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Invest America: A 401(k) for Every Newborn · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

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