bly don't you leave us alone. >> government is in our way. let the free market work. >> politicians claim they must manage everything. >> student loans. street vendors. iphone apps. >> okay, here you go. >> why is my doctor's iphone your business? >> and the politicians want us to pay for everything including wine tasting centers. gary reid monument. how much better would america be if government just got out of the way? get out of my life. big government reject it. that is our show, tonight.

and now, john stossel. >> you have h heard about our $14 trillion plus national debt and how it is getting worse but it is hard to get your brain around numbers that big so here is another way to think about the debt and the spending that makes it worse. this year, our government will spend twice what it takes in. twice. that is only going to increase the debt. this is just unsustainable. progressives say a solution is taxing the rich. but even if you took every penny of income from millionaires and billionaires, even that wouldn't cover the deficit. our only hope is to cut spending. and that is a good thing to do because government does all kinds of things it shouldn't do. but, few politicians will propose cuts. cuts after all are not politically popular. one who is trying is congressman mike pompaio.

he wants to eliminate the economic development administration. what do they do? >> takes about $300 million or $400 million a year from you the taxpayer and brings the money to washington, d.c. and distributes it. >> economic development. >> across a couple hundred district. they are a political animal. we haven't eliminated an agency with an administrator this high in 50 years in america so i'm trying to get rid of this one agency that does these quintessentially local tasks with federal dollars. the federal government has no business doing it. >> sounds good. they will build infrastructure for a steel plant in minnesota. improve electricity in vermont. >> the minnesota example is a perfect case. $200 million grant in a couple billion dollars project. it was going forward without federal taxpayer money. made sense economically and

there was no reason to fleece the taxpayer for a couple million bucks to build that steel plant for that private company. >> and some of what they do does see pointless. the harry reid research and technology park in las vegas. a million to promote tourism in the northern mariana islands. some people say you are not saving enough money to make any difference, we are billion in debt. >> we have to start some place and identify real agencies and get rid of them. not just trim them back or slow their growth. make them go away. >> that is why you picked this one. totally get rid of this. >> it does nothing the federal government ought to be doing. >> five other departments have economic development agencies within them. >> it is everywhere. these programs are duplicative we will work on that and go to the others as well. >> this is the administration

massaging the congressmen to spread the loot around. >> you don't have to be sinister to know that the political agencies perpetuate themselves. they put them in my district in kansas and all across the country so when the congressman shows up to say this ought to go away they point to them and say let me tell you what it has done in your district. they forget to tell you about all of the things that could have been done with the taxpayer money when, kansas, paid for projects in nevada and west virginia. >> it is hard for a congressman to say i don't want that money. >> you you have to have a vision for what the federal government is supposed to do. >> and say i don't want that money. get rid of all of that, even mine. >> even those moneys go coming to the state of kansas. >> $2 million for a culinary amphitheater and a wine tasting room in richland, washington. what are they thinking? >> some economic development agency in a local place applied for a grant from the economic

development administration and qualified and received federal dollars. there was no one thinking about whether that made sense or we would get a chance to look at that today and say tsk, tsk. you pointed out that these are sometimes folks in their home that say we want to cut government but you not here and not today. it is today and it is everywhere that we have got to shrink the federal government. federal government. >> you want to get rid of all the energy subsidies. and the wind lobby attacked you from that. you misunderstand how it has built a thriving american wind manufacturing sector. lots of jobs. >> they would even point out that they have one in my home state of kansas. they forget to tell you if that money were left in the money of taxpayers those jobs that they cost by taxing people and takeing that wealth out of the private sector cost far more jobs than the wind sector could

ever hope to create. >> progressives generally think that energy subsidies or clean energy, that is the place where the spending should happen and progressive erica payne says we need this kind of subsidy for things like solar and wind power. make your case. >> i want to applaud you for coming out and challenging the dominance that the oil and gas company has. i do agree with that part of what you are talking about. >> just to clarify he wants to cut all subsidies including those for oil and gas. >> i think the question though is all we are really trying to get at is better products and better prices for consumers. that is ultimately what this is about. how do you bring competition into the marketplace. >> competition is in the marketplace. it doesn't have to be brought in. >> i think this is one of the challenges that we face in navigating these especially energy. because what happens now is you are kind of -- it is like you are asking a fifth grader to compete on even playing field with a college student.

>> solar and wind are the children who need help. >> i'm using that as an example because right now if i want to refill my car there are plenty of corners even in new york city where i can go and fill my gas tank up. alternatively, know, pardon the pun, i'm not able to go some where and fill up my electric car. i would argue that we need a bridge from here to there. >> what is wrong with a bridge? >> the argument you make sounds appealing on its face but we are now 30 years into the bridges. we have been subsidizing wind for decades and hydroelectric for decades. this is not a bridge. this is a 10,000-mile highway and it it is time to just say stand on your own two feet, compete, these are big companies. >> respectfully, though, you know, as we have been subsidizing as you said some of these ai alternate search sours we are still subsidizing soil.

>> the subsidies for oil and natural gas and coal are trivial compared to wind and solar. >> comes down to what your definition is, okay. >> it does? >> not to be silly. it does. look at the wars that we have been fight. that is a trillion dollars of a subsidy. i don't think anybody thinks that we went into those wars for any reason other than energy. >> so we fought in iraq for oil? >> so which subsidies are subsidies? >> i need to take that on. i heard that claim before. it is ridiculous on its face. the best way to get to where you say you want to be which is that we have low cost efficient energy produced here in north america is to get the government out of the game of trying to figure out. >> now, you are not responding to her claim that we went to iraq to get oil. >> we went in for national security. i'm a former soldier, i'm a veteran. we want to make sure is this. $15 trillion in debt. ed a a miral mullen said the

most dangerous debt facing our national security is america's debt. the last thing we want to do is waste hundreds of millions of dollars on energy subsidies that go to no good. we have seen what happened with solyndra. >> the next one might be the good one. >> eventually they get a good one. they will eventually pick a winner but we will have wasted and squandered the ability of the competitive marketplace to solve the problem that we want solve. >> your goal is an admirable one. i think we all agree we want the best prices for american consumers and have a secure energy source. the question is how long have we subsidized some of those harmful to us and to what degree are the prices built into. when you look at air pollution for example if you look at rates of children's asthma and the cost of war, all of these different items are not currently priced into oil. >> come on. how about the birds killed by the wind mills going around and

the people killed making the wind mill. >> this is a key economic construct. if everybody in america knew what an externality was then i think we would be better off. >> the politicians can apportion this properly? >> even with the subsidy you propose you still will have an average family of four paying triple for electricity if you move forward in the process you propose. in the state of kansas we have renewable mandates. this is an extraordinary cost that you are placing on the american consumer. if you will just let energy compete we will find the best energy technology. >> and by let energy compete you mean greedy private producers going to try to within the bids. how does it work? >> that is absolutely the case. we will find corporations and individuals that will use their own economic self-interest to find that great next energy technology. it has happened for generations. >> and if they screw up? >> they will pay the price and file bankruptcy and in america --

>> i won't have to pay for it. >> won't cost the taxpayer a nick on that note, thank you you. coming up, the government wants to regulate your iphone app and it wants you to pay for his student loan. i stay stop it. why are you telling us what to why are you telling us what to do

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occupy wall street. occupy ut. >> everybody has a right to a free education. higher education. college education. masters, you name is. >> in my personal opinion i would like all of that to be revoked. >> revoke all student debt. that is one demand from the protesters who get so much attention. and president obama has decided to revoke their debt or at least to forgive all student debt after 20 years. used to be 25 years. he also has taken steps to lower the student's interest

rate. of course, someone else has to pay for that and as usual that someone else is you. so i say that is wrong. but news day co columnist alec says that is right. why is that right? >> we said get a college education. when you get out of school you will be off and have a solid career enable you to get started as an adult and, indeed, to pay off these loans. >> john: i didn't they will temperature that. these were politicians and colleges lying to them. >> they did a lot of it. our culture in general sent that message to young people for generations and for those generations it was true. it is not true any more. some of those kids are saying wait, hold on a second if i have this balance and chain of debt on me i will never be able to get my adulthood started. this is a problem and we need to face it.

>> john: why would i loan if i knew that government might come in and say we are are going to change the rules of this deal? >> listen, cheerly individual responsibility is an important value here in kids and you will notice i'm not coming out to forgive every single nickel of student loans. i think we need to take a new look at this thing. >> john: i propose the opposite of that as a new look. how about saying we have been loaning all of these kids money, many shouldn't even be in college because we loaned this money college costs are way up. in fact, we have a graph of that. because of all these government handouts and easy loans, the cost of college has gone up at four times the rate of inflation. we complain about healthcare costs. they have gone up twice the rate of inflation. college is up four times. the colleges have become country clubs because of these loans. >> they still make the kids study, i hope. listen, john, do we really want the consequences of following -- what if all good colleges become only a place

where the superwealthy can send their kids? we will have dumb kids of rich people filling princeton and yale and harvard and middle class kids depending on these loans maybe we will just have v. to say, too bad, college is only for the ric richys? >> john: i don't think that will happen. there are are still plenty of loans out there. if the bank says this is a smart kid and he will have a job and pay this back. the unemployment rate for college grads is 5%. there are many far needier people. how about ugly people and short people. they make less. do we need to forgive their loans, too? >> life is tough all over, no doubt. >> john: and less tough than it used to be. >> i think that we ought to be able to find some middle ground. some where between just forgive everybody and no matter how responsible you are, no matter how hard you work, too bad, we are never coming for you. we are partly responsible for this. >> john: but aren't we responsible for saying keep your promises, this is a

contract? i mean some of these kids the loans were so easy they don't even know what they are are paying. at virginia tech they advertise dining hall serves lobster and london broil. at arizona state they brag about their two 20,000-foot community center with a movie theater and pools. colleges have become country clubs because we are too generous with taxpayer money. >> well, okay, fair enough. but we don't want the other side to happen, right. we don't want it only to be the super affluent kids affording those schools. work hard, pay your debts responsibly. >> john: pay your debts responsibly. >> and maybe we will reward you by giving a little help along the way. >> john: the reward comes at the expense of taxpayers and banks. i want to mention that last time you appeared on the show the other guest was herman cain who is now leading in the polls

for the republican presidential nomination and this clip of you with your mouth wide open has been circulating on tv shows and all over the internet. >> if a woman is raped she should not be allowed to end the pregnancy? >> that is her choice. that is not government's choice. i support life from conception. >> so abortion should be legal? >> no, abortion should not be legal. i believe in the sanctity of life. >> i'm not understanding. should it be legal? it it's her choice that means it is legal. >> no. >> i still don't really understand what happened. but if the camera happened to cut to you right at the moment when you had that look on your face. >> john.org not invite me on your show if you do not want my honest reactions to things that i hear, how about that. >> john: i appreciate your honest reactions. thank you. when we return, government wants to get inside your

wants to get inside your smartphone and regulate your

>> john: leave us alone for a change. the politicians and regulators always want to do more. recently there have been shortages of some drugs. you may have heard about that. cancer patients can't get drugs they need. well, why? one reason is that a big drugmaker shut down for about a year, in part, to meet fda rules. the fda is so tough it makes it so expensive to make a drug that often drug companies say we can't afford to make that. so does the fda then say sorry, we'll back off? no, the regulators almost never do that. in fact, now, the fda wants to do more. they want to regulate how your

doctor uses his smart phone. they want the poured concreter to approve mobile medical applications like this one that lets doctors monitor vital signs over a phone. here is the the doctor who developed it explaining it. >> even though i'm away from a hospital i can look at the real time wave form data just as if i was at the patient's bedside. doctors can't be at the bedside 24/7. we have to find ways to bring the data to the the mobile physician any time anywhere and we have done that on the iphone. >> makes doctors more efficient. but the fda says no, no, no, you just can't put something on your phone if it as medical device. what if it doesn't work right. we have to approve it. and most people's first instinct is to say yeah, i don't want some huckster getting rich off of some device that doesn't work right, i want the fda to make sure everything medal is safe and effective.

that is the fda's mandate and thinking that way is intuitive. but lawyer jonathan says what is in too waive is wrong. why? >> the regulations are costly and burden some and prevent essential medical apps from getting into the marketplace. >> john: it might kill me if they are not made right. >> they are being developed by doctors and experts. there are over 200 million mobile medical apps in the marketplace today and not a single complaint that someone has died or been seriously injured by a single one. >> what is the harm in letting the government make sure it is safe and effective? >> there thy is so much corruption at the food and drug administration and so much anticompetitive bias within the agency. >> john: buy corruption, you don't mean taking bribes as far as we know?

>> it is almost like that because you have career employees in the political decisions at the agency deciding how best to lead the agency and if you feather the right nest you will do well for yourself after you leave. and this is well known. >> john: meaning you make it tougher some company's competitor to get in the marketplace and then get a job with the big company. >> picking winners and losers is what it is all about. >> john: and the big companies deal better with the fda. >> they have lobbyists. unlike other agencies, the lobbyists have an open door at the fda. >> john: and what are we losing? >> by the regulations? >> john: yes. >> time. precious time that likes of dependent upon. for scam, mim software developed a simple mobile device that would combine mri images, p.e.t. scans, cat scans all together and produce a

superimage that was better for diagnosis. >> right here on your phone. >> right on your phone. to get that through the agency took two and a half years and cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars. all the while it could have been in use and ultimately it was approved. it is that kind of delay and multiple inquiries coming from the agency on ridiculous things many times that really hurts the american public. >> john: and there is a bias in the reporting and we in the media mess this up because if something does go wrong we make a huge story about it and your fellow lawyers get rich suing a company that made a mistake. but when they delay it for two and a half years and people die we don't know who those people were because they didn't have the thing? that's right. if you take for example earl grant and -- earl and grant wright who created this simple thing, all it was is two sheets of plastic with silicon gel in between that would be used for self-breast examination. it worked in a fantastic way to

exaggerate the presence of a tumor at an air early stage a. >> john: a woman would use this for self- >> that was kept off the market for ten years. cost millions of dollars to get it through the fda. all the while, doctors around the country are clammerring for it because it is so beneficial. what is the risk involved with that. >> i don't hear the companies complaining about the evil fda being too slow. i hear the big companies saying we like the regulation. >> it has a great andty competitive benefit if you are in the sack with the fda. when you are outside there is another risk. if you raise your head above the parapit and become vocal in your criticisms the fda remembers like an elephant and will stamp you out of existences. that is the threat. >> john: they will punish you. >> this person complained about us. we will take an extra week on his application.

>> so much discretion in their hands they sit like emperors reigning over this stuff. >> john: we would like to hear from the fda on this. if you are an fda person who wants to be on the show. give us a call. up next, the government's plan to protect you from street vendors who sell flowers. remember the days before cop my son and i never missed opening day. but with copd making it hard to breathe, i thought ose days might be over. so my doctor prescribed symbicort. it helps significantly ove my lung function,

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>> john: the motto of the fox business network is giving people the power to prosper. what really allows people to prosper is being able to start your own business and run it without interferences from bureaucrats and tax collectors. however, these days america is crawling with bureaucrats and tax collectors. they make it harder to run a business. now, and then i try to illustrate that by trying to open my own business. here is one i called the stossel store. i tried to sell stuff on the streets of delaware style

magazine want to buy a fox t-shirt? >> i didn't say it was a smart business but this ability to try to succeed is important but america doesn't make it ease. >> y. i had to register with the delaware secretary of state. buy commercial liability insurance. register with the department of finance. >> it was good that i did all this because this cop came over to make sure that i had my vending permit. >> cost me ten bucks. >> yeah, are the city of wilmington will get you. >> all right. but i'm legal, right? >> you are legal. >> what if i wasn't? what if i tried to sell, say, flowers on the street in high hialeah, florida. there i could be arrested if my flower stand is close to a flower store or if i don't constantly move the stand around. >> hundreds of people who earn their living as street vendors in hialeah operate in legal limbo as the city has turn inside a confusing patch of no

vending zones. >> the institute is a libertarian law firm that sues governments that limit entrepreneurs economic freedom and they have gotten rid of laws that make it expensive to get a taxi driver license and laws that prevent monks from selling caskets, just a wooden box. laws that prevent young women from starting hair braiding businesses and so on. elizabeth foley sued the city of hialeah and argues that its street vending law is unconstitutional. raul martinez was the mayor of the town when the law was passed and says heck, no, this isn't unconstitutional. >> what is the proper problem? >> makes it virtually imfob be an effective street vendor. can't be within 300 feet of any big and mortar store that sells the same or similar merchandise.

>> they want to get property taxes from brick and mortar stores and the street vendors. >> tax issues are tax issues. this is about the right of street vendors to pursue their lawful occupation. it is a lawful occupation. that is like passing a law is a that says that mcdonalds can't set up shop next to a burger king. these people are just trying to make an honest living and the city is making it impossible to do so. they say if you are flower vender it is illegal to set a bucket of flowers next to the ground on your feet. >> john: view you have to keep moving and strolling along? >> you have to be in constant motion which is completely unsafe. even if you are on private property with the permission of the private property hoper, you are in a home depot parking lot let's say you have to constantly move around the parking lot. that makes no sense. >> john: mayor martinez why is this is good law? >> you don't want to have everybody in the middle of the streets without some sort of

recruiting lakes. in the city of hialeah we are not overregulating everybody. this is one of those lawsuits that people decided they want to sue and they will do that and it is okay but it is not restrictive. we made it very accommodating long before h her client and the institute even came to the city of hialeah, trust me. >> john: he says he would have vendors all over the sidewalks and people wouldn't be able to walk by. >> there is nothing wrong with legitimate laws that protect public health and safety. that is not what these laws are doing. the only reason for enacting these ordinances is to squelch competition between brick and mortar stores and street vendors. that is not american. >> john: mayor martinez? let him answer. >> you have to understand there la mat businesses that payes property taxes that have a right to survive because they also create jobs. we did back then is got all the groups together and came with an ordinance that was satisfactory to all of the

parties at the time. >> john: wait a second, you didn't get all of the groups together because no one knows who all the groups are. there might be new people who might want to ensure territories the business. you got the established guys together. do you have family members in the flower business? >> no, i don't. never have. >> john: just wanted to ask that. why would i ever open a brick and mortar store and pay property tax if i could save money, maybe $3,000 a year and just have my cart? >> because these are different tripes of business models. a flourest offers special arrangements and delivery and has a bathroom. a street vendor competes on price and convenience because you can drive up and get your now ares and go home quickly. there is nothing wrong with having two different types of business models competing near each other. >> and we do. >> it is not legitimate for government to use its incredible poured concreter to make one business model have an

downfair advantage over another. >> you are creating an unfair advantage when you allow that vendor selling in the front of a flower shop the same flowers that the flower shop is selling and at a much reduced price that is unfair competition. >> would it be legitimate to pass a law in hialeah to say a mcdonalds can't be used to a burger king because they are competing with each other. >> typical attorney you are going apples to oranges. two brick buildings one next to another. >> because just they are brick buildings. >> why do they have to keep moving around all the time? >> because that is the way it was written they must be moving but they don't. they put their bucket on the sidewalk. they do it all the time. >> john: we are out of time. ing thank you. next, are you afraid of china? well, you should be, says my next guest who says china's

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>> john: china's economy booms while the american economy stag nates. will china soon overtake us? should we be afraid? testeven leeb says be afraid. he says china's growing

prosperity threatens the way of life. i'm skeptical as it economist john by dry. he says we should be glad china is doing well. what is the threat? >> the threat is the fact that resources are not infinitely abundant. resources are basically scarce and we live in a world in which all resources are dependent. all you need is one scarce resource and everything else becomes scarce. we focus on oil and it is backing scarce. copper is becoming scarce. goldman, sachs the other day. >> john: the new york times said in 1973 experts say the world will have virtually run out of oil by the world 2000. people are always saying things are scarce and with human in genuity we find new things. >> copper is 350 a pound. compared to maybe 60, 90, a

dollar a pound in the 1990s. the point is they are going go up a lot more. these threats that you heard about in 1973, well, that was when the world's population may have been 1 or 2 billion. i don't know what it was. now, it is 7 billion. china is growing fast. what they have recognized and let me just quote from goldman, sachs the other day, forget about me, goldman, sachs a pretty credible brokerage firm. >> john: sometimes. >> times. but not trying to overly excite people. here was the words that they used in describing copper. they said this three years copper could be unimaginably that is their word high. and it makes all the sense in the world, john. because if you look at grades of copper, grades of zinc, grades of virtually any metal they are going down. >> your response? >> these predictions have been coming down the pike for are 200 years. it is not going to happen. when economies grow people become more creative and supplies grow. it happened in the past. no reason to think it won't

happen in the future. china is full of a lot of creative people. if that economy grows and becomes wealthy as it is doing to the extent they adopt free market capitalism which they are moving toward they he will find ways to create more resources around get more out of existing resources. i have no doubt that resource supplies in the secular trend will be upward over the next few decades, centuries. >> i think you are betting on a technology god. it may have happened in the past. >> john: technology god. i like that. >> i'm betting on human ingenuity. >> where that's been the last 12 years? you are saying there is growth. where is the growth in the u.s. economy when we have 9.1% unemployment. >> this is a recession. >> this is not a recession. give me any other case in history other than the depression when median income have gone down 10% or 12% and that is for the population. for those in the bottom 90%, 15%. >> we are in -- >> where are you?

you have a nice tenured job. >> we are in the biggest recession since the great depression. the downtown in the economy has nothing to do with resource scarcity. >> of course, it has everything to do with resource scarcity. you go and spend $150 a week filling up your car. try and put corn and food on your table when you have record prices for corn. >> get rid of the eartha until subsidies. >> i'm not even talking about ethanol. >> i am. >> talking about food in general. nearly all-time highs. >> i will make you a bet you can pick five commodities and i inflation adjusted price of the market basket of those five commodities will fall over the next ten years. i will make you a $5,000 bet. >> of course, i will make you a bet. >> john: do we have this bet here. >> you can pick any commodity you want. >> well, you pick five commodities. >> copper, oil, corn.

zinc. iron ore. >> john: economists made this bet years guy. >> and they lost. >> no, we won. >> people like me lost but people like me. >> and you continue to lose if you believe that. >> because china with 1.5 billion people more than the world had when the previous bet was made ex--- >> john: do you want to do about it? go over there and bomb them? >> i tell you what i want to do about it. i don't want to let it happen. >> john: how are you going to stop it? >> you create policies that create growth. real growth in this country. >> john: which are what? >> china over the next five years plans to spend 2.5 to 3 trillion with a t dollars on new energy. they have taken over the solar. >> john: like solyndra? >> they are the reason solyndra is busted. they are undercutting us in every which way. >> john: take a look at this chart here. you say it is their planning. >> yeah. >> john: i look at this, this is -- this is economic growth in china.

for most of the time hardly any growth. they had all this planning. 100% of the economy was planned. only when they recognized private property and individual initiative did the chinese economy boom. it is not planning. it is freedom that helped them boom. >> yes, i agree. freedom did help them boom. i agree. if you look at the chart from a slightly different scale you will find that they were growing prior to 1990. not near early as fast. so no argument there. >> planning doesn't work. they used to say japan central planning. >> and i don't want to live like chinese. like the chinese. i don't like them. that is why i say war. i love north america. >> john: last word. we are about out of time. >> the world's population has grown substantially. what happened to the police of recourse prices they will continue to fall as economies like china back more productive. >> john: thank you don and steven. coming up, will they soon pass

a law against doing what this kid did? dress up like me? that and other absurdities, next.

>> john: when one says i should fear china, i just don't get if. i would be scared if i lived there or wanted to do business there. the communist dictatorship is repulsive. i think about tiannamen square and that lone student. we are much more powerful. we spend six times than what they spend. they are a threat to taiwan and japan.

but they are not close to o being a threat to the united states. today people say we should fear china's economic power and their economy is growing faster than ours. wwhy fear that? economic competition is a good thing. it is not like war. war is win or lose. but economic competition is win-win. if they invent superior panels, say, we again fit. a way to make freshwater from saltwater that is good for the whole world. this their economy grows bigger than ours that is okay. it just means there are more rich people that we can sell stuff to that makes americans richer. and a growing china won't steal america's jobs. this they might take away some if they can make iphones and plastic toys more keeply but that is okay, too, because if those things are cheaper that allows us to create other jobs by focusing on what we are making, coming up with ideas

for cell phones and growing wheat. the money we save buying chinese solar panels lets us do more of that. unless, of course our government screws it up and our politicians do have a history of doing that bypassing crippling regulations. crippling businesses with a million rules. this 80,000-pages is just what the feds added last year. how to this is just death bay thousand cuts. every page is a list of dos and don'ts that every business must follow or be in big trouble. these rules will help china surpass us. let's get rid of them. earlier tonight, i showed you how hard it was to get legal permission to open my simple business. it took a week of lawyering and yet i opened this little stand in delaware the state where it is supposedly the easiest to start a business. by contrast in hong kong i once got permission to open a business in one day.

>> thank you, sir. >> that is all it took. communist china, even they recognize that too many rules stifel economic growth. they started special economic zones where they have more free trade, less planning and less bureaucracy and those regions have stunning growth. that is what we need more of in this country. more freedom from these stupid regulations. and again, these are just the federal rules. local governments add more. monday was halloween and that brings out the local rulemakers. in walnut, california, it is illegal to wear a mask on halloween without permission from the sheriff. soon they will pass laws against what this texas boy did. he went trick or treating dressed as me. okay. he is not illegal yet but states do keep passing more rules. last month, illinois joined 14 other states in banning these. cigarette lighters that look like other things like the statue of liberty or this fire

extinguisher. they are not allowed to have entertaining features. there is a justification. kids might start a fire, we better ban these. never mind that the guy who tee designed this and the people who made the mold and materials and packed them and invested in them and marketing and so on are now out of a job and the companies now hire lawyers instead of inventors. are we too stupid to decide whether or not we can have lighters that look like this in our homes? one last example. louisiana just made it illegal for resale stores like thrift shops to pay cash for used goods. now, they have to write a check. this will supposedly make it easier for the cops to track stolen goods and make it easier for government to collect taxes but checks cost money and not everyone has a bank account and check cashing services charge heavity fees but can't get cash for your old furniture in louisiana any more. big government doesn't like it.

it is one more reason why we here at the stossel show reject big government. and we hope you do, too. that is our show. thanks for watching.

let's show 'em what a breakfast with wholegrain fiber can do. one coffee with room, one large mocha latte. medium macchiato, light hot chocolate hold the whip, and two espressos, make one a double. she's full and focused! [ barista ] i have two cappuccinos, one coffee with room, one large mocha latte, a medium macchiato, a light hot chocolate, hold the whip and two espressos, one with a double shot. hehe, that's not the coffee talking. [ female announcer ] start your day with kellogg's frosted mini-wheats cereal. the 8 layers of whole grain fiber help keep you full so you can avoid the distraction of mid-morning hunger. no thanks, i'm good.