure success by the size of their budget. stossel: and it gives them reasons to invest in d.c. and invest they have. unions say teachers are underpaid, but their union sure looks rich. we're told this headquarters building is worth millions of dollar. it's an environmental zero ace i say. it's impressive, but we can't take pictures of it. we can't take a picture of the beautiful a triup

until. they debated whether we could envelope. >> you needed something. we've read about the beautiful lobby, and i'd like to show it viewers. >> they're building palaces for yourselves. >> i've been to that building, i didn't feel that way at all. have you been to any mall in america in the past few years. isn't it more grand? stossel: no. >> i would have to disagree. stossel: i was passed from one official to the next. find out a little bit about what is going on. >> i'm going to have to check. stossel: he went back inside for a while and finally ruling came down. no? their reason? >> we're not opening the building up to you. stossel: i tried another beautiful building. another headquarters.

the murals made of marble, glass and gold. i want to take pictures of the beautiful lobby. they let me wait inside. i had plenty of time to think about the 12,000 active lobbyists now working in washington. they're smart to be here since washington controls so much, but this union doesn't want you to see what they've got. >> i've been notified by our legal department that we're not because of the state of the mural we're not allowed to do that. stossel: oh, well. the bottom line is that washington, once a sleepy, part-time home for politicians now resembles ver sad. power brokers work in buildings that look like palaces. and after work, they go home to castles. >> it overlooks the pond. the property is on 5 acres. beautiful shower. (?) and his or her water closets. stossel: it all helps to understand why people spend

millions to win jobs here. >> once people come to d.c. they never leave. stossel: coming up, ann coulter will explain why she wants to track me down and drown me. she won't have to track me down. i'm right here. >> this is why people >> this is why people think

stossel: washington insiders like to talk about how competitive our elections are. campaign commercials are vicious. we have debates. elections are often close. that's all true, but that doesn't mean washington's overlords actually allow open competition. they rarely do. elections are limited to republican versus democrat. outsiders. you're not welcome. so where does that leave people like me? i don't like some of the choices offered me by the two big parties. democrats want government control of the economy and many other things republicans want government control of our personal lives. that's why i'm a libertarian and i often vote for the libertarian candidate. even though they always lose. so far. and i'll probably vote for the libertarian again this year just to make a statement. and because of that, ann

coulter wants to drown me. really, that's what you wrote? you want to drown libertarians. >> you're voting in new york? stossel: yeah. my vote won't matter. >> that's okay. i really like the republican gubernatorial candidate. i think you should like him. i mean, that's -- those are the libertarians i said i would like to drown. there are a lot of very important elections and you can't tell me there's no difference between the two parties. a lot of the reason they're so similar, certainly the republican party is the more libertarian party. when the republicans are bad it is often because you have to be bad to get a vote. if you want to make a point -- i'd rather you go out and create vandalism than cause republicans to lose the senate. republicans don't take 53 senate seats we're losing two in two years. obamacare is not going to be repealed. you are not going to have any concept of privatizing social security. we lose everything.

this is such an important election. and democrats don't have to put up with this nonsense. they don't have their equivalent of the tea party or libertarians. they run in states like new york or california where their vote it just doesn't make a difference. if you're a libertarian in mississippi or utah. fine. i will not waste my time flying out to drown you. if you're voting in one of these tight states, louisiana, alaska, georgia, you're going to cost republicans the senate and that's it. stossel: libertarian candidates are more competitive and may sway some elections. in virginia, libertarian senate candidate robert is pulling in about 6 percent. george a candidate, amanda so a ford might get 5 percent. in north carolina sean how is doing enough to get the attention of meet the press. >> he's got 7 percent of the vote enough to swing the election. exactly the same in florida. that gubernatorial race. he's getting double

digital support in recent polls. stossel: this makes you grit your teeth? >> yeah, you know, you see any red flags with the mainstream media playing up the libertarian candidate. meet the press? they're not going to interview scott brown. he's a good candidate. stossel: they don't play us up. >> you're going to ruin republican elections that's why they love to play up libertarians. this is a total disaster. those elections you just cited, this will cost republicans the senate. we will be living in our obamacare concentration camps and admiring you for your principle. that will be such a wonderful moment. stossel: a libertarian senate candidate about helping democrats. >> you've got 7 percent right now. you could be a spoiler. >> i'm very happy to give people an alternative to the candidates offered by the republicans and democrats in this race.

>> i want to kill him. stossel: there is evidence that libertarian votes don't just get taken from the republican. >> that is absolutely not true. stossel: it doesn't mean it's true. >> it means it's not true. stossel: the virginia race. and the libertarian got 6 percent of the votes. some republicans said his presence of on the ballot hurt cuccinelli. but the reality it didn't. the exit polls without him, the republicans would have won by the same margin. some would have stayed home and some would vote for the democrat. >> that's like saying -- everyone knows of the two parties which one is closer to the -- influence the republican party. run in primaries. do not be the spoiler to hand the united states senate, the entire government over to democrats. i promise, do not share a single principle with you. stossel: if i vote for republicans, i'm supporting the war on drugs, the war on most everyone around the world, the

military-industrial complex. farm subsidies. talk of suspending spending cuts. >> some i agree with you. we can at least influence the republican party. you have no influence on the democrats. with them it's big government working hand in hand with big corporations to screw the rest of america and things are getting completely out of hand right now. you have no shot with the democratic party. run in primaries, libertarians. stossel: you left out thousands of pages of new regulation we'll get from the democrats. thank you ann coulter. coming up, oppressive as washington's overlords maybe. we should be glad we live in america because other places are much worse. killed anyone he considered an intellectual. gaddafi employed a squad

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>> the least productive congress in american history. stossel: the mainstream media routinely complain about the do-nothing congress. but why? we're better off with a do-nothing congress or at least a congress that does less. much of what congress does in the name of solving problems, takes our freedom, increases spending and ends up creating worse problems. i'm happy when we have gridlock. americans often say they want bipartisan, but, again, why? bipartisan brings us

some of our worst laws. people say that they hate congress. and they are right to hate congress. it's filled with pandering opportunists and when those teuntsz opportunists get together, they pass awful rules. congress repealed the law preventing them from trading stocks based on insider trading. that vote was unanimous. >> without objection, the bill was passed. stossel: they gave us ethanol -- the wasteful stimulus act. all thanks to bipartisanship. and, of course, that's also how we got the tsa. the senate voted 100 to zero for that. when overlords are unanimous, we in the public, should cringe. politicians and voters can dream of higher incomes for all. cheap green energy. an end to ebola, but

politicians rarely bring us those things. approximate the private sector might, but only if our government overlords would stay out of the way. when the overlords say, yes, we can. we should say, no, you can't. not if we means government. government cannot and it shouldn't try. here's a whole book that explains they can't. they can't. but individuals can. and often do. if we're left free. but our overlords have no intention of leaving us free. they want to spend more and impose more rules and so we get more of that every week. but it could be worse. be glad you don't live in ancient roam. nero held long recital and see forbade anyone to leave during his performance. women sometimes gave birth. they pretended to be dead just so they could escape by being carried

away for burial. okay that was back then. roman empire excess. kim jung had his staff inspect every grain of rice he might eat to make sure each grain adhered to proper standards of length and color. i guess he's the ultimate. he killed some just because they wore glasses. gaddafi employed a squad of female bodyguards all virgins, allegedly. today, in russia, you can be fined in your car is dirty. if you fail to insure it's free of dirt and grime. france requires all drivers to carry a breathalyzer with them in their cars. canada creed it illegal to use coins for anything that costs more than $25. even as our washington

overlords strangle entrreneurship and keep passing freedom killing rules it's still we live in america. that's our show. a paid advertisement for starvista entertainment and time life's music collection. these are songs about real life... songs about love... songs that come straight from the heart. ♪ here you come again ♪ ♪ just when i've begun to get myself together ♪ ♪ oh, baby, i'm gonna love you forever ♪ ♪ ♪ forever and ever, amen ♪ mama, he's crazy ♪ crazy over me ♪ just the good ol' boys