We look for answers at the seat of power. Were always addingurdens, who is we, washington, when they dont let a camera around. There is so much money here, life is good john we start with myth number 7 because americans are so fat its governments job to help us eat better. Changing old habits is never easy. John no, its not. So the first lady says to change behavior. Its going to take government doing its part. John if Michelle Obama wants to inspire us by exercising on the white house lawn, that is great but with government its force. This is not banning what you are buying but simply the size of the cup that can be used. John in my hometown, they are upset about big cups of soda. They want big cups illegal. This is biggest thing to curb esity. John i can buy two of these, that is 32 ounces around i can buy one of these. How does this curb obesity . My mayor is proud he has forced every chain restaurant to clearly post calorie koonth. There were few skeptics but now they are national models. John that sadly that true. Under obamacare all big chains will have to post calorie counts even though they dont work. Professors track customers at Mcdonalds Burger king and kentucky fried chicken, ha the customers noticed the calorie couldnt counts but they found people ordered more calories. The offer of the food police jason lugsk studied it to. Labels dont change behavior at all. What you are doing is asking companies to undertake a cost that has essentially no benefit to the consumer. The government is stepping in your daily food choices even though they know it doesnt work. What kind of government is that . John an intrusive one. In my state, most eager to ban foods and signs be posted is felix ortiz. They ate more. I disagree with that. The ban of salt in the restaurants in the state of new york. Too much salt is bad for some people, people with hypertension, but there is no evidence that it is harmful to most of us. Some studies show that reduced salt intake among some segments increased the chances of death. John so you shouldnt have salt, i cant have salt . Its based on statistics that is coming o. John maybe 20 of the people, that is not everybody. Hold the cheeseburgers, across the pond, denmark is the first country in the borl to i remember pose a fat tax. John some say consumers should pay more to buy less healthy food. Denmark has decided to implement a fat tax. Basically you go to the supermarket and you buy a food above a certain level of fat, they charge you extra. We feel good about this . John it passed Danish Parliament but switch to cheaper foods that were just as unhealthy or shop at neighboring countries. Within one year they repealed the fat tax. They repealed it. They repeal it, i think they are making a big mistake. John they tried your dumb idea for a year, they said oh my goodness, bad idea. I believe great ideas. John under great ideas is texas on candy or fast food. How d you define a fastfood you can go t mcdonalds or you can order a big mac. You will bet the lobbyists will make the rules. John they have a problem with the candy tax. They decided this hershey bar is taxable candy but this one isnt because it contains flour. Store clerks dont know what to charge. Flour, sugar and eggs and salt. Her dessert won an award. Dont you think are poisoning people . You are making everybody fat. No, a little fat and sugar, what would life be. W asked her to make donuts . It has no sugar and no salt and very little fat. Its fried and baked how different it can be without all the good stuff. John egg whites, that is good. Its good but not like egg yokes. John lets try a taste test. We got a healthy donut and regular donut. Everybody liked the regular dough in and out nutd center. John how about the other one . Not as good. John i wanted to like the hlthy donut. Its like eating bread. Not what im looking for. Some people did like the healthier version . Its good for a baked donut. John its good that people have choices. We try to give you an option. John where do you say you are giving more choice. You are banning things and giving less choice. Let me say, you are absolutely right, some trying to ban that is not good for the consumer. John you are a bully . I have been called worse. John what business is it of yours that i put in my own body, isnt that freedom . You can have the freedom but when it comes down to healthcare costs, then we need to talk and government will be blamed. John because government is responsible. We have a socialized healthcare system, you get to take away my freedom . I think what im trying to do is help you have a better life. John you are like a cancer. You are spreading the bad thing that costs a lot of money and do any good . I am a good cancer for providing good healthy advice for the best Public Health of our country. John a good cancer. That brings us to mh number 6. Obamacare is good for business. [ applause ] john democrats say it is. The fact its very good for small business. They are why we committed us to this cause. John white house says business will not suffer under health reform. John all good, obamacare . You cant be wealthy unless you are healthy. You remember the congressman support of obamacare. Remember the republican plan, dont get sick. If you do get sick, die quickly. John i was surprised he used to be a businessman and help create a tech company. John you are unusu having created wealth, run i. D. T. I would think you would see the burden of all these rules. One rule has had a dramatic iact on job creating or small business. John its the pile ofules. Here is obamacare and this is just the start. Many pages say the secretary shall produce more regulation. Put together i would say a pile of rules. John what about the tax on medical devices. A puchblg of democrats object to this. Obamacare makes a steep tax on pacemakers, digital thermometers. It can be a profit business but its one that saves lives. New tax means they will save fewer lives association now Many Senate Democrats want thatart of obamacare killed. Dont we want more medical devices . When you pass a law that costs sething you have to come up with the money for it. John obamacare forces more Business Owners to pay more for Workers Health re. Lauren goodrich runs restaurants in maine and New Hampshire and hires lots of kits kids and offers health insurance. You got 20 subway shops. How many employees . I have 180. So the point is to get your employees better healthcare. I think its noble cause but i cant provide every single employee. In a low margin Retail Restaurant business, this entitle devastating. John he says his profit margin is smaller because he had to pay specialiststo try to explain the rules. Accountants and Insurance Agents and lawyers to filling out how will i comply were the bill and they still cant give meet answer. John obamacare says he must buy expensive insurance or pay a fine. He either will slash his plot of. I can hear people saying so what, he has 20 stores, make less profit. You could say that. You would have to have a profit to be able to expand your business. I wont be hiring more people. I have customers come in with the exact change for their lunch in their hand. They are very cost conscious. Who are these businesses on the margin. On the basis of that were going to deny 15 Million People coverage . John its nice to give people coverage but it does impose costs. He says the costs will force him to cut full time workers. Ill have to cut many people down to part time. And people the law was meant to help. Maybe him or her will be hurt. Theyll have to work two jobs to make ends meet which is sad. John the extra burden, y are always adding burdens. Who is we . John you democratic congressmen especially. I visited communist countries. I know what it looks like to be in a place where tre really is a burden, i dont see our country being that way. John and were n, yet, but we should learn from history and stop putting more burden on guys like him. You need me. Employ your teenagers. Some run off to make their own business because of my training. John coming up, the new celebrity cause, stopping fracking. Please dont track my mototott. John myth number five, our Drinking Water is in danger because Oil Companies frack. What is that . Controversy is over chemicals being injected into the earth to break up rock and release natural gas. John it means shoving chemicals into the ground to frack the rock to release oil an gas. This has been done for 60 years. But they learned how to drill sideways, america has much more and cheaper natural gas. This means families pay less to heat their homes. Soon america may be selfsufficient in energy. Also, if you are worried about global warming, burning natural gas releases less Greenhouse Gas than oil or coal. Flack go feels wrong. It feels like you are pumping stuff into mother earth. John a liberal european environmentalist points out that europe promised to cut Greenhouse Gas emissions but didnt cut them. We managed to cut half what you accidentally happened to do when you stumbled on fracking. John so it brings fuel cheaper, maybe better for the world. Why are these people so mad . They worry about Energy Companies shoving these chemicae ground. This is seen sfraen a documentary called gas lane. The documentary gas land. They gave it director an emmy and matt damon features greedy Energy Companies destroying the promised land. If it happens to one of us, it could happen to us all of us. John yoko ono started artists against fracking. And so is the left wing media. It comes up by the millions of gallons and protests grow. A lot of people are getting sick. John you would think assistant the antifracking movie includes this frightening scene. Oh, jesus christ. John so much gas in his water he could light it. What you are seeing is real. John an influential environmental group, river people. All the people from the company, says this isnt our problem. This was there in the first place, but they are lying. John he and the gas land movie says this is much more likely to happen after fracking but when state and environmental officials investigated they conclude fracking had nothing to do with it. It was just gas that is naturally in the ground. That happened. There are many places in america where no tracking is done, but water still catches fire. This is a lake in alaska. This man lives in new york where fracking is banned, yet. And if fracking doesnt cause these problems. Why the headlines about ruined wells. Film maker checked out pollution claimed made by them. Ave you done independent testing . We did way back two years ago. John he was oddly vague about the results. I cant remember what that shows. John he says the well water was dirty and dark. When they checked, it wasnt. It changes from day to day. John they demanded that pennsylvania environmental officials tested the water and epa did and concluded the water was fine and reported that good news them. Listen to his reaction. Im sick and tired of this. What happened. We tested your water and at this point in time we found no contaminants in it. John even epa director says. In no cases we determined that the fracking process have caused chemicals to end groundwater. There is risk. The protesstors say instead of track arica should just use less energy and invest in alternatives. Renewable energy would be that, wind, solar, geothermal. There is more energy in algae in any other source. John , no, Renewable Energy doesnt provide the world with the power we feed. If you got your way there would be no progress. Oil, natural gas, fuel is dirty but otherwise we would be living in the dark ages. I hear the zealtry coming from the other side. I see statistics that are uncomfortable for you and the people who are in favor of t th. John on his side in my state protestors persuaded to stop all tracking in new york. That makes me uncomfortable because the world needs energy. Energy is limited. Life is cruel and life is short. Energy matters. We take it for granted. We really shouldnt. John coming up something john number myth number 4, were safer because of lawsuits against reckless companies and dangers products. That is logical but what if you want to buy one of these plastic gas cans. Largest manufacturer has closed up shop. John that was in oklahoma. Nothing has made me prouder to see the way this the team finished this job. John after 50 years, 15 people lost their jobs. These people were my family. My plan is to go home and lay down and cry. John companies disappear all the time. Markets change. New products emerge but this company made something that is high demand. What happened . This happened. Some people use the gas cans positive to pour gasoline on fire. Some were burned and some were killed. Its terrible but is it the gas cans fault . Oh, my god. People with the cans. The lawyers have designed systems that are good for lawyers and bad for our community. John the lawyers. If you or a loved one. John if you get hurt its easy to findawyers eager to take your case for a percentage. Dont wait, call me day. John a lawyer didnt sue them but he defends his colleagues that did. The flame arrester would prevent the explosions because of the background of flames. A flame aester. Its inserted inhe spout and my prevent fire from crawling up into the can. It might. They are testing them in plastic gas cans and so far the test show it might make the cans more dangerous because they clog and stati electrity can start a fire. That is probably why no plastic gas can includes flame arresters. Its up to the jury to listen to the experts and hear about the research. John but the jurors isnt scientists and they see a pour victim and they want to help. Its very dangerous. If they can make the product safer, why dont they. Because it would cost more and clog. It could cause more danger. Its debate, but once you lawyer parases step in, the debate is over because you cost so much. Iont think that is the case. If a company decides to make a product and put it out on the market they are required to do what is reasonable. John juries are called upon to decide what is reasonable but the legal system that stacked against companies that make a product that can burn people. The warnings are not distinguished at all. Lawyers often win money saying there shuck more warning. A simple ladder today includes 30 warnings. Have you ever looked at Birth Control label . I have not. John this is what the lawsuits, do both sides of the page, there is so many warnings, none of us read them. We are less safe. That is up to a jury. People are going warn labels in general. When they we first sued it fought back and won. It cost us 2. 5 million to win. John even whether you win you lose. Its the lawyers that are winning and erybody else loses. John more lawsuits poured in. The year before we filed for bankruptcy we had 25 cases in the last nine months. You can sue until they are broke and tired and cant provide jobs and take care of communities and be an entrepreneur. John even if their cans were dangerous, they dont take into account of not having a product. During Hurricane Sandy stores ran out of containers for gasoline. We cant keep them in the stores. Manufacturers are having keeping up. John they didnt know they no longer exist. Customers were desperate for cans. I looked all over brooklyn. This is first time i found a five gallon gas can. People are saying you have a bucket you get gasoline from a gas station. One m walked into a gas station will you go ago five gallon igloo cooler. They were putting gas in milk gs. To make the argument because of lawsuits resulted in the Company Going out of business, resulted in their being no cans available, resulted people not getting gas cans is ridiculous argument. John but we lose products because of fear of lawsuits. That is why america has no aids vaccine and no lyme disease vaccine. Someone like me to bring something to the marketed because it could cause harm, im happy about that. John we pay for his happiness. Not just in products we lose but americans pay 1,000 per year for lawsuits. In oklahoma, they let 117 workers go. This is wrong. If they can te this and destroy it, they can take just about anything. John they can, but theres something that no one seems to be able to take away. You have to fund them. John another myth, government can run the post office like a business. They buy commercials like businesses do but real businesses cant lose billions every year. 16 billion last year. Post office loses money even though. They dont pay sales taxes, they dont pay parking tickets or property taxes. Here a reason, check out this Little Post Office in massachusetts. This is one of hundreds that on average bring this less than 700 a month. I dont blame her, but a real business would close a store that cant cover even h salary let alone other costs. Never mind. They say post offices must serve all of america. There is another post office down a mile down the road. John in fact there are five others within a few miles. Why do they so many so close to each other. Even the locals see the excess. They should go down to a couple. John close these post offices. We are working on it. John what do you mean . A business just does. We are expected to operate like a business but congress hasnt offed the opportunity to do this. John on the website since ben franklin the pos office has changed with america. But you dont chae. You are a government monopoly, you barely change. 200,000 less employees than we had. Big government media would say things like that . They are hell bent on seeing the u. S. Postal service die. John so the managers wait for workers to quit or retire. Attrition is kinder, is that why you do it . We have Union Contracts and in no layoff provisions. John how can you run a business tha way . That is how the cookie crumbles. John that is your tax money. Private Delivery Services continue to thrive while the postal service. Fed ex and ups make billions because they innovate and cut costs. Postal officials like mickey try to do that, try to close money losers like thes john why werent they closed long ago . Political pressure. John congress can do any major change, save billions by adjusting benefit payments . Not a chance. So the politicians arent dumb, what are they thinking . They are thinking about reelection. John they are supposed to be responsible. Are we so dumb we lose taxpayers money . If the post office could charge anyway they wanted not necessarily. John cant they run it like a business . They haveo beg you for permission every time they wanted to do something . The post office provides something extremely valuable and that is universal service. That costs something. John universal Service Every american must get mail service whether you live in the suburbs or deep in the alaska. They haul mayor by mule to the bottom of the grand canyon. It is inhe constitution. John but it isnt. They have the power to establish post offices. It doesnt have to and it doesnt have to deliver mail to all of america. They arent living there by force. If you go back to history, it was private carriers that pick up the mail and took it the last mile or people picked it up. What we have today is an invention of congress. John who says there needs to be universal service . I could get email . There are countries poorer than the United States including the congo and universal mail service for everybody. Private sector, they go out of business if they lose money. Your government, i have to pay forever . I dont represented john stossel in congress. Overwhelming people dont want them closed. John they are shortsighted and they want free stuff for themselves. Arent youed tbe the grownup, in this case you cant have it all . I dont feel a moral compulsion to shut down post offices when they dont want them shut down. Public disagree with you. John they do. Most people dont want their post office closed. Not this one. Its good for convenience. No, i dont understand why they are still open but this one has to be. John next, what you dont know about trains and mass transit. Transit. This thing is like every day were working to be an Even Better Company and to keep our commitments. And weve made a big commitment to america. Bp supports nearly 250,000 jobs here. Through all of our energy operations, we invest more in the u. S. Han any other place in the world. In fact,eve invested over 55 billion here in the last five years making bp americas Largest Energy investor. Our commitment has never been stronger. John now, mitd number 2, we need government to invest in infrastructure. That does make sense. We do need ways of getting places faster and Building Infrastructure does create jobs. Lets get moving. John politician want to spend more on trains. The 220 mileanhour train. John cool, but this is only a promise. Train line the politician approve starts and ends in the boondocks where economist adrian moore lives. I live in tihachpi. And high speed rail comes right through my town. This is boondoggle of boondoggles. Dennis lipton helped get the train project funded. Lots of people live in california. They are starting it in the mide of state. We envision connecting los angeles, san francisco, san diego. John that will cost 100 billion. You are expecting private investors. Have any come forward . Not athis time but there is every reason to believe they will. The private money was a joke because private money will invest in something they can make a profit. John so why does it happen. Because its visionar its very visionary. Trains will revolutionize our infrastructure. John trains are romantic. He likes amtrak train. Amtrak trains are packed. John actually here is what it looked like when we taped. On arage, the amtrak trains fill just a third of their seats, but if we dont invest in trains what is the mass transit alternative . New buses. This is now the Fastest Growing mass transit in america. Why . Because its cheaper. John buses dont get the big subsidies but they are much cheaper than trains. Ill take that. Amtrak is too expensive. I dont have 200. John more typically an amtrak from new york to d. C. Costs about 150 and bus ticket is 20. Its cheap. John also todays buses are pleasant. They have wifi and most for a bus can go where the people go. Trains run in straight lines, but people move every which way. Only cars and buses can change routes. John they are making money and doing a better job . And growing because they are more flexible. John which raises the question why should taxpayers lose more money on trains. People cite new york subways. You would lose money, they transport lots of us. What would happen in new york if we waited for private investors to build the subway, it would have never happened. John makes sense, if you ask people who built the subways. I think it was the government. I think it was presint eisenhower. Union workers. John actually. 1878 before the brooklyn bridge. The original subways in new york were all private. Carried tens of millions of passengers. John after 50 years they tried to raise the fares to a dime. They didnt like that mayor took advantage of that and government will take it over and we wont raise the fare. John but, of course, the government did. And now the fare is 2. 50 and government built subway construction takes longer. This subway was supposed to be done in 1938. Then they said 1980. Now, they say 2018. Its taken so long that the subway cars built for it now wont be used because they dont fit the track. We no longer lead the ultra violet lights to kill polio germs. The modern equipment, but why, they had money on the le. I want to recognize up front a number of officials, elected officials. Politicians have different incentives like sucking up to other politicians and government workers have time to stand around. Despite the delay and despite the billions lost, government wants more trains. Its rail, rail, rail and rail. John up next, do you like these beautiful homes. You should. You probably helped pay for john finally our number one myth, people go to washington to serve my fellow americans, they call it public service, but that is not what i notice in how they live. I am first entering the home you have this. John washingtons Real Estate Market is hot. There is lots of expensive homes here. Beautiful gourmet kitchen. All glass walls. This home is a steal at 2. 8 million. John 2. 8 million is a steal. Our Real Estate Market has been recession pro. John why is that . We have the lowest unemployment rates in the country. John because government keeps growing so much so most of richest counties in america surround washington, d. C. The rest of the america had a housing recession. Everybody else, housing prices went down, not in washington. He is says d. C. Is special because the people that control the government and get to tax you live there. They like it there. Government contractors. There is reason they go there and stay there. John consider where they work. Architecture is grand. Many Office Buildings resemble palaces. Its like versailles before the french revolution. They spent their lives in versailles and didnt know much what went went on outside that world. John congressman alan grayson lost his seat but ran again and won. He says if is royalty in america. Its not congress, its the lobbyists and who made it that way . John by passing all these laws. If you have a Big Government there is more government to fight over. There is that argument, but will the real well think is not in washington, d. C. John its on wall street, he says. There is a lot of money there, but there is a big difference. In the private sector if you can find a way to cut costs you are a hero. If you can find a way to cut costs in bureaucracy you are goat. They measure success by the size of their budget. Big budgets give special interests reason to invest in d. C. And invest they hav unions say teachers are under pay but their union looks rich. This is their headquarters. Were told its worth hundred million dollars. The atrium is called an environmental oasis. They didnt want us to take pictures of it. Take a picture of it . They told me to wait outside and officials waited to see if we can videotaped. We read about the beautiful lobby and would like to show it to the viewers. Its like they are sucking money from the rest of the country and building palaces. Have you been to any mall in america in t past 20 years. Isnt it more grand . No. I would have to disagree. John backs outside i was passed from one official to the next. Find out more what is going on zbljts. Im going to have to check. John he went back inside for a while. Finally a ruling came down. No. John the reason . Were not opening the building up. John tried another beautiful building. Headquarters of the afl cio. Murals made of marble, glass and gold. John john stossel, i want to take pictures of the lobby. I had plenty of time to think about the 12,000 active lobbyists working in washington. They are smart to be here. Because washington controls so much but this union doesnt want you to see what theyve got. Ive been notifd by our Legal Department that were not because of the state of the mural. John the estate wouldnt allow it. Oh, well. The bottom line is that washington, once a sleepy Part Time Home for politicians now resembles versailles. They work in buildings that look like palaces and after work they go home to castles. The property is on five acres. Beautiful shower and his and her closets. It helps understandhy people spend millions to win jobs here and then. Once people come to d. C. They never leave. John that is our show. Im john stossel. Im john stossel. Thanks f f f f f f [dave gentry] hi, im dave gentry. Welcome to small stocks and big money. [intro music] [intro music] [intro music] [dave gentry] we have a stupendous lineup this evening, but first a quick update. Take a look at our top year to date performers. All of the following companies have appeared on my show, over the last 10 months. Remember, if i put a company on my show then i favor the company. I believe that the stock over the longterm will perform,