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The Invest America Initiative · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: There is a huge and transformative idea that could become
0:05
Speaker 1: a reality for every child that is born in America,
0:10
Speaker 1: a four oh one K account with a nest egg
0:14
Speaker 1: to begin at the day a child is born in
0:17
Speaker 1: this country. For every child. It is called the invest
0:21
Speaker 1: America four one K act. Others are calling it a
0:25
Speaker 1: MAGA account. Now, this could change how kids grow up
0:29
Speaker 1: because of the power of compound interest, having seed money
0:33
Speaker 1: that is put in, and then many companies are now
0:36
Speaker 1: saying they want to get involved as well to make
0:39
Speaker 1: sure that they give actual donations to these accounts for
0:43
Speaker 1: their employees' children. Now, it could fundamentally change this country,
0:47
Speaker 1: especially for poorer Americans who are struggling, because it gives
0:52
Speaker 1: a roadmap to success. There are so many different people
0:56
Speaker 1: that are in this country that never even have or
0:59
Speaker 1: open an investment count because they think either they don't
1:01
Speaker 1: have enough money for anyone to open that account or
1:04
Speaker 1: they think it's just too complicated. Well, this would also
1:07
Speaker 1: get rid of that stigma as well. I sat down
1:10
Speaker 1: with Center Teed Kruz, who's the architect behind this idea
1:14
Speaker 1: and one of those that is helping with this idea
1:16
Speaker 1: as well. With the Trump administration, and in fact, there's
1:20
Speaker 1: a very good chance now this could become bipartisan in nature.
1:24
Speaker 1: Here is that conversation. Take a listen, all right, so Centater,
1:28
Speaker 1: let's talk about the invest America. This idea. It is
1:33
Speaker 1: something you've actually been working on for quite some time.
1:36
Speaker 1: Plus you have a special guest joining us to explain
1:38
Speaker 1: it as well.
1:40
Speaker 2: Well.
1:40
Speaker 3: I'm very proud to welcome to Verdict Brad Gershner. Brad
1:43
Speaker 3: is a major Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He runs a hedge fund,
1:48
Speaker 3: Altimeter Capital, in Silicon Valley. He's been incredibly successful and
1:53
Speaker 3: he's become a really good friend over the past year.
1:55
Speaker 3: And he is calling in and joining Verdict from Riad.
1:59
Speaker 4: Saudi Arabia.
2:00
Speaker 3: So he is there with the President, with David Sachs.
2:03
Speaker 3: He is on the trip. And I will tell you
2:07
Speaker 3: when we talked about the four victories in the House bill,
2:11
Speaker 3: the victory of invest America. I don't think there is
2:15
Speaker 3: any person who has worked harder to make this a
2:18
Speaker 3: reality than Brad has. And I met Brad a little
2:22
Speaker 3: over a year ago. He and I have been working
2:24
Speaker 3: together on this since April of last year, and he
2:28
Speaker 3: has been working to build the business coalition behind invest
2:33
Speaker 3: America and bringing together major CEOs business leaders that see
2:38
Speaker 3: the incredible power of four oh one k's for every
2:43
Speaker 3: newborn in America. And so Brad from Riod on the
2:47
Speaker 3: other side of the planet. And it is by the way,
2:49
Speaker 3: right now, Ben and I are doing this. It is
2:51
Speaker 3: eleven twenty six pm in d C. It is six
2:55
Speaker 3: twenty six in the morning in Riod, and so he
2:57
Speaker 3: got up to join us.
2:58
Speaker 4: Brad, Welcome to Verdict.
3:01
Speaker 2: Oh, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me. Ben,
3:04
Speaker 2: good to connect and Senator Wow, just watching the launch
3:07
Speaker 2: of invest America under your leadership. Today the House Waves
3:12
Speaker 2: and Means Committee, Jason Smith, the Speaker of the House,
3:15
Speaker 2: it's an exciting day, and I can tell you it's
3:18
Speaker 2: also an incredibly exciting day in Riant, Saudi Arabia. The
3:23
Speaker 2: US is back on its front foot. As you said,
3:25
Speaker 2: I'm traveling with David Sachs, who is spreading the accelerationists
3:32
Speaker 2: gospel of artificial intelligence. We want the world running on
3:35
Speaker 2: US compute on USAI, and so it's been a it's
3:41
Speaker 2: been a really encouraging trip. But I'm thrilled to be here,
3:44
Speaker 2: thrilled to be on the Verdict because of best America
3:47
Speaker 2: I think can change the country.
3:48
Speaker 4: Yeah.
3:48
Speaker 3: Look, I fully agree, and I will say to our listeners.
3:51
Speaker 3: David Sachs is another incredibly successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He's
3:56
Speaker 3: been someone I've known for a long time. He's one
3:59
Speaker 3: of the host of the All In podcast, which is
4:01
Speaker 3: incredibly successful. And Brad runs in in in that circle
4:05
Speaker 3: as well. And and David is serving in the White
4:09
Speaker 3: House right now as the President's chief advisor on an
4:12
Speaker 3: artificial intelligence and chief advisor and cryptocurrency.
4:15
Speaker 4: And so he's doing a great job.
4:16
Speaker 3: And he and Brad are are traveling to the Middle
4:19
Speaker 3: East and and just today they announced what a trillion
4:22
Speaker 3: dollars in new investments in the United States, and so
4:26
Speaker 3: it's really potent. But but let's let's do a deep
4:31
Speaker 3: dive into invest America. Now, I'll tell you, bet Ben,
4:36
Speaker 3: do you know how I got to know Brad?
4:38
Speaker 5: How is that?
4:40
Speaker 2: So?
4:40
Speaker 3: Last spring, I'm sitting at a poker table in Vegas.
4:45
Speaker 4: It's about one in the morning.
4:47
Speaker 5: I'm already I'm already in on this story.
4:49
Speaker 4: And I'm every.
4:50
Speaker 1: Every story starts with the poker table at one am
4:54
Speaker 1: in Vegas.
4:55
Speaker 3: Yes, and every every year I do a fundraiser in
4:58
Speaker 3: Vegas where we play pokers great fun. We usually play
5:01
Speaker 3: till three or four in the morning, and we get
5:04
Speaker 3: typically a number of poker pros who come and join
5:06
Speaker 3: us and play. And so last year I was playing with,
5:10
Speaker 3: among others, Phil Hellmuth, who is one of the greatest
5:14
Speaker 3: poker players to ever live. If if Phil were on,
5:17
Speaker 3: he would say he is the greatest poker player to
5:19
Speaker 3: ever live. And ed, Brad, you know that's true, but
5:24
Speaker 3: but he's greatest.
5:27
Speaker 4: He's got a good argument.
5:28
Speaker 3: He's got he he has got fifteen bracelets, he's he's
5:31
Speaker 3: a World Series champion. And we're talking and we're sitting
5:34
Speaker 3: there talking and playing. And I played with Phil a
5:37
Speaker 3: number of times, and he says, hey, do you know
5:39
Speaker 3: Brad gerstro I said, no, no, no, idea, who is he?
5:41
Speaker 3: And he said, all right, you got to know him.
5:43
Speaker 3: He's a great guy. He's like driving this this great
5:46
Speaker 3: program to to like have every every baby at every
5:50
Speaker 3: child in America invested the stock market. I said, that's interesting.
5:53
Speaker 3: I want to know more about that. Phil pulled out
5:55
Speaker 3: his phone and texted Brad and me connected us on
5:59
Speaker 3: on sell that night at one in the morning, and
6:02
Speaker 3: we began working together starting in spring of last year.
6:07
Speaker 5: That's incredible. That is how a friendship grows.
6:11
Speaker 1: And let me guess that's how you guys both got
6:14
Speaker 1: in on this. Hey, what a brilliant idea to allow
6:17
Speaker 1: every kid in America that's got a Social Security number
6:20
Speaker 1: to be able to start investing in essence the day
6:23
Speaker 1: they're born, understand that they have a chance to have
6:26
Speaker 1: a nest egg when they grow older. I've got three boys, center.
6:30
Speaker 1: This is something I think about. It's two things. I
6:32
Speaker 1: think about college. I think about saving for school, and
6:35
Speaker 1: I think about them having something to start out their
6:37
Speaker 1: lives with. And that's the essence of what you guys
6:40
Speaker 1: are trying to pull off here.
6:41
Speaker 3: So let me describe the vision of it, and then
6:43
Speaker 3: I want Brad to tell the story because he really
6:45
Speaker 3: did the shoe leather to make this work. But the
6:48
Speaker 3: vision of it, and it is included in the House
6:51
Speaker 3: Ways and Means Draft right now, is that every newborn
6:56
Speaker 3: child in America will have an investment account created automatically
7:01
Speaker 3: open for them and seeded with one thousand dollars. One
7:04
Speaker 3: thousand dollars that comes from the government to start it. Uh,
7:09
Speaker 3: that's important to get it going. But even more important
7:13
Speaker 3: is that every one of those accounts, you can contribute
7:16
Speaker 3: up to five thousand dollars a year to those accounts
7:20
Speaker 3: in a tax advantaged way. And and that money can
7:23
Speaker 3: come from friends, it can come from family, and it
7:26
Speaker 3: can come from your parents or relatives, employers. And I
7:29
Speaker 3: think that's a really big we're going to talk about
7:31
Speaker 3: how that's a big accelerator.
7:34
Speaker 5: Uh.
7:35
Speaker 3: And you can accumulate in a tax advantage way. And
7:39
Speaker 3: and there're two massive advantages for this. Number one, every
7:44
Speaker 3: child in America begins to experience the benefits of compound growth.
7:50
Speaker 3: And these accounts, by the way, they're not savings accounts.
7:53
Speaker 3: These are investment accounts that are that that that are
7:57
Speaker 3: invested in neither ETFs or mutual funds that are invested
8:01
Speaker 3: in the S and P five hundred. So it makes
8:03
Speaker 3: every newborn child an investor in the American stock market.
8:08
Speaker 3: That enables them. And look, as you know, well as
8:11
Speaker 3: our listeners know well, compound growth, the miracle of compound
8:15
Speaker 3: growth is one of the great miracles of the world.
8:18
Speaker 3: And if you get people investing for a long time,
8:20
Speaker 3: starting at birth, you can get incredible numbers. So Ben,
8:23
Speaker 3: let me ask you this. You have a newborn child
8:26
Speaker 3: born this year, thousand dollars comes in to set it,
8:30
Speaker 3: and through friends and family or an employer, five thousand
8:33
Speaker 3: dollars a year gets invested for the first eighteen years
8:36
Speaker 3: of their life. If you assume seven percent growth, which
8:40
Speaker 3: has been the historical average for the stock market, what
8:43
Speaker 3: do you think that eighteen year old has on his
8:45
Speaker 3: eighteenth birthday.
8:46
Speaker 5: I'm gonna go with hundreds of thousands, if not over
8:49
Speaker 5: a million.
8:49
Speaker 3: One hundred and seventy thousand dollars. One hundred and seventy
8:52
Speaker 3: thousand dollars. And by the way, this is not for
8:55
Speaker 3: a rich kid. This is every baby in America. If
9:00
Speaker 3: you're contributing all along, what do you think they have?
9:03
Speaker 3: If they continue doing that until age thirty five?
9:06
Speaker 5: What is it?
9:07
Speaker 4: Seven hundred thousand dollars?
9:09
Speaker 5: There you go.
9:10
Speaker 3: Now, that is transformational. But I'll tell you that's not
9:14
Speaker 3: what Brad said that sold me on this. So Brad,
9:16
Speaker 3: when he talked to me about this, I said, all right,
9:17
Speaker 3: tell me your idea, and he pitched it. Here was
9:20
Speaker 3: the argument he made. I'm going to let him make
9:22
Speaker 3: it in about thirty seconds. But the argument he made
9:25
Speaker 3: is he said, look, young people, roughly half of them
9:29
Speaker 3: say they believe in socialism.
9:31
Speaker 4: They don't believe in capitalism.
9:34
Speaker 3: The real power of this is you're making every child
9:37
Speaker 3: in America a capitalist. You're giving them a stake in
9:41
Speaker 3: the American free enterprise system. You're giving him ownership. So
9:44
Speaker 3: you could have a ten twelve year old kid pull
9:46
Speaker 3: out an app on his or her phone and say,
9:49
Speaker 3: wait a second, I own one hundred dollars worth of Applestock.
9:54
Speaker 3: I own fifty bucks worth of Boeing. I own seventy
9:57
Speaker 3: five bucks worth of worth of McDonald's and and and
10:00
Speaker 3: and when they go in and buy a big Mac,
10:02
Speaker 3: they're like, wait a second. I'm not just a customer.
10:05
Speaker 3: I'm a stockholder. I'm an owner of this company. And
10:08
Speaker 3: I think that is profoundly powerful. And Brad, I want
10:13
Speaker 3: to give you credit because you have been a relentless evangelist.
10:17
Speaker 3: You have devoted thousands, if not tens of thousands of
10:20
Speaker 3: hours to this and and and this vision. I believe
10:24
Speaker 3: in it. But but, but I would not have been
10:26
Speaker 3: sold on this idea had had you not put in
10:28
Speaker 3: so much shoe leather and built such a strong business
10:31
Speaker 3: coalition behind it.
10:33
Speaker 2: Well that you described it incredibly well. And the reason
10:37
Speaker 2: I think we have such incredible support, incredible support in
10:41
Speaker 2: the business community. These are the world's uh, you know,
10:44
Speaker 2: greatest CEOs. You know, Jensen Hwang had at Video, Renee
10:48
Speaker 2: has at Arm and Michael Dells and and and Soffra
10:51
Speaker 2: cats At, uh you know at Oracle, and Fittman at
10:55
Speaker 2: iHeartMedia and and Lisa Sue at A and b uh
10:59
Speaker 2: you know, Ryan mcinern Afvisa or Mel McDermott, you know
11:05
Speaker 2: Service Now, Dara Kasha Shai an Uber and the list
11:08
Speaker 2: goes on. And notice, you know, on the CEOs, it's
11:11
Speaker 2: not a partisan issue, and we have incredible bipartisan support
11:15
Speaker 2: as well on Capitol Hill because every parent wants a
11:19
Speaker 2: better life for their kid. Right. I grew up in
11:22
Speaker 2: rural Indiana. My dad was a first time entrepreneur and
11:26
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy eight in the rust belt, starting an
11:29
Speaker 2: autoparts manufacturing business with doubleged digit inflation, double digit interest rates.
11:35
Speaker 2: We lost the house, we lost everything. So I understand
11:39
Speaker 2: profoundly what it feels like to finally be in the game,
11:42
Speaker 2: to finally own something. But for every parent who wants
11:46
Speaker 2: a better life for their kid, whether they're in rural Texas,
11:49
Speaker 2: whether they're in inner city Trenton, whether they're in you know,
11:52
Speaker 2: rural Indiana. I'm talking every town, every main street in America.
11:57
Speaker 2: Those kids will have a shot. They have skin in
12:00
Speaker 2: the game. The most powerful economy in the world is
12:03
Speaker 2: the American economy. For seventy five years, the S and
12:06
Speaker 2: P five hundred has compounded at ten point two percent.
12:10
Speaker 2: And what has Warren Buffett told us, start with a
12:13
Speaker 2: really small snowball, but a really long hill. And the
12:17
Speaker 2: longest hill you can possibly imagine is starting at birth.
12:21
Speaker 2: Almost every American today misses the first twenty five years
12:25
Speaker 2: of compounding. That's nearly one third of your life. By
12:28
Speaker 2: starting these kids off early, we give every kid a shot.
12:32
Speaker 2: We unlock all of that human potential and the financial literacy,
12:36
Speaker 2: the hope and optimism, and their opportunity to participate in
12:39
Speaker 2: the system is going to skyrocket. It's sad that less
12:43
Speaker 2: than half of kid's under the age of forty or
12:46
Speaker 2: folks under the age of forty have a positive view
12:49
Speaker 2: of capitalism, but they're left out. They're not capitalists, they're
12:53
Speaker 2: not owners, so it's easier for them to feel like
12:56
Speaker 2: the system is rigged against them. This is going to
12:59
Speaker 2: change that by aligning everybody with our capitalist, free enterprise principles.
13:04
Speaker 3: So let me ask a quick question. Brad, you mentioned
13:07
Speaker 3: your your dad. You guys lost your home when you
13:11
Speaker 3: were a kid, so I did too.
13:13
Speaker 4: How old were you when that happened.
13:14
Speaker 2: I was in sixth grade.
13:16
Speaker 3: So I was in high school and my parents were
13:18
Speaker 3: small business owners in Houston. And in the eighties, oil
13:22
Speaker 3: collapsed and my parents went bankrupt and we lost our business,
13:25
Speaker 3: we lost our home. I didn't realize you and I've
13:27
Speaker 3: been friends a long time, but we haven't talked about
13:30
Speaker 3: this that we both went through the experience. It's a
13:33
Speaker 3: traumatic experience when when you lose your home through through
13:36
Speaker 3: financial stress, and it makes an impact on a kid,
13:40
Speaker 3: whether sixth grade or for me it was eleventh grade, but.
13:44
Speaker 4: You never forget it.
13:45
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I say, in life, you're either running
13:49
Speaker 2: away from something or running towards something. And to me,
13:52
Speaker 2: it planet a seed, and that seed was that I
13:55
Speaker 2: didn't want my family to feel the pain that I
13:59
Speaker 2: was feeling at that point in my life. And you know,
14:01
Speaker 2: as a kid, my life I thought was pretty good,
14:04
Speaker 2: but I felt bad for my dad. I felt bad
14:06
Speaker 2: for my mom because I saw them struggling, and so
14:10
Speaker 2: I know, you know later in life talking to mom,
14:13
Speaker 2: she's now turning eighty nine next to her turning ninety
14:17
Speaker 2: here next week. Amazing, beautiful woman. But you know, she
14:21
Speaker 2: felt the guilt of not being able to provide, not
14:25
Speaker 2: knowing whether her child was going to have a better tomorrow.
14:28
Speaker 2: And you know she is such a supporter of this
14:31
Speaker 2: idea because she said it would have taken so much
14:34
Speaker 2: pressure off her just knowing that her kids were going
14:38
Speaker 2: to have a shot. And so I think everybody deserves
14:41
Speaker 2: you know, you and I have talked about this. See
14:43
Speaker 2: this with a thousand bucks in the sm D five
14:46
Speaker 2: hundred and then get out of the way and let
14:48
Speaker 2: the magic of the private sector do its thing. We're
14:51
Speaker 2: going to have a thousand to one contribution my parents,
14:56
Speaker 2: you know, and we've done the study that it's not
14:59
Speaker 2: just rich payer to who say for their kids. Here's
15:03
Speaker 2: a little known fact. You know, the reason borer folks
15:07
Speaker 2: don't save as much is because of course they don't
15:09
Speaker 2: have savings accounts. This is going to disproportionately benefit the
15:14
Speaker 2: people who are least likely to participate in the market
15:17
Speaker 2: and who is that right. Those are the people who
15:21
Speaker 2: are the lowest, bottom fifty percent of the economy today.
15:25
Speaker 2: Because it's hard to open up a custodio account for
15:28
Speaker 2: your child, almost nobody does it. But if you start
15:32
Speaker 2: them off with an account and you make it really
15:34
Speaker 2: easy for these parents to vendmull in twenty bucks a
15:37
Speaker 2: week or thirty bucks a week, right to give up
15:40
Speaker 2: their Starbucks in order that their kid might be able
15:43
Speaker 2: to save a little bit more money. What we've learned
15:46
Speaker 2: is that cohorts of horror families say that about the
15:50
Speaker 2: rate that the cohorts from wealthier families if they have
15:53
Speaker 2: an account. We're going to make it super easy for
15:56
Speaker 2: those parents to contribute.
15:57
Speaker 1: I want to take a moment and talk to you
15:59
Speaker 1: real quick about Israel. It's now the month of May,
16:02
Speaker 1: and eighty years ago this very month, the horror of
16:06
Speaker 1: the holocausts, the final solution came to an end. But
16:11
Speaker 1: do you know that half of all Holocaust survivors live
16:15
Speaker 1: in Israel. The pain of the past now intensifies today.
16:19
Speaker 1: By October seventh and the rise of anti Semitism everywhere,
16:24
Speaker 1: and along with other elderly Jews, thousands in Israel lived
16:28
Speaker 1: below the poverty line, there's no safety net. That's why
16:33
Speaker 1: I support the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, and
16:37
Speaker 1: the Fellowship provides a lifeline to these precious ones in
16:42
Speaker 1: the form of basic things like hot meals and boxes
16:47
Speaker 1: full of healthy food. And for only twenty five dollars
16:51
Speaker 1: you can out provide a nutritious food box to a
16:56
Speaker 1: Jewish person in need in Israel. Better yet, three hundred
17:00
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars provides hot meals for an entire year.
17:05
Speaker 1: So if you are ready to stand with the people
17:07
Speaker 1: in Israel, give generously by calling eight eight eight for
17:12
Speaker 1: eight eight if CJ that's eight eight eight four eight
17:18
Speaker 1: eight four three two five, or go online to give
17:22
Speaker 1: it if CJ dot org that's if CJ dot org.
17:29
Speaker 1: My dad was a police officer I grew up. I
17:32
Speaker 1: would say lower middle class would be a fair way
17:36
Speaker 1: of putting it. But there was several times where we,
17:39
Speaker 1: you know, things got really really tight and my dad
17:43
Speaker 1: just put his head down and went to work as
17:45
Speaker 1: a police officer. And I remember thinking if he only
17:51
Speaker 1: was able to at a younger age start investing, especially
17:56
Speaker 1: even thinking about college, we knew that we were on
17:58
Speaker 1: our own.
17:59
Speaker 5: I mean I knew that if I want to go.
18:00
Speaker 1: To college, I better be either good education, at having
18:04
Speaker 1: great grades, or at a sport. It was made very
18:07
Speaker 1: clear to me. But I can't imagine how.
18:10
Speaker 3: By the way, brad Ben went to Ole miss on
18:13
Speaker 3: a tennis scholarship. So that's how he went to college.
18:16
Speaker 5: No, and I knew that. I knew for that.
18:19
Speaker 1: The pressure to get out was if I'm going to
18:21
Speaker 1: go to college, I have to do these are my
18:24
Speaker 1: only two options because there was no savings account, there
18:27
Speaker 1: was no college fund, there was nothing. And and I
18:31
Speaker 1: look now as a father with two three kids, and
18:34
Speaker 1: I and I sit there, I know, right, one of
18:38
Speaker 1: the twins, right, which everyone's my favorite.
18:40
Speaker 3: Today, I'm gonna get you in trouble because whoever it is,
18:42
Speaker 3: he's gonna listen and be like, dad, what about me?
18:45
Speaker 5: Exactly?
18:46
Speaker 1: And but I sit there and I look at my dad,
18:49
Speaker 1: and I feel bad now because I'm like, I know,
18:51
Speaker 1: he just put his head down and he made whatever
18:53
Speaker 1: he could make being a police officer.
18:55
Speaker 5: This could have been transformative.
18:57
Speaker 1: I think for the pressure that you just mentioned, and
19:00
Speaker 1: it seems overwhelming to set up an account, it seems
19:03
Speaker 1: overwhelming to start it. And so many parents just assume
19:07
Speaker 1: I don't have enough money to do it.
19:09
Speaker 5: So I'm not even going to be.
19:10
Speaker 1: Embarrassed and go in and try a seven account with
19:12
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars or fifty dollars to start that nest egg.
19:15
Speaker 1: This could be transforming and for a lot of parents
19:19
Speaker 1: that are just wanting their kids to have a better life,
19:22
Speaker 1: the number one thing that holds them back is that
19:24
Speaker 1: worry or the embarrassment that they're not walking in with
19:26
Speaker 1: enough might have start it.
19:28
Speaker 2: One hundred percent that well said. They call it in
19:32
Speaker 2: economics the cold start problem, right, the cold start problem
19:37
Speaker 2: is I don't know how, or I'm embarrassed, or I
19:41
Speaker 2: don't have the time. Remember, lots of parents are working
19:43
Speaker 2: one or two jobs. You know they not only do
19:46
Speaker 2: they not know how, It takes time right to set
19:49
Speaker 2: these things up. They're complex, and then you run into
19:52
Speaker 2: questions and then how do you fund it? And you
19:54
Speaker 2: know you have to have that next next eag to
19:56
Speaker 2: get started, so it will unlock that power. But let's
20:00
Speaker 2: let me talk about two other areas. We're going to
20:02
Speaker 2: get incredible private sector participation. So we now have companies
20:06
Speaker 2: representing ten millions of employees, and I mentioned a lot
20:11
Speaker 2: of them, you know, but literally from Uber to Goldman Sachs,
20:15
Speaker 2: from T Mobile to iHeartMedia, from a m D to
20:19
Speaker 2: the Southern companies, you know, an energy company. And we're
20:23
Speaker 2: just getting started, right, Wait until the President and folks
20:27
Speaker 2: on Capitol Hill and all these CEOs, wait until we
20:29
Speaker 2: have this seat, this set up, and we're going to
20:32
Speaker 2: ask every company in America to participate in this, and
20:36
Speaker 2: it's going to become a feature of their corporate benefit
20:39
Speaker 2: program and they're going to match and what we've asked
20:42
Speaker 2: them to do by joining the CEO Council, they've committed
20:45
Speaker 2: to two things. Number one, that they that they agree
20:49
Speaker 2: to do what they can to help get this passed.
20:51
Speaker 2: They think it's a great idea. But number two, they've
20:53
Speaker 2: all made a commitment to contribute to the accounts, the
20:56
Speaker 2: accounts of the kids of their employees level of participation
21:01
Speaker 2: that makes sense for their company. And so I just had,
21:04
Speaker 2: you know, over here we're talking about some people heard
21:06
Speaker 2: me talking about it yesterday. Another couple of companies, you
21:09
Speaker 2: know set up. I was, you know, I was on
21:12
Speaker 2: Charlie Kirk last night and Charlie said, we're going to
21:14
Speaker 2: do this for our employees, and so you know, I
21:17
Speaker 2: think that once people know about this, we're going to
21:20
Speaker 2: have broad based participation. And when they start adding one
21:24
Speaker 2: thousand dollars at birth or two thousand dollars in that
21:27
Speaker 2: in those first few years, you're going to double and
21:31
Speaker 2: triple those amounts that Ted was talking about through the
21:34
Speaker 2: power of compounding. So whatever number you get to starting
21:38
Speaker 2: at age zero, by agat, if you start with twice
21:42
Speaker 2: the amount or three times the amount of just skyrockets.
21:44
Speaker 2: But so that's corporates. But we're also going to have
21:48
Speaker 2: some other big announcements. We have philanthropists in this country.
21:52
Speaker 2: These are folks who you know, may have millions of dollars,
21:54
Speaker 2: may have billions of dollars, may have hundreds of billions
21:57
Speaker 2: of dollars, who've committed to add dollars to the accounts
22:01
Speaker 2: of these kids. So we're going to make it really
22:03
Speaker 2: easy for philanthropy. Remember, we have twenty trillion dollars of
22:08
Speaker 2: wealth transfer that's going to occur in this country over
22:11
Speaker 2: the next fifteen years, you know, as baby as the
22:15
Speaker 2: baby boomers retire, move on, et cetera. And many of
22:19
Speaker 2: these people want to give away this money during their
22:21
Speaker 2: lifetime but if you're Mike Bdell and you have over
22:25
Speaker 2: one hundred billion dollars, you simply can't give it away
22:28
Speaker 2: through charity fast enough. This gives you a financial infrastructure
22:33
Speaker 2: right in order to match. So Michael might say, I'm
22:36
Speaker 2: going to contribute to this five O one C three
22:39
Speaker 2: and match for every kid in the state of Texas,
22:41
Speaker 2: or maybe every kid in the country, or maybe just
22:44
Speaker 2: every kid in the state of Texas whose family earns
22:47
Speaker 2: under one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He's going to
22:50
Speaker 2: give five thousand dollars to each of those kids. So
22:52
Speaker 2: we're going to unlock the power of philanthropy for invest America.
22:56
Speaker 2: And then finally I'll drop this out there. I think
23:00
Speaker 2: you're going to see incredible experimentation at the state and
23:04
Speaker 2: local and church level. Right this is going to uh we.
23:09
Speaker 2: I've had states reach out to me, Folks running for
23:12
Speaker 2: governor reach out to me, and you're going to be
23:13
Speaker 2: hearing some announcements where they say, in order to attract
23:17
Speaker 2: people to our state, we're going to launch them at birth.
23:21
Speaker 2: We'll take some of our our revenue from you know,
23:25
Speaker 2: from alcohol and cigarettes, We'll take some of the you
23:28
Speaker 2: know that revenue, and we'll put it into account for
23:31
Speaker 2: a kid who's born in this state, and better yet,
23:35
Speaker 2: we may make you know, in a bonus account if
23:39
Speaker 2: they graduate from high school in the state, because not
23:41
Speaker 2: only do we want to attract people, we want to
23:43
Speaker 2: keep them here. And so listen, there's going to be
23:46
Speaker 2: a million entrepreneurial flowers that bloom on top of this,
23:51
Speaker 2: and all of it gets back to this fundamental We
23:55
Speaker 2: have too few people who participate in the upside of America.
23:59
Speaker 2: Lets you, seventy percent of people have no skin in
24:02
Speaker 2: the game. They'll never have an account their entire lifetime.
24:06
Speaker 2: That compounds. We're going to change all that, and the
24:08
Speaker 2: senators leadership has been absolutely crucial in order to make
24:12
Speaker 2: it happen.
24:14
Speaker 5: I think this is something that we've been missing. You know.
24:17
Speaker 1: You remember when I was working with the Bush administration,
24:19
Speaker 1: it was on Social Security Form because it was just
24:22
Speaker 1: a Ponzi scheme in essence, where I was like, what
24:26
Speaker 1: are we doing? How are we not giving people more
24:29
Speaker 1: with investing? And this is one of those things that
24:33
Speaker 1: for me, is about financial freedom and it allows people
24:36
Speaker 1: a chance to succeed in the greatest country in the
24:38
Speaker 1: world and do it in a way that is just
24:41
Speaker 1: so smart, and I can't imagine what this is going
24:45
Speaker 1: to do for single moms, for people that are working
24:50
Speaker 1: nine to five jobs, two jobs, working hourly jobs. They say,
24:54
Speaker 1: now I feel like even I can give my kids
24:57
Speaker 1: a better life, because that's ultimately I think, whatever repair
25:00
Speaker 1: it once they want to give their chance, their kid
25:02
Speaker 1: a chance to a better life than they live. And
25:06
Speaker 1: this is an example of starting literally at day one
25:08
Speaker 1: of their birth saying we've got you and ne dag,
25:11
Speaker 1: Now let's go and build on it.
25:13
Speaker 3: So Ben, one of the things Brad was describing that
25:15
Speaker 3: has me really excited is the accelerator that is built
25:19
Speaker 3: into it. So seeding every account with one thousand dollars
25:23
Speaker 3: is valuable. By the way, there are three point seven
25:25
Speaker 3: million babies born every year, and so one thousand dollars
25:30
Speaker 3: for three point seven million babies a three point seven
25:33
Speaker 3: billion dollars a year. That means this will cost thirty
25:36
Speaker 3: seven billion dollars over ten years. This is a four
25:39
Speaker 3: to five trillion dollar tax cut, So thirty seven billion
25:42
Speaker 3: dollars is a relatively small piece, but you want to
25:45
Speaker 3: talk about how it transforms America. That seed money is
25:48
Speaker 3: important even more important is simply creating the account. As
25:53
Speaker 3: Brad noticed, you know, two thirds of Americans will not
25:58
Speaker 3: have an investment account, will not be invested in the market.
26:01
Speaker 3: And we're creating a world where every child, every single child,
26:06
Speaker 3: from gazillionaire kids to a homeless kid on the street,
26:11
Speaker 3: suddenly has an account invested the market. That is transformative.
26:15
Speaker 3: But then the accelerator. So what Brad has worked for
26:18
Speaker 3: several years is he's brought together world class CEO some
26:22
Speaker 3: of the most prominent CEOs in the country. He mentioned
26:25
Speaker 3: Michael Dell. That was not theoretical. Michael is Michael is
26:29
Speaker 3: a good friend of mine. He's a Texan, incredible entrepreneur
26:31
Speaker 3: worth over one hundred million dollars. Michael is the chairman
26:36
Speaker 3: of the CEO Council for Invest America. So Michael is
26:38
Speaker 3: leaning in heart. He's committed Dell Computers. When this passes,
26:44
Speaker 3: Dell will help fund the accounts for the kids of
26:48
Speaker 3: their employees. That's powerful. But as Brad said, also, Michael
26:52
Speaker 3: is quite interested on the philanthropic side in supporting not
26:56
Speaker 3: just the accounts for the children of his employees, but
26:59
Speaker 3: more broadly having a bigger impact. I think we will
27:02
Speaker 3: see think for a second, Ben about four to one CA's.
27:06
Speaker 3: Remember when we were kids, four o one k's didn't exist.
27:09
Speaker 3: Now just about every every job at.
27:13
Speaker 4: A big company, it's part of the plan. It's part
27:16
Speaker 4: of the.
27:16
Speaker 3: Plan, and the employer matches for a one K contributions
27:20
Speaker 3: makes their own contributions. It's a really attractive employee benefit.
27:25
Speaker 3: And what I like about this is the accelerator component
27:28
Speaker 3: that I think you will end up having real wealth
27:32
Speaker 3: creation that changes. Look an eighteen year old kid who's
27:37
Speaker 3: got a single mom, who's not coming from money, who's
27:39
Speaker 3: living in a rough environments, suddenly got a couple one
27:43
Speaker 3: hundred thousand dollars invested in the stock market. That changes
27:48
Speaker 3: their whole life. This is this is life changing.
27:52
Speaker 1: And well this also seems I go back to the
27:55
Speaker 1: trickle down effect. And you know it's like, for one case,
27:59
Speaker 1: you remember when it was your grandparents and your parents
28:01
Speaker 1: when you go to get your first job, your first
28:03
Speaker 1: row job, and do they have a four to one k.
28:06
Speaker 1: It's not the twenty one to twenty three year old
28:08
Speaker 1: that's asking that question, it's the parents and grandparents. I
28:12
Speaker 1: remember when I got my first other. Do they match?
28:14
Speaker 1: Where do they match? They have a four to one
28:16
Speaker 1: k imagine if you get that started in the mindset
28:20
Speaker 1: at age literally zero, that can transform an entire nation.
28:25
Speaker 3: So, Brad, let me ask you something. How did you
28:27
Speaker 3: get involved in this to begin with? Because you were
28:30
Speaker 3: passionate and working on this. I got involved with you
28:33
Speaker 3: about a year ago, but you were passionate involved in
28:36
Speaker 3: this long before that. What was the kernel of the
28:38
Speaker 3: idea that started this?
28:40
Speaker 2: Well, you know, you'll appreciate the senator as a dad yourself,
28:45
Speaker 2: but you know I have two boys, Lincoln and Jack,
28:49
Speaker 2: and they're sixteen and fourteen. And one of the things
28:52
Speaker 2: we talk about a lot when we sit around the
28:54
Speaker 2: dinner table is when we see problems, don't complain about them, right,
29:00
Speaker 2: have a bias to action, have a bias to action,
29:04
Speaker 2: Do something about it, don't just sit around and complain.
29:07
Speaker 2: And so, coming out of COVID, I was showing them
29:12
Speaker 2: the investment accounts I set up when they were born,
29:16
Speaker 2: and we're talking about the power of compounding, and we
29:19
Speaker 2: were showing they were talking about the stocks that they owned,
29:22
Speaker 2: and I could see their excitement and they said, Dad,
29:25
Speaker 2: when are we going to be able to, you know,
29:27
Speaker 2: have some control over what we're investing in we want
29:30
Speaker 2: to learn more. Will you set up a robin Hood
29:33
Speaker 2: account for course, et cetera. And then we started talking
29:36
Speaker 2: about the wealth gap and we started, you know, my
29:40
Speaker 2: son Lincoln brought me something, you know that was the
29:42
Speaker 2: headline and it said ninety three percent of stocks are
29:46
Speaker 2: owned by the wealthiest ten percent of Americans. And he said, Dad,
29:49
Speaker 2: I feel I feel like, you know, I'm I'm glad
29:53
Speaker 2: you set this up for me when I was a kid,
29:55
Speaker 2: but I kind of feel guilty, like, what, why can't
29:58
Speaker 2: everybody you know have this uh, you know, same benefit.
30:03
Speaker 2: And I said, you know, we got to fix this.
30:06
Speaker 2: And so he said to me, what are you going
30:08
Speaker 2: to do about it? And I turned to him and
30:10
Speaker 2: I said, no, what are we going to do about it?
30:12
Speaker 2: And we made a commitment as a family that we're
30:15
Speaker 2: going to do something about this. Yep. And you know,
30:17
Speaker 2: it's been been one of the best parts of the journey.
30:20
Speaker 2: We set up a five oh one c three uh
30:23
Speaker 2: called in West America, and we literally, you know, just
30:28
Speaker 2: started you know, making the calls and it was lining
30:33
Speaker 2: up light minded thinkers in the private sector and lining
30:36
Speaker 2: up light light minded folks in Washington, and you and
30:41
Speaker 2: I have talked about this. You know, I had the
30:43
Speaker 2: good fortune when I was returning from studying overseas in
30:46
Speaker 2: nineteen nineteen ninety one uh to show up in Washington
30:50
Speaker 2: and go work for the late and great senator from Indiana,
30:54
Speaker 2: Richard Lueger. Luber was a Rhodes scholar. He was a
30:59
Speaker 2: mayor of Indianapol. List became a long serving senator, credible
31:03
Speaker 2: senator and at the time he was working on denuclearizing
31:06
Speaker 2: the nuclear stockpiles coming out of the Cold War with
31:10
Speaker 2: Sam Nunn. And let's just say later in life, I
31:14
Speaker 2: went on to have some success. And when I saw
31:17
Speaker 2: the Senator and in those later years, he said to me,
31:20
Speaker 2: you know, don't waste it. You know, remember those days,
31:23
Speaker 2: remember those runs around the wall in the mall in Washington,
31:27
Speaker 2: and make sure you do something that matters. And so
31:29
Speaker 2: as a family, we want to do something that matters.
31:31
Speaker 2: And I will say in the House, in the Senate,
31:35
Speaker 2: you know, you know, in the White House, and in
31:38
Speaker 2: a broad bipartisan way, and that was something that was
31:41
Speaker 2: really important to me. We've had incredible support and I said,
31:46
Speaker 2: I've never seen an idea with a better product market fit.
31:50
Speaker 2: Everybody I talked to in the private sector in Washington
31:54
Speaker 2: was intrigued by the idea. But I remember we were
31:58
Speaker 2: speaking with them Speaker party in the House. Lincoln was
32:01
Speaker 2: in the meeting with me. We had an incredible meeting
32:04
Speaker 2: with the Speaker and we walked out and I said
32:06
Speaker 2: to him, as we're looking at the rotunda in the House,
32:10
Speaker 2: I said, every single good idea in America has started
32:13
Speaker 2: with a conversation just like that. Right, as an entrepreneur
32:18
Speaker 2: in Silica Valley, nothing happened in Silica Valley right, not Google,
32:22
Speaker 2: not open Ai, not Facebook, right without a conversation on
32:26
Speaker 2: the back of a napkin. That starts as an idea.
32:28
Speaker 2: And so I had started a few companies in Valley.
32:31
Speaker 2: I knew something about starting things, and we just got
32:35
Speaker 2: started and the snowball started rolling. And here we are
32:38
Speaker 2: three and a half years later, and I think we're
32:40
Speaker 2: on the precipice. Think your great leadership, the great leadership
32:45
Speaker 2: in the House and the White House of making this happen.
32:49
Speaker 2: And I agree with you. I think we're going to
32:50
Speaker 2: look back in ten or twenty years and this is
32:53
Speaker 2: going to be a massive legacy of this moment. You did.
32:56
Speaker 5: You just said a word a moment about the word,
32:58
Speaker 5: and it's become a bad word. Now. Is bipartisanate like
33:01
Speaker 5: never happens anymore.
33:02
Speaker 1: So I'm going to ask both of you this, is
33:05
Speaker 1: there a chance that this can be such a great
33:08
Speaker 1: idea that it is in fact bi partisan and that
33:12
Speaker 1: Democrats and Republicans can work together like they used to
33:15
Speaker 1: twenty thirty years ago. When there are non partisan ideas
33:19
Speaker 1: that are just great ideas that are great for all Americans.
33:23
Speaker 1: And this one, by the way, I would actually argue
33:24
Speaker 1: with Skew Moore to helping those that are poor in
33:26
Speaker 1: this country look than anyone.
33:28
Speaker 3: Else, unquestionably, and I'll give you some positive signs on
33:32
Speaker 3: this one. There are significant overlaps between this idea and
33:36
Speaker 3: an idea that Corey Booker had called baby bonds, and
33:39
Speaker 3: his idea was to create bonds and create a savings
33:42
Speaker 3: account for every baby born in America, and when he
33:45
Speaker 3: was running for president, he campaign on that. Corey's a
33:47
Speaker 3: friend of mine, Brad knows Corey well. I will say
33:51
Speaker 3: this is different from Corey's baby bonds because I was
33:55
Speaker 3: not a supporter of just the baby bonds of an
33:57
Speaker 3: investment account that is accruing interest. What really sold me
34:02
Speaker 3: on this was making a generation of capitalists, was the
34:06
Speaker 3: fact that this money is not just a savings account,
34:09
Speaker 3: which is easy for Democrats to support, but rather it
34:12
Speaker 3: is investing in the equity markets. It is making children
34:16
Speaker 3: owners of the major companies in America, and that to
34:19
Speaker 3: me was really exciting. That being said, I think there's
34:23
Speaker 3: a good chance that we will get Democrats to support this.
34:26
Speaker 3: I'll say Dick Durbin, who is the Democrat whip and
34:30
Speaker 3: very liberal senator, although I've served with him on the
34:33
Speaker 3: Judiciary Committee for thirteen years, Dick Durbin, in a press
34:36
Speaker 3: story today, actually praised this idea. And it's common about
34:40
Speaker 3: me that Dick is wicked smart, but we said about
34:43
Speaker 3: me as he said, well, a stop clock is right
34:46
Speaker 3: twice a day. And I actually ran into Dick in
34:50
Speaker 3: the in the hallway and I said, Dick, you praised
34:54
Speaker 3: me in the press. He said it must have been
34:56
Speaker 3: a mistake, and I reminded him of the quote and
34:58
Speaker 3: he laughed, and I said, Dick, it's a good thing
35:00
Speaker 3: you're retiring. That they might primary in the Democrat primary
35:03
Speaker 3: for saying something nice about me.
35:05
Speaker 4: But it's and I'll tell you.
35:06
Speaker 3: There was another Democrat senator, a freshman, it was newly elected,
35:09
Speaker 3: who came and approached me and said, I really like
35:12
Speaker 3: this idea. This is interesting. And I said, well, look,
35:14
Speaker 3: so no Democrat is going to vote for the reconciliation bill.
35:18
Speaker 3: That's going to be a pure party line bill. So
35:20
Speaker 3: the actual bill that passes this no Democrat will vote for.
35:24
Speaker 3: But what I told this this Democrat freshman, I said, well,
35:27
Speaker 3: co sponsor my invest America bill, so you can make
35:30
Speaker 3: clear you supported. I think we've got a decent chance
35:33
Speaker 3: of getting Democrats on board. Brad did a good job
35:36
Speaker 3: of talking to them, and I will tell you a
35:41
Speaker 3: couple of things. So Brad was describing all the time
35:43
Speaker 3: and energy he put in, and he said, quite modestly,
35:47
Speaker 3: he said, well, I've had some success in business.
35:49
Speaker 4: Ben let me be clear, Brad is a billionaire.
35:52
Speaker 3: Like he's got a crap ton of money and he
35:55
Speaker 3: could sit back and play golf all day long and
35:58
Speaker 3: never need to work again, and he'd be fine, and
36:00
Speaker 3: his kids would be fine, and his grandkids would be fine.
36:03
Speaker 4: But he's not doing that.
36:04
Speaker 3: A He's got a ton of energy, but he has
36:07
Speaker 3: poured so much time and energy and money.
36:10
Speaker 4: So I will tell you the way this got.
36:12
Speaker 3: Done is he was relentless. He was talking to everybody
36:15
Speaker 3: in the House. Why is this in the House bill?
36:17
Speaker 3: Because Brad was talking repeatedly to Jason Smith, the Chairman
36:20
Speaker 3: of Ways and Means. He was talking repeatedly to Mike Johnson,
36:23
Speaker 3: the Speaker of the House. By the way, I was too,
36:25
Speaker 3: I was talking to both of them. They're both good friends.
36:27
Speaker 3: He was talking repeatedly to me and other senators. I
36:31
Speaker 3: sat down with Brad this week with Mike Crapo, the
36:34
Speaker 3: chairman of the Finance Committee, who's drafting the tax portion
36:37
Speaker 3: of the reconciliation of the Senate. He's been talking in
36:40
Speaker 3: the White House to Kevin Hasset, who runs the National
36:42
Speaker 3: Economic Council, over and over and over again. He's been
36:44
Speaker 3: talking to the President. It is been that relentless. And
36:47
Speaker 3: by the way, President Trump weighed in directly with the
36:51
Speaker 3: Speaker of the House and said, I like this idea included.
36:55
Speaker 3: How did this idea get like? Like A lot of
36:57
Speaker 3: the press is shocked, why is this in the House bill?
37:02
Speaker 3: A big part of the reason is the President weighed
37:04
Speaker 3: in and said, I really like this idea. And so
37:07
Speaker 3: the House included it. That wouldn't have happened without Brad's
37:11
Speaker 3: efforts and my efforts making the case to the House,
37:15
Speaker 3: to the Senate and to the White House. And I
37:17
Speaker 3: think we will get this done and it will have
37:21
Speaker 3: an impact. When all three of us are dead and buried,
37:25
Speaker 3: this will still be having a profound impact.
37:29
Speaker 1: So for people that are listening, and this is when
37:31
Speaker 1: I get genuinely excited and they say, all right, I
37:33
Speaker 1: want to support this, what do they do?
37:36
Speaker 5: Is it call?
37:36
Speaker 1: Is this one of those where you say, call your
37:38
Speaker 1: congress person, regardless of party, call your senator. I mean
37:43
Speaker 1: that sounds like the White House is on board, so
37:44
Speaker 1: you don't have to call them. But what is it
37:46
Speaker 1: that the American people need to do to help this
37:47
Speaker 1: get across the finish line as well?
37:49
Speaker 4: So I've got an answer to that, and I want
37:50
Speaker 4: Brad to chime in on this.
37:51
Speaker 3: Also, but I'd say speak out, use your voice and
37:55
Speaker 3: say this is a great idea.
37:57
Speaker 4: And I like this.
37:58
Speaker 3: And Brad today was texting, so he and I started
38:01
Speaker 3: the morning. Early this morning. I did an interview on
38:04
Speaker 3: Squawkbox on CNBC, which I love doing, and Brad called
38:08
Speaker 3: in form riad by the way, you might think, Okay,
38:13
Speaker 3: a billionaire Silicon Valley investor in Saudi Arabia calling in
38:17
Speaker 3: to CNBC Squawkbox, this is high falutin. This is fancy schmancy.
38:23
Speaker 3: Brad sent me the picture of him. He was literally
38:26
Speaker 3: standing there holding his laptop in the air like filming
38:30
Speaker 3: it on a zoom. It was as low tech as
38:33
Speaker 3: can be. And we did the interview together. But I
38:36
Speaker 3: want to tell you two things on this because this
38:38
Speaker 3: is the answer to what you can do. One, when
38:40
Speaker 3: I finished that interview, and also when I finished the
38:43
Speaker 3: interview with Larry Kudler, which I did this afternoon, this
38:47
Speaker 3: is so cool. In both instances, the cameraman who was
38:50
Speaker 3: filming us like the I haven't told you this, Brad.
38:54
Speaker 3: At the end of squawk the cameraman said, Wow, I
38:58
Speaker 3: have a daughter as a senior in high school. I'd
39:00
Speaker 3: love for her to have one hundred and seventy thousand dollars.
39:03
Speaker 3: And like the cameraman on Cudlow said basically the same thing.
39:06
Speaker 4: I mean.
39:07
Speaker 3: It was, you want to talk about a message that
39:09
Speaker 3: resonates people think, wait, this could really help my kid.
39:14
Speaker 3: And that was cool. But on the question of what
39:17
Speaker 3: you can do, and I'm so brad. Today at eleven
39:21
Speaker 3: thirty six am, he texted me, how are you tackling
39:25
Speaker 3: the quote?
39:26
Speaker 4: This is socialism? Retort. And so there are some people
39:29
Speaker 4: online who are saying this is saying that.
39:31
Speaker 1: By the way, people are coming after you in the
39:34
Speaker 1: White House saying this is socialism straight up.
39:36
Speaker 5: So let's respond to.
39:37
Speaker 3: That, Okay. So I texted him back, I'm just going
39:40
Speaker 3: to read you my text. I said, yep, it's the
39:43
Speaker 3: opposite of socialism. The definition of socialism is government ownership
39:48
Speaker 3: or control of the means of production or distribution. This
39:51
Speaker 3: is ownership and control by millions of citizens. It is
39:56
Speaker 3: making them capitalists. Online people use quote socialism as a
40:03
Speaker 3: shorthand for any government spending or tax credits. But obviously
40:07
Speaker 3: some is good and some is bad. And so I
40:11
Speaker 3: will say what I will encourage our listeners to just
40:13
Speaker 3: speak out and say, look, helping people creating a vehicle
40:17
Speaker 3: for our children to invest, to accumulate wealth, to transform
40:21
Speaker 3: their lives, to have resources, to get an education, to
40:24
Speaker 3: buy a house, to start a business, to climb the
40:27
Speaker 3: economic ladder much faster, that is incredibly worthwhile, and creating
40:32
Speaker 3: people who are capitalists and invested in the free market system.
40:36
Speaker 3: That is, if anything, more valuable. And so I think
40:39
Speaker 3: adding your voices. And by the way, for some of
40:42
Speaker 3: the critics, they're quieted by the fact that the President
40:46
Speaker 3: Trump enthusiastically supports this, but it is really transformed. To Brad,
40:51
Speaker 3: what do you think about that? I kind of went
40:53
Speaker 3: on a rant.
40:54
Speaker 2: No, well said number one. I would say on Twitter
40:58
Speaker 2: or X follow it invest America twenty four. So it's
41:02
Speaker 2: just at Invest America twenty four. And what we're going
41:05
Speaker 2: to do there, like we've been doing for three years,
41:07
Speaker 2: We're just going to continue to post the updates so
41:10
Speaker 2: people can stay informed. Right. Secondly, as the senator said,
41:14
Speaker 2: way in, you know, use your voice, use your voice
41:17
Speaker 2: in your social networks, direct people to follow it. We're
41:20
Speaker 2: building the movement, and the movement's going to last well
41:24
Speaker 2: beyond just getting the legislation passed. Remember when we passed
41:27
Speaker 2: the legislation. Now, the Treasury Department is going to set
41:30
Speaker 2: up these accounts and so you know, we're going to
41:33
Speaker 2: integrate this into the financial literacy across the country. There
41:36
Speaker 2: are already thirty states that require literacy in high school.
41:41
Speaker 2: But think about this, it's hard to learn about financial
41:44
Speaker 2: literacy when your parents don't own anything, when you don't
41:46
Speaker 2: own anything and you have no prospect of owning anything.
41:50
Speaker 2: Now they're going to say, get out your phone, open
41:52
Speaker 2: up your invest America account. We're going to talk about
41:54
Speaker 2: how you got twenty five thousand dollars in that account,
41:57
Speaker 2: what it means to own a little bit of Nvidia
41:59
Speaker 2: or Sure halfway, how compounding works, how stocks work, what
42:04
Speaker 2: voting rights you know in these companies mean. So like,
42:09
Speaker 2: this is going to be a movement that lasts well
42:11
Speaker 2: beyond you know, just getting the legislation, but certainly way in.
42:17
Speaker 2: And yeah, I want to underscore Senator that you know,
42:21
Speaker 2: the Senator's leadership has been incredible here. But what will
42:25
Speaker 2: make this big and beautiful is by building a giant tent.
42:29
Speaker 2: I will tell you this. I have had former Democratic presidents.
42:34
Speaker 2: I had had lots of members of the Democratic Party
42:37
Speaker 2: in the Senate, in the House and across America. Tell
42:41
Speaker 2: me what a great idea this is. They can't wait
42:44
Speaker 2: until this happens for the benefit of their kids. Because
42:47
Speaker 2: I want to return to this fundamental principle. If you're
42:50
Speaker 2: a parent, if you've experienced having a child, you know
42:54
Speaker 2: you would give the shirt off your back to your child.
42:57
Speaker 2: There's nothing parents want more that a shot for their
43:00
Speaker 2: kid than the shot that they had. And this is
43:03
Speaker 2: the way that we do it. It unleashes economic mobility,
43:07
Speaker 2: it unleashes human potential. It aligns everybody with the democratic,
43:14
Speaker 2: free market, free enterprise principles which has made this country
43:18
Speaker 2: so great. You know, here I am in Saudi Arabia today,
43:21
Speaker 2: I'm looking out the window of my hotel and I
43:24
Speaker 2: will tell you, while it's a very wealthy nation, the
43:26
Speaker 2: wealth is not equally distributed. Right. One of the powers
43:30
Speaker 2: of America is we have the greatest economic mobility in
43:35
Speaker 2: the world. But for too long, over the course of
43:39
Speaker 2: the last thirty years, we've had a concentration of that
43:43
Speaker 2: because the stock market has been the thing that's compounded
43:47
Speaker 2: all the value, and less than three percent of the
43:51
Speaker 2: market is owned by the bottom sixty percent of people.
43:54
Speaker 2: We're going to turn that on its head by getting
43:57
Speaker 2: everybody into the game, and so every world town in Texas, Senator,
44:01
Speaker 2: where you have folks who want to vote for you,
44:03
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter the color the race, doesn't matter if
44:06
Speaker 2: you're working one or two jobs, You're gonna have a
44:08
Speaker 2: lot more hope for your kid, and you're going to
44:10
Speaker 2: have account that you can contribute to that future. So
44:15
Speaker 2: that's how I would weigh in, you know, and I
44:18
Speaker 2: hope people have an open mind. I think they will.
44:20
Speaker 2: You know, you mentioned Social Security and obviously that's a
44:23
Speaker 2: sacred promise got to be met, and this is something
44:26
Speaker 2: totally different. But you know, if I asked you guys,
44:30
Speaker 2: most Americans would have no idea whether that was passed
44:34
Speaker 2: by a Republican or a Democrat. Most Americans would have
44:37
Speaker 2: no idea about the political debates. Most Americans would have
44:40
Speaker 2: no idea you know, how many votes had got in
44:42
Speaker 2: favor of it. Were they Republican votes or were they
44:44
Speaker 2: Democrat votes? Right? What people remember is doing something that
44:50
Speaker 2: helps America come together on Team America, something that unites
44:54
Speaker 2: us not divides us, right, something that uplifts families around
44:58
Speaker 2: the country. And I can't think of any thing more
45:00
Speaker 2: powerful than the power of invest America accounts for all
45:04
Speaker 2: these kids, Barn. You know, I'll leave you with this.
45:07
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty six is the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary
45:11
Speaker 2: of this great American experiment, Right, and the three folks
45:15
Speaker 2: on this on the zoom or on this podcast are
45:19
Speaker 2: living testaments. Right. Our parents struggled. Two of us had
45:23
Speaker 2: parents still bankrupt, right, and this country has been unbelievably
45:28
Speaker 2: good to us. We can unlock that power for millions
45:32
Speaker 2: and millions and millions more kids. And this is one
45:35
Speaker 2: of the ways we can do. Lots of great ideas
45:37
Speaker 2: out there, but you know, we got work to do
45:40
Speaker 2: to get this past. So I'm gonna be back in
45:42
Speaker 2: Washington working with the Senator, building that broad coalition, making
45:46
Speaker 2: sure that we get it done. And you know, and
45:50
Speaker 2: and and just can't thank you enough for your support.
45:52
Speaker 1: Make sure you share this podcast with your family and friends,
45:55
Speaker 1: put it up on social media wherever you are, and
45:58
Speaker 1: we appreciate you listening every day.
46:00
Speaker 5: We'll see you back here tomorrow.