John Stossel Endorses Drug Legalization, Prostitution, and Gary Johnson

Imus ran into John Stossel a few weeks ago in the Fox building, and the dude seemed nice, so Imus invited him on this program. As for why Stossel, whose show airs on FBN Thursdays at 10pm, had not appeared with Imus prior to today, Bernard said, “Charles hated him.”
 
Stossel defected to Fox from ABC in 2009 because he was sick of 20/20 doing shows on “beautiful missing children,” instead of focusing on issues like health care and education. “They kept putting it off for ‘Michael Jackson is still dead’ kinds of shows,’” he said. “I came here and I begged Roger Ailes, ‘Please hire me! I can’t stand ABC anymore!’”
 
Ailes acquiesced, and now Stossel is free to explore the crisis facing this country’s education system. “It’s a government monopoly, and when do they ever do anything very well?” Stossel, a libertarian, said. “And yet we just let the kids get stuck in there.”
 
The addition of charter schools has created alternatives for some children, but not nearly enough. “They say we don’t have enough money, but they’re spending in America, on average, $11,000 per kid,’” he said of the federal government. “That’s more than $200,000 per classroom—think what you could do with that money! You could hire four great teachers.”
 
That good teachers are not promoted and bad teachers not fired is the result of an institution Stossel believes in insane. “Not many jobs have tenure,” he pointed out. “Why do high school, grammar school teachers need tenure?”
 
Ron PaulAs a libertarian, Stossel supports Rep. Ron Paul and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson because they both believe in limited government. A sometimes-New Mexican, Imus said of Johnson, “He spent half his time smoking dope and climbing mountains.”
 
Neither of which bothers Stossel, who thinks drugs and prostitution should be legal. “Adults should be able to do whatever they want with other consenting adults,” he said. “If football players can rent their bodies out, or boxers, for money—why can’t a sex worker?”
 
Moreover, the laws prohibiting both illegal activities don’t work. “The drug war is worse than the drugs,” Stossel added. “It drives it all underground, where the crime is 100 times worse than the drug. We’re destroying whole countries, like Mexico.”
 
Stossel also disapproves of providing aid to foreign countries, particularly when it goes toward propping up tyrannical governments. He insisted trading with people is the best way to make friends.
 
“When goods cross borders, armies don’t,” he said, invoking an old expression. “If we get rid of tariffs, and stop banning cotton and farm products from poor countries because of our ridiculous agriculture laws, we trade with people! That makes people like us.”
 
To further illustrate his point, Stossel told Imus, “I like you more because you put me on your show.”
 
Calm down.
 
-Julie Kanfer