yes, we can. yes, we can. >> politicians keep saying that. >> yes, we can. >> yes, we can. >> yes, we can! >> yes, we can. >> and people believe. >> yes, we can! yes, we can! >> but when we means government the fact is they can't. the politicians in there think they can run our economy. run our lives but no. they can't. that is the title of my new book which explains that individuals succeed but government spends huge amounts of our money on trivial things. >> it is trivial to you because you are arrogant. >> yes, we can. >> no, politicians can't. >> do you liberals live in a fantasyland? >> who thinks the tsa does a great job? >> to be subjected to such

disgusting abuses of poured concrete. government can't protect our money or educate kids. >> yes, we can. >> the government just can't do it. >> get out of our way and leave us alone. >> this time a poll six says. >> yes, we can. >> we the people say. >> no, they can't! >> the politicians and their claim they he create jobs but no, they can't. >> president obama was a job creator from day one. >> we are are going to create millions of new jobs. >> my job is to create jobs. >> they keep saying that. but does government create jobs? >> absolutely. >> congressman keith ellison is cochair of the congressional progressive caucus. >> the public sector and the private sector must be working together in order for the market to work properly. >> wouldn't it be nice if the wise men and women in washington could make the market work properly and create

jobs? >> nobody can doubt that we have schools crumbling and our own parks need attention. in minneapolis we saw a bridge fall into the mississippi river, glance but government doesn't have money of its own, it has to take money from the private sector to give to the projects. >> you got to take the money from some where. >> the caucus claims it has a plan that can create 2.2 million jobs. >> why not 5 million jobs or 10 million jobs. why are you so cheap? spend more. >> there needs to be balance. >> how do you know that 2.2 million is the right balance of taking money from the private sector? >> no one ever does. >> i think this guy has the right answer. that is mark cuban, owner of the nba champion dallas mavericks. >> how many jobs have you created? >> tens of thousands. >> when politicians take money

from the private sector they take it from job creators like cuban. >> government is just not very effective and very efficient at using money. >> when cuban was 24 he had no job himself and no prospect. >> and you end up with billions of dollars. >> and a hot wife. what more could i ask for, right? >> in 1983 cuban started a software company and grew it and sold it for millions. then. >> my partner came to me and said you are the geek, there has to be a way to listen to indiana basketball over the internet. i said that is a good idea. >> i put an isdn line in the second bedroom of my house and i just worked. >> without a government program he created something. >> and i said guys when this is over either we are idiots and this is worth nothing and we will know it right away or we are all going to be rich. >> five years later they sold that company to yahoo for $6 billion. >> to me the most patriotic

thing you can do as an american is be filthy, filthy rich. you are creating jobs and creating opportunities. >> he used his billion dollars to it hire more people and create more wealth. and he bought a lousy basketball team. >> you took a team not expected to win and they became national champions yeah, we sucked. >> did you have some ideas nobody else had or just good players? >> i walked in and i told everybody if you mention our win loss record you are fired. >> the attitude would spread and be contagious. >> it was county gauss. we had a survival attitude as opposed to a let's win attitude. if you don't think like winners i will trade you and get rid of you. it took us 12 years but we finally won a world championship last year. >> now, cuban stars in a reality show that invites entrepreneurs to pitch ideas that might grow into big job creators. >> $500,000 for 40% of the company. >> cuban says it would be hard for him to start his businesses today because government has

gotten so much more intrusive. >> lot of the things now there is so much paper work and regulation and thicks that you have to sign up for that you have a better chance of getting in trouble than you do of being successful. it is like come on guys, you want people to start businesses why make it so hard? >> they make it hard because they want safety and fairness and think their rules provide that. they also make it hard because big government demands higher taxes. cuban will survive that but little guys get killed. >> that's right. two for the government. one for me. two for the government. one for me. >> ed land bought a small farm in south carolina, thinking. >> how county farm produce an income that can pay for itself. that is when we decided to go into agri tourism business. >> he started to have weddings and other events at the farm and sells cattle and produce but he has been held back by government. >> and i'm tired of them at

telling us what to do and how to live and how to do business and how to can a product and i ask them permission for everything i do in life. you want to control everything then you come out here and run the damn thing. >> what does the government do that has him frustrate. >> this is just part of the regulations we have to deal with right here. they are just going on and on and keep growing. >> government regulations stapped him from canning and selling his crops. >> we missed an be entire harvest because we couldn't get the kitchen certified in time. >> and forced him to make tons of little changes to his building. a regulator told him. >> you need to put another hand washing sink behide this sink. >> for what. >> for employees would wash their hand. i said what is wrong with the other sink? the sink on its own was not a big deal. it is the little things that keep amassing together and make this big ball that before long i can't carry that big ball. >> he has learnd that bureaucrats keep their jobs by finding problems. >> well, let's say a building codes inspector comes out and he doesn't find anything what

good he is. he can't justify his position unless he goes back and says look i found this and this and this and it keeps rolling and rolling and rolling. >> the time and money he spends obeying government could have won to create jobs. >> without the government deterring the growth of this business we could hire ten more easy. get out of our way and leave us alone and we can create all the jobs. >> but big government doesn't get out of the way. it keeps helping us. for example. are you disabled? politicians in there say they could help you find jobs but no they can't. >> we must take strong action. >> remember this guy? >> blatant and subtle discrimination. >> young senator al gore helped convince democrats and republicans to overwhelmingly pass the americans with disabilities act. >> part of the ada was to get people with disabilities employed and it has had absolutely the reverse effect. >> a reverse effect.

when the law was passed 51% of disabled people were in the workforce but now it is just 33%. one reason is that the law makes employers see the disabled as a legal threat. if you fire a disabled person he may sue you. in addition, politicians promised the ada would force businesses to accommodate handicapped people so the law includes hundreds of pages of detailed rules. every new doorway must be 32 inches wide. every mirror no more than 40 inches above the floor. if they aren't, morris may sue you. he files hundreds of ada lawsuits every year. >> what would you do if you were in a wheel chair and couldn't move your legs don't you want something to protect your rights? >> the protection did nasty things. now, some businesses are sued by disabled people who have never been in their stores. drive bis the lawyers call them.

a disabled person or scout working for them drives up and down the street looking for businesses that might not be compliant. >> eric wyatt was asked to do that. >> he got an e-mail from his attorney go to the following 19 businesses and get 19 business cards or receipts and i will pay you a thousand dollars. >> just get a business card to prove he was there and the lawyer would find a reason to sue. eric said no but he could have made thousands of dollars a day. >> about $19,000 all together. >> the disability rules are hundreds are pages so most every business violates some rule. >> it could be that a mirror is an inch too high. unsecured floor mats. round door nobs. >> a round door knob is illegal? >> it could subject you to a lawsuit. >> george coals owns carpet and flooring stores. his father was disabled and used a scooter to move around the store. >> we have a lot of disabled customers that never

complained. but if an attorney comes in and his or her motivation is to make money on noncompliance i think they can be very creative. >> one person sued claiming the store aisles were too narrow for his wheel chair. but they aren't. so we decided let's look in our security cameras. lo and behold, we couldn't find him. he never was in the store. >> but the phoney plaintiff's lawyer still demanded money. >> he would just go away for $14,000. >> so george paid. even though he had proof that the man was not in his store. in total being sued cost him $100,000. >> they are faced with these claims that even when they are not true they pay them anyway because it would cost them much more to win? >> it is as simple as that. we know of a number of defendants who spent $100,000, $200,000, $500,000 dealing with these cases. clint eastwood was one of them. >> he run this hotel

restaurant. he has a handicapped accessible bathroom but it woman sued him because she claims she was directed to a regular bathroom. eastwood is rich enough to say go ahead, make my day. he fought back in court and won. usually business owners pay the lawyer just a few you thousand dollars to go away. >> it is extortion but it is legally. >> sure feels that way. >> it is an ugly process but it works. >> you sue about all kinds of trivial stuff. >> it is trivial to you because you are arrogant and you don't see the point of view of someone -- >> you are parasites and free loading off productive people. >> if it wasn't for people like me thousands and thousands of businesses would not be compliant with the ada right now. if you want to call it a racket, okay, it is a racket that is written into the legal system. >> it is legal existences tortion. >> well, the entire legal system is driven by money. >> yes. and by politicians who say. >> yes, we can. >> yes, we can. >> yes, we can.

coming up. >> the first thing you are struck by is our jungle lobby. >> did you know you helped pay for this?

♪ want to go to college? else' expensive. a year at harvard now costs more than $50,000. state schools often cost $30,000. the politicians in there say we can make college affordable for everyone. but no, are they can't. they have tried. federal spending and college aid has doubled and then doubled again. but as government aid grew so did tuition. inflation was 160%. we are upset that healthcare costs grew more, 400%. but college tuition rose 750%. >> the first thing you are struck by is our jungle lobby. bee

banyon trees and the trappings of a jungle retreat. >> luxury to entice students and their money. this is the rec center at the university of missouri. >> from there you will find yourself in the jungle gym complete with the torches to welcome you in to the cardiogally. not to be outdone by tiger lair our spinning studio. outstanding with its mural work done by the international artist and then zoo life which is the in house day spa. >> it is no surprise that tuition is high. >> and key just keep feeding the problem. a book about how colleges waste money. >> however, colleges decide to hike their prices the federal government says we will contribute a little bit more. >> today, almost half of college students get federal aid. >> we have to make sure that education is affordable and available to everybody who wants to go. >> people are looking to the government to help them out of this mess but the government got them into this mess. >> because the government pays for everything. >> yeah. the cost of college is not just

this number that comes out of thin air. colleges know that they can keep increasing the costs because the government says we will keep paying for it. if the government said we are not going to keep making up the difference no matter what you add to your costs the cost would start to stop or they would start to go down. >> but progressives say government should spend more are. >> there is no evidence that college loans or any type of student aid increases tuition at public universitys. >> if you give people money tuition goes up. >> it doesn't actually. >> tamara works for a think tank that president obama helped found. >> colleges have been forced to really cut to the bone. if you look at what has happened after -- >> cut to the bone? >> absolutely. state funding has been steadily and pretty aggressively cut. >> why do you mean cut? it has gone up from $55 billion to almost $80 billion. up isn't a jut it has gone up in absolutely terms because there are more students being educated. >> do you liberals live in

fantastictyland? >> there are a lot more students. >> not enough to make up with all the money you are throwing at them. >> per student amount of financial aid. >> it is up. >> today students get an average $12,000 in federal and state aid up from $7,000 in 1987. >> good morning, mr. vice president. >> at least vice president biden understands that subsidies raise prices. how do you feel about the idea that government subsidies by artificially increasing the availability of student loans is at least partially responsible for rising tuition costs? >> government subsidies have impacted upon rising tuition costs and it is a conundrum here. >> it sure is. colleges now advertise lobster dinners and expensive dorms with luxury pools. >> pools and spas and fancy gym facilities and sushi for lunch. isn't that where you would like to take your next vacation. every college you say why do

you spend so much money on this and they say well, we he have to compete with the college down the street. >> a terrific climbing tower 42 feet with a variety of lights on it to simulate different times of the day. >> the administrator says good i will build a new rock wall. >> i would love to know where all of the rock walls are. >> i will show you. more than 600 colleges now have rock walls. >> what is important to any leisure resort and what is important to any red blooded american college student? spring break. give our tigers spring break every time they step into the student recreation complex. >> when you go on a tour here they definitely throw that in your face and it is completely awesome. >> students will come to us and say this is what seals the deal. used to be reading, writing and arithmetic and well, we are now the fourth r, recreation. >> every parent that i have on the tour is pretty much like i want to be back if school or how do i get to going back to school. >> we are putting colleges on

notice. >> now, even progressives are upset about the rising cost of college. >> we can't just keep on subsidizing skyrocketing tuition. >> but in the exact same speech the president also said. >> my administration is increasing federal student aid so more students can afford college. >> don't politicians see the irony? no. coming up, imagine a place where fewer rules create prosperity. >> buildings are coming up. hotels are being built. ( bell rings ) they remind me so much of my grandkids. wish i saw mine more often, but they live so far away. i've been thinking about moving in with my daughter and her family. it's been pretty tough since jack passed away. it's a good thing you had life insurance through the colonial penn program. you're right. it was affordable, and we were guaranteed acceptance. guaranteed acceptance? it means you can't be turned down because of your health. you don't have to take a physical or answer any health questions.

they don't care about your aches and pains. well, how do you know? did you speak to alex trebek? because i have a policy myself. it costs just $9.95 a month per unit. it's perfect for my budget. my rate will never go up. and my coverage will never go down because of my age. affordable coverage and guaranteed acceptance? we should give them a call. do you want to help protect your loved ones from the burden of final expenses? if you're between 50 and 85, you can get quality insurance that does not require any health questions or a medical exam. your rate of $9.95 a month per unit will never increase, and your coverage will never decrease -- that's guaranteed. so join the six million people who have already called about this insurance. whether you're getting new insurance or supplementing what you already have, call now and ask one of their representatives about a plan that meets your needs.

so, what are you waiting for? go call now! we'll finish up here.

♪ what in the world is happening on wall street? >> customers are freaked out waiting to see how low the dow will go. >> when the housing bubble burst and markets fell people

intuitively felt someone must do something. >> the politicians in there said we know what to do. senator dodd and congressman frank will write more rules to make sure it never happens again. and so they wrote. and wrote. hundreds of pages. they say this will create a new financial system. >> one that is innovative. creative. competitive. and far less prone to panic and collapse. >> why is dodd frank a good thing? >> well, consumer protection. an agency dedicated to make sure that financial products like mortgages, credit cards have si simple contracts easy o understand. transparency is a good thing. >> is dodd frank simple. did you read it? >> yes. >> did you understand it? the whole thing. all these pages. you understand these? >> i stayed up and read this thing. and running a bank is complicated. >> banks already had to follow the thousands of pages of

complex rules even before dodd frank. >> you have obey all these regulations. >> richard ron is a former bank regulator. >> i think most people have trouble remembering the ten commandments let alone 10,000-pages of something. >> ron used to work in the cayman islands. the caymans. sound familiar? >> you have assets hidden in the cayman islands. >> we are not going to beat barack obama with some guy who has swiss bank accounts, cayman island accounts. >> the caribbean islands where mitt romney supposedly hides his money. >> you know the reputation of the cayman islands. >> people keep telling us it is where rich people go to cheat on taxes. >> here is a little building down in the cayman islands,. >> over 12,000 businesses claim this building as their headquarters. >> it is monkey business. >> either this is the largest building in the world or the largest tax scam. >> you hear it all over the

news. well, about the whole tax haven foolishness. >> look at the gao report. the irs says caymans officials provide all requested information in a timely manner. >> mitt romney pays taxes on all of the money earned from the cayman entities. >> i would think it would be like pirate h heaven. some pirate would go and steal all the money. >> well, that actually doesn't happen because the rules are understandable. >> our laws are so complex even regulators don't understand them. the sec investigated bernie madoff six times but didn't stop him. >> he could never gotten away in cayman what he got away with here in the u.s. >> america's complex laws only pretend to stop fraud. remember the solution afte afte enron scandal. >> we will ask against those who have shaken confidence in our markets? >> that save us sarbanes oxley

which cost americans billions in paper work but did not prevent madoff's fraud for the next bubble. >> the economy in crisis, big banks in a death spiral. >> banks make bad decisions. it makes sense that you should have a rule to stop that. >> no. >> but what about that cayman building? doesn't it suggest tax fraud. thousands ever companies are registered here. >> it has nothing to do with taxes. in delaware, there is buildings that have ten times or a hundred times as many registered companies. >> it is true. companies register themselves in delaware because delaware has simpler rules. i once started a business there in just one week. >> fox t-shirts. fox hats. great stuff here. >> i could have ridge r. registered my stand even faster in the caymans. >> whey set out to do was to design a system that was market responsive and fast. >> don seymour helped create the simple rules. it takes just ten pages to

register a hedge fund and the simple rules work. >> look at our track record. just in the past decade we have been true the crisis of 2000, 2004, and the most severe crisis being 2008. and no cayman financial institution needed any type of government intervention or needed any type of bailout. >> simple rules also created loss parity. >> today we have the -- prosperity. >> we have the highest standard of living in the world. >> we are doing good. we can't complain. >> jobs are always opening up. the businesses are booming out of no where. buildings coming up and hotels being built. >> simple rules has been good for people. it is counter intuitive. people's reaction is we protect people with more rules. >> i go back to the ten commandments. you needed ten. the bible didn't say you needed a hundred thousand. >> coming up, do you hate the

tsa? >> such disgusting abuses of power. >> but good news there is something better. >> people here are friendl

i'm anita vogel. now, back to john stossel's "no they can't." >> after september 11, politicians said government must take over airline security. >> you get federal law enforcement to do this job. >> tom daschle said you can't professionalize if you don't federalize and the senate voted 100 to zero to take over airport security screening. >> sir, do you have your i.d.? >> it it now professional? >> opt out! >> these people don't think so. flyers complain that they are. >> subjected to such disgusting abuses of poured concrete. tsa employees ordered the elderly woman remove her soiled adult diaper because it was

preventing a thorough patdown. >> this former miss america says she felt molest. >> she actually touched my vagina. >> but didn't the tsa keep us safe? >> there haven't been successful attacks since september 11th. you might say that shows it is working. >> actually, every report shows that tsa missed things. what saved us was the passengers and crew. >> congressman mica helped create the tsa and now chairs the transportation committee. >> richard reid. it wasn't the tsa that saved the day. the diaper bomber it was the passengers and crew that saved the day. the times square bomber he called on his cell phone and order his ticket on the way to jfk and went through tsa and got on the plane. >> and the tsa is such a lousy place to work that more than 50% of the work force has quit. >> the agency keeps losing employees and hiring new ones. >> they are advertising on the

top of pizza boxes. >> a career where x-ray vision and benefits are standard. turnover is high not because the tsa is underfunded. it spends ten times what the previous private screening company spent. mica was shocked at how much money they can waste. >> you don't want to know. i sent two guys out they have a warehouse in texas and they brought hundreds of puffers that didn't work. >> remember these? they cost $150,000 each and were supposed to detect explosives but they didn't work. >> they sat in warehouses and they paid i think $600 apiece for dod to destroy them. >> the tsa wastes money, misses terrorists, infuriates passengers and creates long lines. isn't there a better way? oh, here is one. the lines are shorter at san francisco airport. they move quickly and passengers even say the screeners are nice. >> people here are friendly and willing to help. >> i think they are a little more understanding. >> everybody here is friendly.

a lot more friendly than dallas. >> dallas and all the other big airports employ government screeners. san francisco is the one major airport that was allowed to hire screeners who work for a private company. not only are these screeners nicer they are bettered a at fining stuff. the tsa tested them and found they were twice as good at finding contraband. we who private screeners be nicer and better? here is a reason. they practice. here they are racing to match the security cards together under black light. the fastest screener will win $2,000. there is even dramatic music. the tsa trains its screeners, too, but not like this. in this competition screeners race to search bags and identify forbidden items. here is a pipe bomb. then they rush to repack the bag. in this test they look at slides of people and try to remember details. how many buttons are on her

sleeves. >> four. >> yes. >> the private company makes these screeners specialists. >> behavior detection officers. they have to be able to look at something, look at a lot of people and beable to retain what they saw. so this isn't things you find out who is very good at that stuff. >> we are really competitive. >> screeners love the contests. >> so usually it is did you go. yes, what is your score. i'm not telling you. if you tell a person your score they will try to beat you and you want to be the winner. it is kind of like bragging rights. >> and i suppose they get better with the contests? >> they have to. >> if you don't have the passion for it, right, i guess you need to find another job. >> who knew privatization would create better attitude. >> privatized seems to selfish. i bet you are making money. that is coming out of my pocket. >> that is the american way. >> profit makes you try harder. >> makes you work very hard. we have to do well.

>> that also means getting passengers through security quickly. wait times here are shorter because they move screeners around. >> we have moved from each point with two lanes. >> i if we show red there we know we are short staffed some where. we start to back up here a little bit we find out how many people we can send to help them. >> we are good. we will make the changes. >> the director of this airport wishes her screening company tried as hard to keep lines moving. >> we get a high number of visitors in the summer. >> of course, she does. her airport is right next to montana's glacier national park. people go to the park in summer time. traffic triples but the tsa doesn't respond to that. >> the screening levels remain constant year round. same number in the summer as in the winter. >> because of that and the delays it creates and passenger complaints about rude screeners, cindy wanted to switch to a private screening company. the law that created the tsa allows that but airports have

to ask for permission. cindy and dozens of other airport managers asked but the tsa simply didn't respond for a year and a half and then they said no. >> what reason did they give you? >> they didn't give us a reason. >> we asked tsa officials to come on the show to explain their position but they declined. their spokesman also lied to us when we asked for permission to film the competition at san francisco airport they told us the private company is camera shy and wants to stay out of the lime light. but it wasn't true. >> i don't know why they did that. i really don't. >> the only reason the tsa has given for rejecting other san francisco like experiments is there is no clear advantage to the federal government. >> i bet mcdonald's would like to tell burger king you can't open here, there is no clear advantage to you coming here. >> they would love that i'm sure. >> tsa creator congressman micah says the bureaucrats are just protecting their turf. >> it is typical government.

>> gives them more power. >> keep the power in washington. >> so what were you thinking? you did this? >> there is no question it has grown into a monster and they have become a huge personnel operation instead of a security operation. >> coming up, people think the program headstart gives poor kids a headstart.

( bell rings ) they remind me so much of my grandkids. wish i saw mine more often, but they live so far away.

i've been thinking about moving in with my daughter and her family. it's been pretty tough since jack passed away. it's a good thing you had life insurance through the colonial penn program. you're right. it was affordable, and we were guaranteed acceptance. guaranteed acceptance? it means you can't be turned down because of your health. you don't have to take a physical or answer any health questions. they don't care about your aches and pains. well, how do you know? did you speak to alex trebek? because i have a policy myself. it costs just $9.95 a month per unit. it's perfect for my budget. my rate will never go up. and my coverage will never go down because of my age. affordable coverage and guaranteed acceptance? we should give them a call. do you want to help protect your loved ones from the burden of final expenses? if you're between 50 and 85, you can get quality insurance that does not require any health questions or a medical exam. your rate of $9.95 a month per unit will never increase,

and your coverage will never decrease -- that's guaranteed. so join the six million people who have already called about this insurance. whether you're getting new insurance or supplementing what you already have, call now and ask one of their representatives about a plan that meets your needs. so, what are you waiting for? go call now! we'll finish up here.

there is one government program that most everyone says is a big success and that is headstart. >> head start has been an extraordinary success over all these years. >> a program that is working. >> it gives underprivileged kids early education to give them a headstart before regular school. its lobby says it is a place -- >> where dreams are born and minds inur nourished. talent can grow. >> it gets results? >> i think there is tons of results. >> everyone thinks that but it is not. >> we spent $180 billion on a program that has zero advantage for disadvantaged kids. >> what do you mean zero advantage? >> there was a study that came out in 2010 funded by the federal government and looked at 114 indicators and did not find one positive outcome. >> some poor kids got headstart and others different. >> they couldn't tell the

difference. >> the government's own study found positive impacts while the kids were in headstart but one year later all gone. >> by kindergarten and first grade they could find no difference in the kids that went and the kids that didn't. >> our president has taken strong stance against ineffective programs. >> we have to eliminate programs that don't work. >> eliminating programs that no longer. we have spent more than $100 billion and the government does this big study and finds oops, no difference. >> right. >> so they say, okay, we are going to stop? >> no, instead it gets a billion dollars increase and then the next year in 2012 this year it gets a $400 million increase. and in obama's 2013 budget it gets another $100 million increase. >> i had a chance to visit one of the classrooms here. and i haveo little choked up. >> we should be choked up

because government keeps spending more money on programs that even they admit don't work. i wanted to confront the administration or people from headstart about this but they wouldn't talk to me. so i'm glad congressman allison did. >> you cannot tell me that the food that they get and the instruction that they get and the love that they get from the people who work here are not doing these kids tremendous benefit. >> i would like to believe that they get a lasting benefit but the government's own data finds none of that. >> well, you know what that is not the problem of headstart. that is the problem of not adequate investment in our public education system. >> what would be enough? 50,000 a kid? 100,000 a kid? the line is always we have to spend more money and if we are just better funded we will eventually get better outcomes for kids. >> that is what the big spenders always say about most everything government does. >> yes, we can. >> more money and government power will fix everything. but no, they can't.

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yes, we can. >> yes, he, we can. >> yes, we can! >> no, they can't. that is a nasty title for my new you book but politicians can't do what private individuals can. over the years, politicians have promised us energy independence. world peace. an end to poverty. if we just give them more money they will solve those problems but no, they can't. their plans go bad. headstart doesn't work. college tuition pays for spas. the tsa is awful.

>> touched my vagina. >> there are hundreds of other examples are how government can't in here. can read more about that in my website john stossel .com. wait, you say if government can't what about cutting edge science like nasa? america did send a man to the moon. >> we got the flag up now. >> we all like this. >> beautiful. just beautiful. >> but think about it. it cost billions and what did we get. in promos for a breakfast drink. >> tang instant breakfast drink went with them. >> mass that technology did give us the cat scan but our billions haven't gotten us much. we get lots of delayed science. government science is clumsy. for a fraction of the cost a private group called the x prize does better. >> offer a prize and they will come. >> they promised $10 million to any one who could launch three men into outer space. 25 teams competed for the prize. >> i have never been myself as creative as i have eyeballing

this [ bleep ] prize. >> burt rutans it space ship one won the prize and then billionaire investors said i want a piece of that. >> richard branson came in and brought the rights and commercialized to create virgin gentleman lactic. tall hanks, ashton kutcher. the fare is $200,000 now but branson says some day it will be as cheap as normal airfare. >> this is richard branson and he is here to service you. >> i'm told private companies won't want to do this. there is no money to be made in going to the moon so this has to be done by government. >> all innovation comes out of the private sector and entrepreneurs. >> how are they going to make money? >> by charging for the ride. >> politicians say. >> government support is critical in helping businesses get new energy ideas off the ground. >> we are programmed to believe if it is for real high tech

futuristic generation it has to come from the government. >> it is just the opposite. >> the feds have thrown billions at failures like solyndra and that was tiny compared to the clinch river breeder are reactor, solar one. the triad ethanol plant and the hundreds of billions wasted on sin fuel. >> some things work out. some things don't. >> progressives say it is worth the risk. >> i like the idea of government taking my tax dollars and investing in the technologies of tomorrow. >> progressives also like government forcing private companies to do it. >> those fuel efficiency standards have forced detroit to innovate in ways that it might not have without them. dictatevernment didn't tick 35 miles per gallon we wouldn't get there? we need government to force it? >> i do think we need government to force it. >> we don't. while government spent billions x prize offered a $10 million prize for a car that gets 100 miles per gallon. >> the announcement sparks an

immediate and powerful worldwide since. >> wresponse. >> some teams used gasoline, electricity, even compressed air. >> 130 teams around the world entered. it is proving what is possible. >> the design phase was first. cars had to pass a looks test. >> then came the safety and performance test. most teams were eliminated. >> oh, well, we had the range and the mileage but zero to 60 our transmission just didn't hold up. >> this team won the prize with a car that got 102 miles per gallon. >> i can't buy these cars. >> not yet but the cars are slowly getting to production. components are them are going into the large auto manufacturers. >> one more example. >> thousands of gallons of crude oil are oozing. >> government took charge after the bp oil spill. >> make no mistake we will continue to do whatever is necessary. >> we brought in the best and the brightest of minds that can

deal with this 12346789. >> government hadn't. >> it hasn't changed since the exxon valdez 21 years earlier. >> how would he improve it? >> i don't know but the competition will bring the best ideas to the top. the government assumption is that someone in government does know and can pick. you are giving away all this money and you say i don't know. >> we don't pick the winner in advance like the government does in research. the research funding agency says you are a good researcher here is money. we flip it and say i don't know which of your h hundred teams are the best one but the one who achieves this we will pay you. we only pay for success. >> and i'm waiting for that great big check. >> wendy schmidt offered a prize for a faster way to clean up oil. >> 350 teams around the world registered to enter the competition. >> some teams had no prior experience with oil spills.

>> we get asked all the time how long have you been in the oil industry? well, counting today? >> the top ten teams went h head to head in new jersey and seven of the ten teams doubled the preexisting standards used to clean up oil for the last 20 years. >> if we get this pump working we will win. >> one of the teams that doubled it was a team that met in a las vegas tatoo parlor. i kid you not. you can't make up this stuff and they built a scale model in one of the guy's pools and still doubled the ability to clean up oil spills for the last 20 years. >> for 20 years they tried and tried and they can clean up oil spills but only at a certain speed. with a prize you double it. >> the winning team quadrupled it. >> why can't the environmental protection agency lead stuff like this? >> they could but they didn't. >> just because government

can't doesn't mean we can't. we can. individuals succeed while government fails. that is our show. i'm john stossel.