mexico. and then you have a president that says these skamdales are phony. >> we are out of time. you've been great. thank you all for be being with us and let not your heart be troubled. the news continues right here on the fox news channel and we'll see you back here monday night. . >> detroit is detroit is now the largest u.s. city to file for bankruptcy. >> detroit cannot manage itself. it can't meet its payroll. >> we're at the end of the road. we can't borrow anymore money. >> what happened? detroit was once prosperous. now it's such a wreck. >> for $1,500 you could guy this house. >> for years, politicians promised they would fix detroit. >> detroit shall again become the great city that is its destiny. >> but instead -- >> they turned city hall into a den of bribes and kickbacks, making themselves rich. >> is there hope for places like detroit? >> we are going to turn around the city of detroit.

>> this is the motor city. this is what we do. >> what's up with detroit, and can this happen to your town? that's our show, tonight. and now, john stossel. >> detroit was once the richest city in america. i was 3 years old then. that was in 1950. now it's the biggest u.s. city ever to declare bankruptcy, so what happened? our guests tonight have some clues. first, foxx news reporter charlie works in detroit and just wrote detroit, an american autopsy. charlie, an autopsy one examines the dead body and finds out what killed them. detroit isn't dead exactly, but what killed detroit? >> what killed detroit? racial conflict killed detroit. sloth killed detroit.

corruption killed detroit. seems like that's what has become the american way, because detroit is not alone. what's baltimore going to do? what's atlanta going to do? what is l.a. going to do? >> but detroit is in worse shape. worse politicians, more unions, the automakers collapsing. a lot of people saying it wasn't the politicians, it was just the big three crashed. >> it was all of them. we're a one industry town, we were rich, everybody put their hand in the till from management to politicians to unions. you could punch in your buddy while he went drinking. we blew it. and i know everybody is watching detroit, not because you care about it, but worried you're going to be like us. >> that's true. we want to see if bankruptcy is the answer, but this may mean stiffing the people who were

promised pensions. they may get 20 cents on the dollar what they were promised. >> i know. the golden age is over, isn't it? we just really ruined it, and we're in a new era now. who even knows what money is worth? our pensioners might take a very bad hit. that's just what was left us, neglect, sloth and ripping the people out. who took it? >> you write, detroit was perpetually on fire. what do you mean? >> we have 7,000 arsons a year. do the math. what is that? 30 a day. and we have a fire department where the alarms don't work inside. there's holes in the booths. the engines leak water. sometimes the engines show up and can't pump water. >> that's not the fault of -- go ahead. >> they took out the fire poles

and sold the brass. >> sold them, scrapped them, everything, gone. everything now is up for sale. >> the city did manage to build a new $60 million building to house fire department officials, and you tried to confront the deputy fire commissioner about that. he wasn't eager to talk. >> deputy commissioner. >> get the [ bleep ] away from me. >> i'm not sure if he was talking to me, detroit, or he was talking to you. >> i didn't hear that exactly. so you're in charge of the maintenance of these firehouses and we're spending $60 million on a public safety head quarters. >> you're responsible for [ bleep ] too. >> in this case, this man was actually fired for doing that. >> yeah. as he should have been. you don't get to slap people around because you're unhappy with what they asked you, especially in your official capacity as the man responsible

for making sure those houses are clean and safe, and not like some back water whore house in tijuana with feces bubbling through the floor. is it accepting that 911 breaks down and goes dark for 15 hours? >> in detroit now, if you call 911, you can't be sure the police will come. you interviewed one single woman who had been robbed and afraid to go inside her home. she was waiting for the police. >> the police, i called them an hour ago, and they have still not gotten here. >> they got the tv, the game machine, laptop. 1 1/2 hours, still no cops. the cops arrive four hours later. and they say they came as soon as they were assigned the call. >> now, you say sometimes the whole system goes down. even when the system isn't down, there just aren't enough cops or there's -- it's badly managed?

>> all of the above. it's badly managed. we don't have enough squad cars sometimes to carry the cops around. the cars don't have computers in them. the cars don't have radios in them. they use their cell phones. are you kidding me? imagine one of our ladies goes to work, comes home, somebody has broken in. i want the muscle to show up and make sure she's safe to get in her house. we can't even do that. what do we do? we let all the citizens arm themselves. now we're all going to be our own police. you see how that's working out in america. >> it may work out better than relying on government. >> now we have this trayvon martin deal, right? maybe we're thinking it didn't work out better. maybe we should leave policing to police. >> let's look at a new documentary about detroit. it shows what parts of the city are like now.

>> this is pretty bad. i think it was firebombed. >> a lot of the anti-social behavior and violence we find is because communities have broken down. people don't interact with one another, they don't support each other in these difficult times and in many cases they don't see themselves as a community, even though they may live next door. >> other people didn't grow up over here. to us it's just regular. it ain't nothing to us. >> the documentary was made by andrew rodney, who grew up in a suburb of detroit. you title your film "d-force." why, what does that mean? >> it means to take property from its rightful owner by force. we titled it that because i can't think of a more accurate word to describe what's happened in the last 50 years in detroit. >> the politicians would say, hey, we have a plan, we can build these cool new buildings with our friends here and they

would use imminent domain to kick people out of their homes and make it worse. >> yes. that happened many times. it happened with the building of i-75, it happened with the pole town plant. >> there was a neighborhood called pole town where lots of people lived. politicians said we'll put an auto plant in there. >> uh-huh. and they kicked out thousands of people to make space for that plant. >> the politician's visual. what makes detroit worse than other cities? >> detroit is just the first. it's the first city to experience a lot of the planning that went into a lot of cities. the federal home loan bank board was a national program, but it was first in detroit where they started to build up neighborhoods around these federal subsidies, which sprawled them out and racially segregated them. >> detroit has the third highest income tax of any major city. and yet there's no money.

how can that be? where does it go? >> i would love to know where the money went, but better, where did the people go? when you pay the high taxes, the only utility tax in this state, the highest car insurance, the schools stink and you get no police, you know what happens to the people paying taxes? they hit eight-mile road. and the only people left are broke. but you know what 10% of a dollar is? ten cents. >> both of you talk about this eight mile road. you worked on a plant, what's the significance of eight mile road? >> eight mile road is a eight-lane highway, but it might as well be a border between two countries. it's the dividing line between detroit and the northern suburbs. >> rich and poor? >> pretty much. and things on both sides of those lines are just night and day different. >> and the politicians were

going to improve the life of the poor by building housing projects. this was another one of their grand schemes. ones like the brewster douglas housing project. what happened? >> exactly what happens when federal officials try and plan housing projects. it falls to pieces. in no time at all. >> thank you, andrew and charlie. next, detroit's mayor, he took 50 trips, went to nightclubs, taxpayers paid for it. what's up for detroit? >> it's unethical, illegal, lynch mob mentality has to stop!

i gotta go deposit a check, transfer some money. so it's your uncle's turn. what? wait, wait, wait... no, no, no, wait, wait. (baby crying) so you can deposit a check... with the touch of a finger. so you can arrange a transfer in the blink of an eye. so you can help make a bond... i got it. that lasts a lifetime. the chase mobile app. so you can. [ whirring ] [ dog barks ] i want to treat mo dogs. ♪ our business needs more cases.

[ male announcer ] where do you want to take your business? i need help selling art. [ male announcer ] from broadband to web hosting to mobile apps, small business solutions from at&t have the security you need to get you there. call us. we can show you how at&t solutions can help you do what you do... even better. ♪ married to morty kaufman. [ lee ] now that i'm getting older some things are harder to do. this is not a safe thing to do.

be careful babe. there should be some way to make it easier. [ doorbell rings ] let's open it up and see what's cookin'. oh i like that. look at this. it's got a handle on it. i don't have to climb up. this yellow part up here really catches a lot of the dust. did you notic how clean it looks? morty are you listeng? morty? [ morty ] i'm listening! i want you to know.

john: detroit detroit was once the most prosperous city in america. where did the money go? well, the fall of the big three didn't help, but politicians made it worse. they squandered money. detroit's mayors launched big projects like the people mover, which turns out to only move people in one direction and not as many as they thought. then there's the $350 million renaissance center, and a very expensive jail. and when the money ran out,

detroit started to decay and politicians said things like this. >> we shall go forward. detroit shall again become the great city that is its destiny. >> 20 years later, mayor young was still in office making similar promises. >> detroit is alive and well. we're not coming back, we are back. >> and when people criticized him, he called the critics racist. >> to attack detroit is to attack blacks. >> that generally shuts people up. and a later mayor and his cronies found new ways to loot the city. >> they turned city hall into a den of bribes and kickbacks. >> have i violated any rules? i bet you come up with no. >> a jury convicted him of extortion and he'll be sentenced this fall.

there are politicians who overpromise everywhere. but why is detroit different? darcy olson runs the goldwater institute. what happened to your town. >> detroit turned into a one part any time. for 50 years it's been ruled by one party, which means you get the evil party checking the stupid party. in detroit's case, there was no such check and you got out of control spending and corruption and waste. >> i assume they're not dumb. they know somebody has to pay for this. >> yes. they are not dumb, they are just very greedy. nobody is thinking about the long-term horizon. all they're thinking about is getting re-elected in four years, and which constituency they need to buy to do that. and in detroit, as all of

michigan, unions are extremely strong. >> darcy, what do cities do that's better? >> it's so interesting. detroit used to be called the paris of the midwest, and of course, today, $28,000 debt per person. but it's a tale of two americas. other cities are operating in the black with cash on hand, award winning public parks. >> what's the difference? >> number one, let's look at sandy spring, georgia. the city that privatized nearly everything. by privatizing garbage, sewage, accounting, even the courts, they cut the cost of government in half. and any city in america could benefit from just that one provision. >> they have five government employees. but things still run well? >> well, when shikkha was talking about the strength of the unions, that's something else they have right. by privatizing the services, you don't have the unions.

so they only have five government employees there. >> and the town is smaller than detroit, but still 1/7 as big. >> it's 100,000 people. in fact, there have been five more cities to copy the sandy springs model. >> and while detroit -- what debt per person? >> $28,000 per person. >> sandy springs? >> no debt. operating totally in the black. their charter requires them to have a cash operating reserve. that's how they pay for a lot of capital projects. >> your town got in worse trouble because the last mayor was taking money for himself, ki killpatrick. he used city money to fund limo charges, nightclubs, hired 29 of his closest friends and family for city positions. people didn't notice and scream? >> that wasn't even the worst of it. the worst was that he was

actually using city -- receiving kickbacks for funds of his choice to give city contracts to his favorite cronies that used to be calling the friends and family plan in detroit. so he used to talk a very good game. he used to talk about bringing all kinds of glitzy development to detroit, and at the same time he was talking up this big game, he was quietly siphoning the city coffers, which is why he left detroit in a worse mess than he found it. >> crooks are crooks. but even regular politicians wreck cities. i'm going to confront one of your city council members later on this show. i imagine he'll tell me look, we want to make it easier for business. we're giving them tax breaks and they all have these deals. what's wrong with that? >> well, what they're doing is giving tax breaks to businesses that they have hand picked.

and these are -- this is just the mentality of politicians. they like big, glamorous things. at the same time as detroit, it's subsidizing these big businesses, and it's going after noncompliant little mom and pop stores they say are operating illegal. >> they have something called operation compliance. they brag we're going to shut down 20 unlicensed businesses every week. if they're unlicensed, maybe they should shut them down. >> these unlicensed businesses are providing vital services. these are businesses that are selling cheap tires. they have secondhand appliances. you know, this is a city understand that's losing about 300 people every day. the population has propped from 2 million to under 700,000 now. this town needs businesses. it needs residents. and taxing them and regulating them is just going to drive more of them out.

>> darcy, you list three things that all cities you would do. you mention privatization. what are the other two? >> well, transparency, which is a big one. gaithersburg, maryland, has zero debt and have had zero debt for 40 years. all these contracts in gaithersburg are online. audits, accounting, all on the website. it helps so much. a little sunshine lets people know what's going on. it creates a culture of trust and that's important for getting people to want to invest and come back into a city. >> and before a city can get new debt, goldwater says? >> voters should have to approve it. bonds have to go before the voters and because the voters are paying the taxes, they say no. so that's a great check on curbing these huge liabilities. >> despite the debt, detroit has the third highest income tax of any city, after philadelphia and

louisville, which aren't doing that great either. but detroit is in the worst shape. >> detroit even taxes the utility bills of its residents. it might be the only city that does that. it has property taxes, business taxes and utility taxes. >> thank you both. coming up, a libertarian has a plan to turn part of detroit into a mostly government-free zone. will that work? and i'll confront that politician who won't cut. but next, the main reason detroit's broke.

could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. mmmhmmm...everybody knows that. well, did you know that old macdonald was a really bad speller? your word is...cow. cow. cow. c...o...w... ...e...i...e...i...o. [buzzer] dangnabbit. geico. fifteen minutes could save you...well, you know. i guess. did you download that book i sent? yah, nice rainbow highlighter. you've got finch for math right? uh-uh. english? her. splanker, pretend we're not related. oh trust me, you don't want any of that. you got my map? yeah. where you can sit can define your enti year. and what's the most important thing to remember? no face to face contact until we're off of school property. you got this. sharing what you've learned.

that's powerful. verizon. get the samsung galaxy stratosphere ii for free. playtime is so much more with superhero by your side. because even superheroes need superheroes. that's why purina dog chow is made with high quality ingredients, including 23 vitamins and minerals. to help keep him strong. dog chow strong. and experience the connectivity of the available lexus enform, including the es and rx. ♪ this is the pursuit of perfection. the beach on your tv is much closer than it appears.

seize the summer with up to 50% off hotels at travelocity. [ male announcer ] when you wear dentures you may not know it, but your mouth is under attack. food particles infiltrate and bacteria proliferate. ♪ protect your mouth, with fixodent. the adhesive helps create a food seal defense for a clean mouth and kills bacteria for fresh breath. ♪ fixodent, and forget it. if you have high cholesterol, here's some information that may be worth looking into. in a clinical trial versus lipitor, crestor got more high-risk patients' bad cholesterol to a goal of under 100. getting to goal is important, especially if you have high cholesterol plus any of these risk factors because you could be at increased risk for plaque buildup in your arteries over time.

and that's why when diet and exercise alone aren't enough to lower cholesterol i prescribe crestor. [ female announr ] crestor is not right for everyone. like people with liver disease or women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. tell your doctor about other medicines you're taking. call your doctor right away if you have muscle pain or weakness, feel unusually tired, have loss of appetite, upper belly pain, dark urine or yellowing of skin or eyes. these could be signs of rare but serious side effects. is your cholesterol at goal? ask your doctor about crestor. [ female announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. we're at the and of the road. we can't borrow anymore money. >> that was kevin orr, detroit's new emergency manager, appointed after detroit's elected politicians spend all the money.

they spent billions more than the city had. how orr is supposed to get detroit out of that mess without stripping workers of their pension and health care is not clear. ken sikema is michigan's former state majority leader. what is going to happen? >> a judge is basically going to push the reset button here. lit be the largest city in america to ever go into federal bankruptcy. >> will union stiff everybody we owe? >> everybody that is owed money, retires, bond holders, are going to have to get cut. absolutely. this is a heavily unionized town. there's 47 separate public unions in detroit. some of the unions have a membership of only one. >> each one you have to negotiate with? >> yeah. a one-man union. and i just don't think politically a union can go to its members and say yeah, we

agree to wage cuts and cuts to pensions or cuts to health care, which is why it ends up in front of a judge. and the emergency manager in detroit, i think he prefers to be in chapter 9. he has more power. a judge can say to the unions, you know, you can protest all you want, but i want you in my courtroom 9:00 monday morning. you get an hour to make your case and then i'm going to make a decision. so i really think kevin orr prefers to be in chapter nine. >> how big a haircut? the pensions are $3.5 billion in the red. that means the union worker who thinks he's got $50,000 a year might only get $30,000 a year, $10,000 a year? >> well, the judge is going to make that decision in a bankruptcy court. you know, let me just say this. i have a great deal of sympathy for sort of the average pensioner or the average retiree. because they're not really getting a lot of money.

>> they did nothing wrong. >> they didn't negotiate the deals and underinvest in the pension fund. detroit has two pension funds. one for police and fire, and one for sort of general employees, which is the larger one. that pension fund is a mess. 30% of the investments are in real estate investments that have never returned a profit. there's no accountability. >> so the political managers said let's invest in this and it made no money. >> somebody's friend, someone's uncle, someone's cousin. and that pension fund is under investigation as we speak. >> i see the pension board paid $22,000 to spend four trustees to hawaii. >> this is at a time when the pension fund is headed for bankruptcy itself. once again, it's not the pensioner's fault, it's the fault of people who are mismanaging the fund. it's the fault of union

contracts that the city could never afford. >> but the politicians say, i want to say yes. these guys will elect me and when the bomb hits, i'll be long gone. or do they even think that way? >> cities all over this nation deal with those kinds of problems. and the problem in the city of detroit is the leaders never really confronted it and dealt with it. it was almost as if they were on remote control here or auto pilot thinking somebody was going to come in and bail them out over time. as we've seen in the promo to this segment and to your story here, those days are over. there is no more money. borrowing from peter to pay paul and from paul to pay peter, those days are over. there's no money left. >> thank you, ken. coming up, we'll confront one of those detroit politicians. but next, a tour of detroit's

ruins. >> there was a dead body found over here. you know throughout history, folks have suffered from frequent heartburn. butetting heartburn and then treating day after day is a thing of the past. block the acid with prilosec otc, and don't get heartburn in the first place. [ male announcer ] one pill each morning 24 hours. zero heartburn.

to take a centrum silver multivitamin every day. i told him, sure. can't hurt, right? and now today, i see this in the news. once again, centrum silver was chosen by researchers for another landmark study. this time looking at eye health. my doctor! he knows his stuff. [ male announcer ] centrum. the most studied. the most recommended. and the most preferred multivitamin brand. the choice is clear.

and the most preferred multivitamin brand. it was very painful situation. the rash was on my right hip, going all the way down my leg. i'm very athletic and i swim in the ocean. shingles forced me out of the water. the doctor asked me "did you have chickenpox when you were a child?" the pain level was so high, .un down on medicare fraud. the healthcare law gives us powerful tools to fight it... to investigate it... ...prosecute it... and stop criminals. our senior medicare patrol volunteers... are teaching seniors across the country... ...to stop, spot, and report fraud. you can help. guard your medicare card. don't give out your card number over the phone. call to report any suspected fraud. we're cracking down on medicare fraud. let's make medicare stronger for all of us.

so it was no surprise when he set out to give the world the hardest-working, best-smelling cleaners he could. like mr. clean with the scent of gain. that combines irresistible scent and powerful cleaning. and his lemon-scented anti-bacterial spray that kills 99.9% of bacteria. people sure loved having something that smelled as great as it cleaned. that's why when it comes to clean, there's only one mr.

♪ john: what's up with what's up with detroit? the city is a mess. about 2/3 of its population left town. whole neighborhoods are crumbling. recently special correspondents walked through detroit. >> that house over there right behind you is being consumed by weeds. >> that's one example of so many. >> kirk mays works for one of the community groups trying to clean neighborhoods up. this one needs it despite signs like this one. much of it looks like a gash badge du -- garbage dump. >> are they going to pick up all of this? i don't think so. >> what is the strangest,

creepiest thing or things they found as they try and remove the blight and the trash? >> the worse thing was an actual dead body. there was a dead body found over here. boats, bowling balls, you name it. kitchen sinks, refrigerators. of course, tires. the remnants of life. >> many people left neighborhoods like these because there are so few basic services. call 911 and the blanls may not come. >> the reality is, detroiters picked themselves up and get in their cars to go to the hospital. >> yet there is life amidst the garbage. >> you see this house with a nice motorcycle out front. how does this person hang on? >> two things. one, they have hope. two, they like their neighborhood. >> they found the homeowner. >> you have empty lots and empty houses across the street.

what keeps you here? >> well, i want to stay here in the city and i'm here. >> ever worry about what happens in the empty houses and whether or not people are going to come after your stuff? >> i kind of keep the lots cut, close the door on the abandoned houses. >> you keep an eye on them? >> yeah, you have to. >> did you used to have neighbors? >> yeah, people just move out. >> this was typical of what you saw in detroit in many places? >> it was interesting. neighborhood after neighborhood, you would see nice streets with nice homes and a block away, it was these abandoned, burned out homes and they were being devoured by the earth. detroit is falling back into the earth and that's not all bad news. believe it or not. you see for sale signs, a lot of people moving out of homes. people give up and walk away.

but that's just for sale signs. this is literally civilized society going back to the state of nature. this is what they talk about, philosophers, when they talk about the state of nature, the reversion, this is happening in detroit. >> you don't see chaos. >> the state of nature doesn't give way to chaos. we found what i like to call accidental libertarians. people who are so self-reliant, they know their city government has failed them utterly. the services aren't there. the police aren't going to show up. so they have collected into groups. they are crafting gardens. they are keeping bees. they've got chickens and a lot of open land now. >> and you're going around with these community activists. they're all leftists. but they weren't staying we just need a new mayor. >> no, they were not talking about civic solutions. they were talking about getting together as neighbors, mentoring kids so they don't fall into crime and making the best out of

a situation. bad is not an acceptable word. it's something different from bad. >> one other different area kennedy found hope, politicians have driven detroit so far into the tank that prices are now cheap. it's a good place to start from scratch. >> you could buy an empty lot here from $100 to $500. you could buy a house from $500 to $10,000. >> kennedy checked out this abandoned house just a few blocks from gross point. the house has been gutted by thieves. >> if you can see like new flooring and obviously, they've taken everything out, out the metal windows, the appliances are gone. for $1,500 you could buy this house? >> right, and fix it up. >> it's incredible. you think about first time homeowners. you could only a house for $1500 which is what a lot of people pay for rent.

>> are you going to move there? >> if i didn't have kids i would move there. if you have had any desire to get into urban farming, move to detroit. there's plenty of land, the people are so infectious. i enjoyed my time there. it was like surveying a war zone populated by saints. if you want to raise chickens and bees, detroit is the bees knees. >> thank you, kennedy. next, a man who has a plan to rescue detroit. his version by turning part of it into a free market paradise away from the reach of government. is that even possible? >> 49 years later, it's become the midwest tiger, rifling hong kong and singapore. all business purchases. so you can capture your receipts,

and manage them online with jot, the latest app from ink. so you can spend less time doing paperwork. and more time doing paperwork. ink from cha. so you can. (girl) w(guy) dive shop.y? (girl) diving lessons. that. . (guy) you know you're eating a bug. (girl) because of the legs. (guy vo) we got a subaru to take us new places. (girl) yeah, it's a hot spring. (guy) we should do that. (guy vo) it did. (man) how's that feel? (guy) fine. (girl) we shouldn't have done that. (guy) no. (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

♪ john: what can be done about a placplace like detroit? since it's so broke, often no one comes if you call 911. some people there are finally ready to try new ideas. as this opener of a detroit bar puts it -- >> let's look at it with an open mind. nothing else has worked. really we need some new ideas. >> here's a new idea. take this island in the detroit river, bell isle. it's now a park.

and make it into a limited government paradise. >> bell isle will have no need for taxes on income, investment or estates, making it a nag met for capital. 29 years later, it's the midwest tiger, rivalling hong kong and singapore. >> we're ahead of ourself. that's speculation. the video was made by rod lockwood. rod, what do you want to do? ? >> i think it can be an opportunity for detroit to remain its stature as a working class city. the vision is for us, we have an investment group to buy the island for $1 the city of detroit and apply for commonwealth status from the federal government, similar to puerto rico. and then over a period of time -- >> a commonwealth, you have freedom to try new rules. >> right. we have our own laws and government taxation. we would be business friendly.

we would try to model ourself after singapore. during the period of time that detroit has gone from 2 million people down to 700,000, singapore has gone from 1 million to 4 million people. so they're doing something right. we would be business friendly. we would have some taxation principles, which would make us very, very competitive. number one is, we would not tax anything we would want to encourage. and number two, taxes have to be transparent to the taxpayer. >> so you don't tax investment. >> we don't tax investment or labor income. perhaps a 10% consumption tax and the primary tax would be real estate tax but only on the raw land value, not on the improvements that person puts on the land. >> and you have to speak english and bring in $300,000 to be a

citizen? >> however, we would have a process for having other people come and we would waive the fee. >> why would you waive the fee? >> if they bring a special skill or a burning desire to be free. >> you really have serious investors? >> yes. >> well, plenty of people's response to this is, are you kidding me? finally a consequence free paradise for rich americans. to thank you, rod lockwood, for showing the people of detroit that when life gives you lemons, you take the lemons to your own island so you don't have to share the lemonade. >> how does this benefit the poor people of detroit? >> a tremendous amount of capital is going to come in. people are going to invest it nearby, bringing detroit back. >> you wrote a book to try to explain this to people. it's titled "bell isle,

detroit's game changer," which you hope it will be. "the new york times," i'm not surprised, sneered at you. a writer said, the book has the hero landing on the roof top helipad of the commonwealth's 57-store. it makes the entire scheme very easy to mock about objectivist fan. i would think a broke city would jump at that. but politicians often surprise me. detroit city council members, some of whom helped bankrupt the city don't want to give up much of anything. when the governor offered to have the state take over bell island park, local politicians screamed. >> you may not take over bell island! it's not for sale, it's not for lease. it's not forgiveawgive away.

it belongs to the people. >> it belongs to the people, not you. >> this will create a lot of jobs and opportunity. right now detroiters don't have any hope for the future. this would create that hope. >> this could save detroit by bringing in new ideas and people and money? >> i believe so. it would be our singapore or as hong kong is to china. >> i wish you luck. thank you, rod lockwood. did you know detroit has thousands of valuable paintings? but it won't sell any. i'll confront one of the politicians who says no, next. you know throughout history, folks have suffered from frequent heartburn. but getting heartburn and then treating day after day is a thing of the past.

block the acid with prilosec otc, and don't get heartburn in the first place. [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. [ whirring ] [ dog barks ] i want to treat mo dogs. ♪ our business needs more cases. [ male announcer ] where do you want to take your business? i need help selling art. [ male announcer ] from broadband to web hosting to mobile apps, small business solutions from at&t have the security you need to get you there. call us. we can show you how at&t solutions can help you do what you do... even better. ♪

it's delicious. so now we've turned her toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company through legalzoom. never really thought i would make money doing what i love. [ robert ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom.com today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. it's been a happy union. he does laundry, and i do the cleaning. there's only two of us... how much dirt can we manufacture? more than you think. very little. [ doorbell rings ] [ lee ] let's have a look, morty. it's a sweeper. what's this? what's that? well we'll find out. we'll find out. [ lee ] it goes under all the way to the back wall. i came in under the assumption that it was clean. i've been living in a fool's paradise!

oh boy... there you go... morty just summed it up. the next 44 years we'll be fine.

♪ what's up with detroit? the city can't pay its bills so the state offers to save them $6 million bucks a year by manage a park on bell isle. still be a park, it wouldn't go away. but detroit oppose even that? are they power mad? the second highest ranking member, councilman spivey, why not sell stuff? >> i was in favor of leasing the park to the state. we had a lot of property with outstanding issues and wanted more time. >> $6 million, you would save right now. why not just say yes? >> that was back the early part of this year. we are responsible for selling

all assets to city council and a deal of this magnitude, we thought we need to take our time and make sure it was advantageous to the city of detroit. >> you can't find other ways. you're out of money. >> well, there are ways right now. fortunately we have a emergency manager and we're looking to possibly sell assets, not the first priority, looking to slash our employee ranks and pension system and negotiating bond debt. everything is on the table right now. we have to stop losing money and begin to move the city forward and become financially solvent so we can be a thriving city again. >> why only now? why not do it before? >> we tried and keep in mind, john, this didn't happen overnight. this is 30 or 45 years in the making and now this current councilman, mayor under our watch, we tried things and could not go further. we have a legacy cost, declining population, declining revenues.

and to do all of those things in a four-year period was merely impossible. >> but you have declining population and declining revenue because you guys spent so much there were lousy city services. >> you're correct, over the years we did not allow ourselves to keep pace with the declining population. the city continued to spend and we came into office and cut the budget every single year. nothing has been done like the legislative body cut more than the mayor. we did as much as we could at this point. but at this point we are having people move into detroit, john. there are thriving businesses and people moving in, families moving in, revitalization taking place but want our expenses on an even keel to have city services so people can have a quality of life in the city. >> the city has 140 acres of vacant land somebody wanted to sell. you opposed that. >> i did because the developer

wants to grow trees. we don't any more new trees -- >> why are you in a position to bargain? detroit is broke. i would think you would take any money. >> every deal is not a good deal. every deal is not a good deal. it didn't look good at the time and till doesn't look good right now. he's going to tear down some homes, take care of some of the land and plant trees and shrubbery. we will have people who have vacant houses on either side of them and plant numerous trees and shrubs. they didn't move there for that. they want another home bringing a family there for property taxes and revenue and brings back a neighborhood, not somebody planting trees in the neighborhood. >> i don't see why you politicians get to decide what neighborhoods are like but that's not my business. >> we live in those neighborhoods too, i'm sorry. >> what about the art and art museum. 60,000 art works. >> we have valuable pieces of art, van gogh's self-portrait,

all assets we should have protected a long time ago. i trust the the other museum will not be sold off. they belong to the people and it's not the museum's fault but we have the fault and museums and numerous assets that could be up for sale. but i trust in negotiations we can get it under control with our creditors and employees. >> i don't get it as you talk about this. the city has been going broke for a long time. you have 60,000 paintings, the van gogh itself might be worth $2 million. some other people can look at it in another town. who could afford it? >> we can't afford the museum for one. that's one issue. >> so sell the painting. >> that's one issue. the painting belongs to the people. that's a small issue compared to what we're going through. we have legacy costs.

we have people who moved out of detroit. there's some things we have to do to change ourselves so we don't find ourselves again not able in this kind of deficit for years to come for my children when they reach adult age. >> since detroit is broke, how come you have six staffers working for you? >> i do not have six staffers. when i began the four years, we had a budget of $600,000. right now we're down to $230,000. i have three people to lead, three persons working now and one may be leaving sometime shortly. >> on your website it says you have a community liaison, chief of staff, chief of policy, six people. >> we have four right now. i'll paying for four people. >> when the city is broke, why do you have any? >> how will we get things done? the government still needs to work and operate. we still meet on a weekly basis and a potential complaint. i can't do it alone, answer the phone and be in the community.

we do need a person in the office. >> thank you, councilman spivey. >> thank you, john, i had a great time. >> i find it frightening our financial future will be determined by politicians like those on detroit's city council. this is a problem for all of america. government officials rarely want to give anything up. last year hewlett-packard fired 27,000 workers. ibm and ge laid off 100,000 when expenses got too high. people were upset but the companies had to do it to survive. in the private sector, we make hard decisions like that all the time. people usually don't even hear about it. but in government they call any cuts a crisis. and even in detroit where you call 911 and no one may respond, officials won't even sell a few paintings or let someone else manage one park or cut their four person staff? give me a break.

it's the rest of america's government is anything like detroit, america is in big trouble. that's our show. see you next week. eek. madonna all that time ago on this day. now huckabee. tonight on huckabee. >> with this endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals. >> by dismissing benghazi and irs scandals as phony, is the president distracting and posterring. >> i washing dishes and i lock up and a guy in a rambo vest and pointed a gun. >> is the u.s. becoming a police state? nchris christie and ram paul in a war of words. has the battle for the nomination of 2016 already begun? .