On a vacation in Anguilla in 2006, Fox Business Network’s John Stossel ate lunch with Hillary and Bill Clinton, an experience he revealed in an op-ed he published on Fox News.
He was visiting the Caribbean island with his brother-in-law, a successful investor who had donated to the Democratic Leadership Council, an organization designed to move Democrats to the economic center.
“The Clintons had convinced him that they were ‘responsible’ Democrats (sometimes Bill was). So, by donating money, my brother-in-law helped Bill Clinton become president,” Stossel wrote. “Donating money: That gets the Clintons’ attention.”
Stossel’s brother-in-law’s invitation was “quickly accepted” by the Clintons, who, according to the FBN host, did not know he would be attending as well.
“I sat next to Hillary Clinton. She was very friendly — for a while,” Stossel wrote. “Being a provocateur, I brought up a local controversy: Some Chinese workers were sleeping in old shipping containers, four to a container. They had moved to Anguilla to help build hotels.”
Clinton snapped back with a claim that workers need regulations, but Stossel pushed back, pointing out the damage she and other liberals have caused to the freedom of workers with their regulatory laws. Although the Chinese were living in sub-par housing, Stossel wrote, their living conditions were still better than those back in China. Clinton’s laws would “eliminate opportunities” due to the rising costs.
He said he cited a study that linked media criticism of Bangladeshi workers abused in “sweatshop” conditions with the resultant shutdown and mass unemployment, causing some former employees to become beggars or prostitutes.
“Clinton replied, ‘I heard about that study, but most regulation improves living conditions: zoning rules, affirmative action, licensing, minimum wage …,'” Stossel wrote. “I responded, ‘Well, I’m a libertarian and…'”
Then, Clinton interrupted with the exclamation, “I know who you are!” and Stossel said that is when the conversation became an argument.
“I give her credit: She argued with me for half an hour. Finally, she’d had enough. She just ignored me for the rest of the meal,” Stossel wrote.
Stossel explained in his op-ed the ramifications of more Clinton-esque working regulations, using Anguilla as an example. Because Anguilla allows people to live cheaply and start businesses easily, he writes, it is attractive to foreign entrepreneurs and workers.
“Many now run grocery stores. Their lives are immeasurably better. This is how life progresses, if politicians don’t constantly interfere. Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton is eager to interfere,” he concluded.
