Author: John Stossel

Some things you just: have: to do, in spite of great uncertainty. Launching missiles at Syria isn’t one of them. Many pundits talk about going to war as if all we have to do is make up our minds about what “ought” to happen — who the bad guys are — and the rest is just details. […]

The Denver Post warns, “Milk, food prices could rise if Congress fails to act.” Congress is working on a farm bill, which, among other things, will set limits on how high or low milk prices can be in different regions of the country. Politicians from both parties like to meddle in agriculture. When the Heritage […]

When Democrats and Republicans agree, I get nervous. It often means that they agree to grab my wallet. Both parties now agree that we don’t have extra budget money lying around, but both say government does need to spend more on “infrastructure.” Even conservatives want more spent on roads and mass transit. The reason, advocates […]

We need police to catch murderers, thieves and con men, and so we give them special power — the power to use force on others. Sadly, today’s police use that power to invade people’s homes over accusations of trivial, nonviolent offenses — and often do it with tanks, battering rams and armor you’d expect on […]

Women make only 77 cents per each dollar made by males. Outrageous! Sex discrimination! So say advocates of government-enforced “equality.” But they are wrong. Women today are rarely victims of salary discrimination. If they were, market competition would punish bosses who discriminate. A company that hired women who were “underpaid” by other companies would have […]

Global average temperature has been flat for a decade. But frightening myths about global warming continue. We’re told there are more hurricanes now. We’re told that hurricanes are stronger. But the National Hurricane Center says it isn’t so. Meteorologist Maria Molina told me it’s not surprising that climatologists assumed hurricanes would get worse. “Hurricanes need […]

Unfortunately, the fall of Rome is a pattern repeated by empires throughout history … including ours? A group of libertarians gathered in Las Vegas recently for an event called “FreedomFest.” We debated whether America will soon fall, as Rome did. Historian Carl Richard said that today’s America resembles Rome. The Roman Republic had a constitution, […]

MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry — the same TV commentator who said Americans need to stop raising kids as if they belong to individual families — had an extraordinary explanation for why the city of Detroit sought to declare bankruptcy last week: not enough government. “This is what it looks like when government is small enough […]

You pay taxes? You contributed to the $2 billion your government gave Egypt this year. And last year. And every year — for 30 years. Most of it went to Egypt’s military. How’s that worked out? Now our government will “cautiously” support anti-government rebels in Syria, even though some are openly allied with al-Qaida. Years […]

Many libertarians, outraged by how our government spies on us, call me a “traitor” because I’m not very angry. I understand that the National Security Administration tracking patterns in our emails and phone calls could put us on a terrible, privacy-crushing slippery slope. But we’re not there yet. Some perspective: We are less closely watched […]

People say America is a free country. But what if you want to drink, have a cigarette or make a bet? Government often says “no” to protect us from ourselves. It’s as if the government is still run by the Puritans who settled this land four centuries ago. They said pleasure and luxury are sinful. […]

As Americans obsess over NSA spying, abuse by the IRS and other assaults on our freedom, I can’t get my mind off the thousand other ways politicians abuse us. In their arrogance, they assume that only they solve social problems. They will solve them by banning this and that, subsidizing groups they deem worthy and […]

This week, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said the National Security Agency’s data mining violates our Fourth Amendment right to be “secure in their persons, houses, papers” and is “tyranny that our founders rebelled against.” Good for him. In an op-ed, he adds, “We fought a revolution over issues like generalized warrants, where soldiers would go […]

Europe’s struggles prove that “austerity” fails! So say the Big Spenders. With a condescending sigh, they explain that Europe made deep cuts in government spending, and the result was today’s high unemployment. “With erstwhile middle-class workers reduced to picking through garbage in search of food, austerity has already gone too far,” writes Paul Krugman in […]

Plan to drive more this summer? Annoyed by the price of gas? Complaining that oil companies rip you off? I say, shut up. Even if gas costs $4 per gallon, we should: thank: Big Oil. Think what they have to do to bring us gas. Oil must be sucked out of the ground, sometimes from war zones […]

My kids moved out! I have two empty rooms in my apartment. Maybe I can rent them? A tourist visiting New York City could have a different experience, and save hotel money. I’d make money. Wouldn’t it be great? No, says the government of my state.   New York recently passed a law making it […]

Are you a real man (or woman)? Do you have “grit”? Compare yourself to the man on the $20 bill: Andrew Jackson, our seventh president. During the Revolutionary War, Jackson volunteered to fight. He was just 13 years old at the time. The British captured him and made him a servant for British officers. When […]

Forty-three million Americans moved from one state to another between 1995 and 2010 — about one-seventh of Americans. It’s good that we can move! Moving provides one of the few limits on the megalomania of state bureaucrats. Americans have moved away from high-taxed, heavily regulated states to lower-taxed, less-regulated states. Most don’t think of it […]

Even parts of government that look like a business never get run with the efficiency of a business. Just look at the post office. They buy commercials and tout their services the way private businesses do. They offer a service that customers want. But a real business can’t get away with losing billions every year. […]

People say government must “help the little guy, promote equality, level the playing field.” People often go into government to do that. But even when people mean well, it’s natural for them to help out their cronies. David Stockman, who ran the Office of Management and Budget under Ronald Reagan, was criticized for saying the […]

Environmental activists and politicians would like you to think that we must love their regulations — or hate trees and animals. I love trees and animals. But you can love nature and still hate the tyranny that environmental regulations bring. The Environmental Protection Agency just announced it will boost gas prices (“only” a penny, although […]

The Senate did something this past weekend it hasn’t done in four years: passed a budget. The law requires the Senate to pass a budget, but Congress often ignores its own laws. For most of Barack Obama’s presidency, a series of continuing resolutions kept the money — your money — flowing. Now the Senate wants […]

Shortly after I did my first TV special on education, “Stupid in America,” hundreds of union teachers showed up outside my office to yell at me. They were angry because I said union rules were a big reason American kids don’t learn. The union (SET ITAL) is (END ITAL) a big reason kids don’t like […]

Celebrities are now upset about fracking, the injection of chemicals into the ground to crack rocks to release oil and gas. With everyone saying they want alternatives to foreign oil, I’d think celebrities would love fracking. I’d be wrong. Lady Gaga, Yoko Ono and their group, Artists Against Fracking, don’t feel the love. Yoko sang, […]

If you’re reading this, you’ve survived the “sequester” cuts! That may surprise you, since President Obama likened the sequester to taking a “meat cleaver” to government, causing FBI agents to be furloughed, prosecutors to let criminals escape and medical research to grind to a halt! The media hyped it, too. The NBC Nightly News said, […]

Last week, Conservative pundit Ann Coulter told me and a thousand young libertarians that we libertarians are puss- — well, she used slang for a female body part. We were in Washington, D.C., at the Students for Liberty conference, taping my TV show, and she didn’t like my questions about her opposition to gay marriage […]

President Obama has new priorities. That means new spending. In his State of the Union, he said, “The American people don’t expect government to solve every problem.” But then he went on to list how, under his guidance, government will solve a thousand problems, including some (like climate change and a loss of manufacturing jobs) […]