Columnist.
Donald Trump is appointing good people — Andy Puzder, for example, Trump's nominee for labor secretary. When Puzder took over Carl's Jr. and Hardee's restaurants, they were deep in debt. Four years later, they were profitable. I bet his 70,000 workers are happy about that.
My last Fox Business Network TV show airs Friday. That news pleases some people, like internet trolls who write that they are happy to be "rid of that noted LIAR and falsifier of news" who produces "hit pieces." Another wrote, "Hopefully the cancer came back to finish him off." To be clear, I'm not ending "Stossel" because I have cancer. I don't have cancer. I had a small tumor removed, and, best we can tell, it's gone. I didn't even have chemo or radiation.
President-elect Donald Trump's first decisions were exciting. His new team seems to include good people like Betsy DeVos, Andy Puzder and Paul Atkins. It's refreshing to watch Trump mock the media and political correctness. How dreary the world would be today if we faced four more years of condescension from Hillary Clinton and her apparatchiks. But I worry.
President-elect Trump says he's uniquely qualified to "drain the swamp" in Washington, D.C. He can do it, he said at one debate, because as a businessman, he understands American cronyism. "With Hillary Clinton, I said, 'Be at my wedding,' and she came to my wedding. You know why? She had no choice because I gave."
Tomorrow, as you celebrate the meal the Pilgrims ate with Indians, pause a moment to thank private property.
I was so dumb last week. I wrote my column Tuesday — before election results were in. I assumed Hillary Clinton would be president-elect. I looked so stupid.
Oh, no! *President* Hillary Clinton! For four years we must follow her bureaucrats' edicts. It's full employment time for trickster lawyers and other parasites who feed off complex government. Even The New York Times admits her taxes will make life more complicated. Useful people who actually produce things must kiss more bureaucrats' rings begging for their approval.
The presidency isn't the only choice next week. There are more issues than "Who's worse, Trump or Clinton?" Other important things are on the ballot. Congressional elections may determine whether Obamacare lives or dies. Electionbettingodds.com currently says Republicans will hold the House but lose the Senate. But it's close. And politicians aren't the whole story.
America is often described as a society without the Old World's aristocracy. Yet we still have people who feel entitled to boss the rest of us around. The "elite" media, the political class, Hollywood and university professors think their opinions are obviously correct, so they must educate us peasants. OK, so they don't call us "peasants" anymore. Now we are "deplorables" — conservatives or libertarians. Or Trump supporters. The elite have a lot of influence over how we see things. I don't like Donald Trump. I used to. I once found him refreshing and honest. Now I think he's a mean bully. I think that partly because he mocked a disabled person. I saw it on TV. He waved his arms around to mimic a New York Times reporter with a disability — but wait!
Hillary Clinton is a manipulative, power-mad liar. Donald Trump is a selfish, sexist, narcissistic bully. These are our choices Nov. 8? The leading candidates' avarice is bad enough. Their ideas are worse. Clinton wants to micro-regulate America into poverty and stagnation. Trump would start a trade war, if not an actual war. While America is going bankrupt, both candidates brag that they will spend *more* — Trump on the military and his pointless wall, Clinton mostly on social programs.
Catch politicians in private moments and you might hear what they really believe: Donald Trump "can do anything" to women because he's powerful. Hillary Clinton's "private" positions aren't the same as her "public" ones. In public, politicians mostly get away with spouting talking points and clamming up about questions that really matter. When Clinton was asked if she agrees with Trump's approach to terrorism and immigration, she confidently replied, "This is a serious challenge. We are well equipped to meet it. And we can do so in keeping with smart law enforcement, good intelligence and in concert with our values."
Asked on a TV show to name a foreign leader he admires, Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gov. Gary Johnson choked. He couldn't produce a name. He said he had "a brain freeze." The media pounced. "Unable to name a foreign leader," sneered NPR. "Cannot name one," echoed USA Today. But that's just unfair. Johnson wasn't asked to name a foreign leader. MSNBC's Chris Matthews asked him to name one he *admires*. Why should he admire any of them? Johnson should have dismissed the question outright for its pro-government bias. Why presume that everyone should venerate "leaders"? If we're free, we lead ourselves. Stop giving the politicians the credit.
Something's wrong with me. I watched Monday's presidential debate. But what I heard was different from what Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton seemed to say. When Clinton said, "I want us to invest in you," what I heard was, "I will spend your money better than you will." Also, I heard, "I will spend *lots* of your money!" When Trump said our economic problems are China's fault, what I heard was, "Blaming China wins me votes." When Clinton told Trump, "My father ... printed drapery fabrics," what I heard was, "Donald, you are a spoiled rich kid." When Trump replied, "My father gave me a very small loan," I heard Trump saying, "Anything less than $200 million is a pittance." (It's actually not clear what Trump received from his dad. Trump claims it was $1 million; others say $200 million. Anyway, is a million dollars a "small" loan"?)
Hillary Clinton and her fellow progressives shout things like "Health care is a right!" They've also said that education, decent housing and child care are "rights." The U.N. goes further. Its bureaucrats declared that every person has a "right" to rest and leisure, food, clothing, housing, "necessary" social services, free education, periodic holidays with pay and protection from unemployment. Wow. I guess Abe Lincoln, Thomas Edison and Mark Zuckerberg were denied basic human rights. Clinton and the U.N. busybodies are wrong. Health care, housing and food are not "rights." They are "gifts" bestowed by politicians. These "gifts" violate other people's rights because politicians take from people to give to favored groups.
Seth Rogen, co-writer, co-producer and co-star of the animated comedy "Sausage Party," is unhappy with me — for defending him. His movie was attacked by some online commentators for using ethnic and sexual stereotypes, as cartoons often do. What was remarkable is how incensed some people get over a cartoon, even one about talking food. A reviewer for a site called Autostraddle at first praised the movie, including its depiction of a talking lesbian taco voiced by Salma Hayek. But then the site replaced the review with a 2,600-word apology. Autostraddle calls itself a "progressively feminist online community for a new generation of kickass lesbian, bisexual & otherwise inclined ladies." Its endless apology said, "After we received feedback about (the "Sausage Party" review) from our Trans Editor (and others including Facebook commenters), we decided to un-publish the piece."
Donald Trump tells reporters, "We're going to have people sue you like you never got sued before." Hillary Clinton doesn't like her opponents funding documentaries that criticize her, so she demands Congress overturn the Supreme Court decision that allows it. The world is full of people who want their enemies to shut up. Some college students get so upset seeing "Trump 2016" chalked on sidewalks that they call the police, demanding the chalkers be punished and their words erased.
It was refreshing to moderate a "town hall" with the Libertarian presidential and vice presidential candidates last week because Govs. Gary Johnson and William Weld respect limits on presidential power. Sunday, when Fox's Chris Wallace challenged Johnson's plan to replace the IRS with a consumption tax, Johnson pointed out that he's "not getting elected dictator or king." Wallace suggested that means, "Don't take my policies seriously because they won't get through." I disagree. It means that Johnson understands that America is a constitutional republic and there are (and ought to be) checks on what presidents can do.
Vote for Donald Trump? No! Hillary Clinton? No! They are not trustworthy. They push bad ideas. Fortunately, we have another choice: Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and his running mate, William Weld. But most Americans don't even know they exist. It would be good if the two ex-governors were allowed to join next month's presidential debates, but the Commission on Presidential Debates will allow that only if Johnson reaches 15 percent in a select handful of polls. He's at about 10 percent now. He tried to get the Commission to relax its rules, but they would not. You can still get a feel for what these candidates offer by watching my show Friday. I'll do a Libertarian "town hall." My studio audience will grill Johnson and Weld about ... well, whatever they want.
We've heard nonstop criticism of both the Democrat and Republican presidential candidates — for good reasons. So are their running mates any better? Yes. Trump's vice presidential pick, Mike Pence, has some good points. He supported a guest worker program. He opposed reckless spending, including Republican bills, like No Child Left Behind, George W. Bush's Medicare expansion and the Wall Street bailout. Then he became one of only four governors to get an A rating from the Cato Institute for keeping government spending under control. As a result, Indiana has a budget surplus and a good credit rating. Of course, that was easier for Pence because the very responsible Mitch Daniels was the previous governor. On the other hand, Pence is a consistent supporter of bad wars, like the Iraq War and the toppling of Moammar Gadhafi. He's also a social conservative who wants to force his beliefs on others.
I don't want Hillary Clinton to be president. She's a liar. But I can't vote for Donald Trump. He lies almost as often. Trump denies he ever said things, claiming he never used terms like "fat pig" to describe women, that he never was open to using nuclear weapons against ISIS, that he never mocked Jon Stewart for changing his name. Smears big and small — Trump just denies he said them. He's also a bully. He intimidates weaker people by suing them. In business deals, he refuses to pay some of what he owes and then tells creditors: Go ahead and sue me! Creditors often take partial payment because they can't afford to fight Trump in court.
