Verdict with Ted Cruz - May 14, 2025


Huge, Transformative Victory： Invest America 401k Accounts for Every Newborn Child in America


Episode Stats


Length

49 minutes

Words per minute

178.23868

Word count

8,800

Sentence count

610

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) joins Sen. Ben F. Ferguson (D-NJ) to discuss the House Ways and Means Committee's reconciliation bill and the four major victories he has proposed that were included in it.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.380 Welcome, it is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you and Senator, this is
00:00:10.200 one of those shows and I just want to tell everybody, please take this show and share
00:00:15.900 it wherever you can on social media because this is one of those shows that could have
00:00:20.940 a massive impact on this country, dealing with a really important issue and a idea that
00:00:28.380 is becoming very close to reality that could fundamentally change this country for every
00:00:33.720 single child that's born.
00:00:35.800 Well, Ben, that is exactly right.
00:00:38.280 This week was a momentous week.
00:00:39.740 It was a momentous week in Washington and in the country.
00:00:42.360 So this week, the House Ways and Means Committee, which is the tax writing committee in the
00:00:46.320 House, rolled out their reconciliation bill.
00:00:50.020 And I will tell you in that bill, there were four major victories of bills that I've introduced
00:00:55.060 that I'm leading on that are all included in the House reconciliation bill.
00:01:00.600 Number one, they included my legislation on no tax on tips.
00:01:04.500 No tax on tips is a promise President Trump made.
00:01:09.140 It is a powerful policy that benefits every waiter and waitress and taxi cab driver and
00:01:15.340 bartender and barber and hairstylist and nail salon beautician.
00:01:23.020 Everyone who operates on tips, it is a policy that benefits the working men and women of 1.00
00:01:30.060 America and the Republican Party is a blue-collar party.
00:01:33.680 So that is in the bill.
00:01:35.320 Number two, I've been leading the fight to open up significant electromagnetic spectrum to
00:01:42.540 auction to the private sector, 600 megahertz of spectrum.
00:01:46.060 When we do that, that will produce billions of dollars of new investment and hundreds of
00:01:52.580 thousands of new jobs.
00:01:53.940 That is in the House bill.
00:01:55.500 They've taken my pipeline language and included it in there.
00:01:58.940 Number three, school choice.
00:02:01.400 The House included a version of my school choice bill that is scholarship tax credits for
00:02:08.660 contributions for scholarship-granting organizations in the state.
00:02:13.320 That, if it is passed, will be the most significant federal school choice legislation ever passed
00:02:20.440 in history.
00:02:21.420 And Monday's podcast, if you didn't listen to Monday's podcast, I did a deep dive on that
00:02:26.100 idea.
00:02:26.880 I thought it was going to come this week, and so I laid out how we had the opportunity
00:02:31.540 to win the most significant victory for school choice of our lifetimes.
00:02:36.320 The House included it.
00:02:37.460 That's a huge victory.
00:02:38.660 But the fourth, which is going to be the topic of this podcast, is legislation I've
00:02:45.120 introduced called Invest America.
00:02:46.760 Invest America is basically 401ks for kids.
00:02:51.020 It is creating investment accounts for kids, and it is seeding it with $1,000 and allowing
00:02:56.780 contributions to let every newborn child in America accumulate resources.
00:03:02.400 We're going to break that down because that is in the House bill.
00:03:05.180 They call it the MAGA account, but it is my statutory language, and I've got to say, when we enact
00:03:12.680 that language, President Trump enthusiastically supports it.
00:03:16.080 When we enact that language, it is going to have a profound impact on this country, not just
00:03:22.200 this year or next year, but 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now.
00:03:27.080 I'm really excited.
00:03:28.480 We're going to explain to you all about what that proposal is and how it's going to make
00:03:32.440 a difference in your family for your kids.
00:03:35.320 Yeah, it's awesome, and it's something that, again, I'll say it, make sure you listen to
00:03:40.000 the show and share it, even with people that don't traditionally listen to political podcasts,
00:03:44.540 because this is not really that political.
00:03:47.180 It's actually about the future of this country and can have a huge impact on every child that
00:03:51.520 is born.
00:03:52.320 I want to talk to you for just a moment, though, about what's happening right now in Israel.
00:03:56.480 Do you know, just like here in the U.S., Israel has their own Independence Day.
00:04:02.140 In case you missed it, this year, Israel's Independence Day was a few days ago on May 1st.
00:04:08.080 But for the people of Israel, freedom is nothing more than a daily struggle just to survive.
00:04:13.280 There is no real peace, only terror, no joy, just suffering.
00:04:17.760 The Israeli government recognizes the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews for ongoing
00:04:23.800 help to make sure the elderly, the sick, the wounded soldiers, and the impoverished families
00:04:29.800 don't fall through the cracks.
00:04:31.640 And that is where your gift to the Fellowship today will provide life-saving aid, medicine,
00:04:38.420 hearty meals, safety, and comfort.
00:04:41.360 I believe that when you bless the people of Israel, we unlock God's blessings in our own
00:04:46.160 lives as well.
00:04:47.500 So show your support for Israel's independence by making a life-saving gift today.
00:04:53.240 You can call to make your gift, 888-488-IFCJ.
00:05:00.140 That's 888-488-4325.
00:05:05.600 You can also go online to ifcj.org.
00:05:09.420 That's ifcj.org.
00:05:12.460 All right, so Senator, let's talk about the Invest America, this idea.
00:05:17.380 It is something you've actually been working on for quite some time.
00:05:20.980 Plus, you have a special guest joining us to explain it as well.
00:05:24.820 Well, I'm very proud to welcome to Verdict Brad Gerstner.
00:05:27.540 Brad is a major Silicon Valley entrepreneur.
00:05:31.860 He runs a hedge fund, Altimeter Capital, in Silicon Valley.
00:05:35.760 He's been incredibly successful.
00:05:37.500 And he's become a really good friend over the past year.
00:05:40.460 And he is calling in and joining Verdict from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
00:05:44.700 So he is there with the president, with David Sachs.
00:05:48.080 He is on the trip.
00:05:49.880 And I will tell you, when we talked about the four victories in the House bill, the victory
00:05:56.500 of Invest America.
00:05:58.480 I don't think there is any person who has worked harder to make this a reality than Brad has.
00:06:05.100 And I met Brad a little over a year ago.
00:06:08.200 He and I have been working together on this since April of last year.
00:06:12.360 And he has been working to build the business coalition behind Invest America and bringing
00:06:19.140 together major CEOs, business leaders that see the incredible power of 401ks for every
00:06:27.820 newborn in America.
00:06:28.760 And so, Brad, from Riyadh, on the other side of the planet, and it is, by the way, right
00:06:34.660 now, Ben and I are doing this.
00:06:36.240 It is 11.26 p.m. in D.C.
00:06:39.720 It is 6.26 in the morning in Riyadh.
00:06:42.080 And so he got up to join us.
00:06:43.680 Brad, welcome to Verdict.
00:06:45.760 Oh, it's great to be here.
00:06:47.120 Thanks for having me, Ben.
00:06:48.460 Good to connect.
00:06:49.680 And Senator, wow, just watching the launch of Invest America under your leadership today,
00:06:56.580 the House Ways and Means Committee, Jason Smith, the Speaker of the House.
00:07:00.540 It's an exciting day.
00:07:01.720 And I can tell you, it's also an incredibly exciting day in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
00:07:07.180 The U.S. is back on its front foot.
00:07:09.580 As you said, I'm traveling with David Sachs, who is spreading the accelerationist gospel of
00:07:17.500 artificial intelligence.
00:07:18.880 We want the world running on U.S. compute, on USAI.
00:07:22.920 Um, and so it's been a, uh, it's been a really encouraging trip, but, uh, I'm thrilled to
00:07:29.000 be here, thrilled to be on the Verdict, because Invest America, I think, could change a country.
00:07:33.200 Yeah, look, I fully agree, and I will say to our listeners, David Sachs is another incredibly
00:07:38.520 successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur.
00:07:41.100 He's been someone I've known for a long time.
00:07:43.440 He's one of the hosts of the All In podcast, which is incredibly successful.
00:07:47.400 And Brad runs in, in, in, in that circle as well.
00:07:51.160 And, and David is serving, uh, in the White House right now as the president's chief advisor
00:07:56.420 on artificial intelligence and chief advisor on cryptocurrency.
00:07:59.820 And so he's doing a great job, and he and Brad are, are traveling to the Middle East.
00:08:04.200 And, and just today they announced, what, a trillion dollars in new investments, uh, in
00:08:10.160 the United States.
00:08:10.960 And so it, it, it's really potent, uh, but, but let's, let's do a, a, a deep dive into
00:08:17.700 Invest America.
00:08:18.580 Now, I'll tell you, Ben, do you know how I got to know Brad?
00:08:23.200 How is that?
00:08:24.640 So last spring, I'm sitting at a poker table in Vegas.
00:08:29.560 It's about one in the morning.
00:08:31.620 I'm already, I'm already in on this story.
00:08:34.120 And I'm every, every good story starts with the poker table.
00:08:37.720 That's right.
00:08:38.100 At 1 a.m.
00:08:38.860 in Vegas.
00:08:39.740 Yes.
00:08:39.980 And, and, and every, every year I do a fundraiser in Vegas where we play poker.
00:08:44.620 It's great fun.
00:08:45.360 We usually play till three or four in the morning and we get typically a number of poker
00:08:50.380 pros who come and join us and play.
00:08:52.720 And so last year I was playing with, among others, Phil Hellmuth, who, who, uh, is one
00:08:58.100 of the, the greatest poker players to ever live.
00:09:01.060 If, if Phil were on, he would say he is the greatest poker player to ever live.
00:09:05.100 And, and Brad, you know, that's true, but, but he.
00:09:09.980 100% the world's greatest.
00:09:11.940 He's got a good argument.
00:09:13.200 He's got, he, he has got 15 bracelets.
00:09:16.060 He's, he's a world series champion and we're talking and we're sitting there talking and
00:09:20.280 playing.
00:09:21.280 Um, and I played with Phil a number of times and he says, Hey, do you know, Brad Gerster?
00:09:24.600 I said, no, no, no idea.
00:09:25.800 Who is he?
00:09:26.160 And he said, all right, you got to know him.
00:09:28.100 He's a great guy.
00:09:28.980 He's like driving this, this great program to, to, to, to like have every, every baby
00:09:34.920 and every child in America invested in the stock market.
00:09:37.120 I said, that's interesting.
00:09:38.040 I want to know more about that.
00:09:39.280 Phil pulled out his phone and texted Brad and me connected us on, on sell that night at
00:09:45.620 one in the morning.
00:09:46.280 And we began working together, uh, starting in, in spring of last year.
00:09:52.240 That's incredible.
00:09:53.340 That's, that is how a friendship grows.
00:09:56.080 And let me guess, that's how you guys both got in on this.
00:09:59.660 Hey, what a brilliant idea to allow every kid in America that's got a social security
00:10:04.540 number to be able to start investing in essence, the day they're born, understand that they
00:10:09.660 have a chance to, to have a nest egg when they grow older.
00:10:12.720 I've got three boys, Senator.
00:10:14.780 Uh, this is something I think about.
00:10:16.420 It's, it's two things.
00:10:17.300 I think about college.
00:10:18.380 I think about saving for school.
00:10:20.140 And I think about them having something to start out their lives with.
00:10:23.000 And that's the, that's the essence of what you guys are trying to pull off here.
00:10:26.200 So, so let me describe the vision of it.
00:10:28.200 And then I want Brad to tell the story because he really did the shoe leather to make this
00:10:32.020 work, but the vision of it, and it is included in the house ways and means draft right
00:10:37.040 now, uh, is that every newborn child in America will have an investment account created, automatically
00:10:45.660 open for them and seated with a thousand dollars, a thousand dollars that comes from the government
00:10:51.200 to start it.
00:10:52.920 Uh, that's important to get it going.
00:10:55.260 But even more important is that every one of those accounts, you can contribute up to
00:11:01.680 $5,000 a year to those accounts in a tax advantaged way.
00:11:06.640 And, and that money can come from friends.
00:11:08.940 It can come from family and it can come from your parents or relatives, employers.
00:11:13.620 And, and I think that's a really big, we're going to talk about how that's a big accelerator.
00:11:18.380 Uh, and, and you can accumulate in a tax advantaged way.
00:11:23.300 And, and there are two massive advantages for this.
00:11:27.500 Number one, every child in America begins to experience the benefits of compound growth.
00:11:34.860 And these accounts, by the way, they're not savings accounts.
00:11:37.980 These are investment accounts that are, that, that, that, that are, uh, invested in either
00:11:43.100 ETFs or mutual funds that are invested in the S and P 500.
00:11:46.800 So, so it makes every newborn child an investor in the American stock market that enables them.
00:11:54.760 And, and, and look, as you know, well, as our listeners know, well, compound growth,
00:11:59.140 the miracle of compound growth is, is one of the great miracles of the world.
00:12:02.620 And if you get people investing for a long time, starting at birth, you can get incredible
00:12:07.820 numbers.
00:12:08.300 So Ben, let me ask you this.
00:12:10.280 You have a newborn child born this year, thousand dollars comes in to seed it.
00:12:14.160 And through friends and family or an employer, $5,000 a year gets invested for the first
00:12:20.120 18 years of their life.
00:12:22.120 If you assume 7% growth, which has been the historical average for the stock market, what
00:12:27.900 do you think that 18 year old has at, on his 18th birthday?
00:12:31.280 I'm going to go with hundreds of thousands, if not over a million, $170,000, $170,000.
00:12:37.160 And by the way, this is not for a rich kid.
00:12:40.780 This is every baby in America.
00:12:44.600 If, if you're contributing all along, what do you think they have if they continue doing
00:12:48.820 that until age 35?
00:12:50.840 What is it?
00:12:52.380 $700,000.
00:12:53.920 There you go.
00:12:54.980 Now that is transformational, but I'll tell you, that's not what Brad said that sold me
00:13:00.300 on this.
00:13:00.580 So Brad, when he talked to me about this, I said, all right, tell me your idea.
00:13:03.260 And, and he pitched it.
00:13:05.220 Here was the argument he made.
00:13:06.500 I'm going to let him make it in about 30 seconds.
00:13:08.520 But the argument he made is he said, look, young people, roughly half of them say they
00:13:15.440 believe in socialism.
00:13:16.420 They don't believe in capitalism.
00:13:18.500 The real power of this is you're making every child in America a capitalist.
00:13:23.860 You're giving them a stake in the American free enterprise system.
00:13:27.720 You're giving them ownership.
00:13:28.860 So you could have a 10, 12 year old kid pull out an app on his, his or her phone.
00:13:33.260 And say, wait a second.
00:13:35.560 I own a hundred dollars worth of Apple stock.
00:13:39.180 I own 50 bucks worth of Boeing.
00:13:41.060 I own 75 bucks worth of, worth of McDonald's.
00:13:44.560 And, and, and, and when they go in and buy a Big Mac, they're like, wait a second.
00:13:48.380 I'm not just a customer.
00:13:50.400 I'm a stockholder.
00:13:51.760 I'm an owner of this company.
00:13:53.260 And I think that is profoundly powerful.
00:13:56.840 And, and Brad, I want to give you credit because you have been a relentless evangelist.
00:14:02.040 You have devoted thousands, if not tens of thousands of hours to this and, and, and this
00:14:07.280 vision, I believe in it, but, but, but I would not have been sold on this idea had, had you
00:14:12.520 not put in so much shoe leather and built such a strong business coalition behind it.
00:14:17.640 Well, you described it incredibly well.
00:14:20.880 And the reason I think we have such incredible support, incredible support in the business
00:14:26.380 community, these are the world's, you know, greatest CEOs, you know, Jensen Huang at Nvidia and
00:14:32.500 Rene Haas at Arm and Michael Dell and, and, and, and Safra Katz at, you know, at Oracle and
00:14:39.400 and Hitman at iHeartMedia and, and Lisa Sue at A&B, you know, Ryan McInerney at Visa or Bill
00:14:46.700 McDermott at, at, at, at, at, at, at, you know, ServiceNow, Darakash or Shai at Uber, and the list goes on.
00:14:53.140 And notice, you know, uh, on these CEOs, it's not a partisan issue and we have incredible
00:14:58.560 bipartisan support as well on Capitol Hill because every parent wants a better life for
00:15:05.000 their kid, right?
00:15:06.340 I grew up in rural Indiana.
00:15:08.200 My dad was a first time entrepreneur and in 1978 in the Rust Belt, starting an auto parts
00:15:14.400 manufacturing business, um, with double digit, digit inflation, double digit interest rates.
00:15:19.740 We lost the house.
00:15:20.880 We lost everything.
00:15:22.100 So I understand profoundly what it feels like to finally be in the game, to finally own
00:15:28.340 something, but for every parent who wants a better life for their kid, whether they're
00:15:32.440 in rural Texas, whether they're in inner city, Trenton, whether they're in, you know, rural
00:15:37.660 Indiana, I'm talking every town, every main street in America, uh, those kids will have
00:15:43.580 a shot.
00:15:44.100 They have skin in the game.
00:15:45.620 The most powerful economy in the world is the American economy.
00:15:48.880 For 75 years, the S and P 500 has compounded at 10.2%.
00:15:54.940 And what has Warren Buffett told us?
00:15:57.720 Start with a really small snowball, but a really long hill.
00:16:01.840 And the longest hill you can possibly imagine is starting at birth.
00:16:05.480 Almost every American today misses the first 25 years of compounding.
00:16:10.820 That's nearly one third of your life.
00:16:13.220 By starting these kids off early, we give every kid a shot.
00:16:16.820 We unlock all of that human potential and the financial literacy, the hope and optimism and
00:16:22.880 their opportunity to participate in the system is going to skyrocket.
00:16:26.560 It's sad that less than half of kids under the age of 40, uh, or, uh, folks under the
00:16:32.100 age of 40 have a positive view of capitalism, but they're left out.
00:16:36.840 They're not capitalists.
00:16:38.020 They're not owners.
00:16:39.020 So it's easier for them to feel like the system is rigged against them.
00:16:43.020 This is going to change that by aligning everybody with our capitalist free enterprise principles.
00:16:49.000 So, so let me ask a quick question, Brad, you mentioned your, your dad, you guys lost
00:16:54.360 your home when you were a kid.
00:16:56.640 So I did too.
00:16:57.820 How old were you when that happened?
00:16:59.540 I was in sixth grade.
00:17:01.260 So I was in high school and my parents were small business owners in Houston and in the
00:17:05.940 eighties oil collapsed and, and we, and my parents went bankrupt and we lost our business.
00:17:10.460 We lost our home.
00:17:11.400 I didn't realize you and I've been friends a long time, but I, we haven't talked about
00:17:15.020 this, that we both went through the experience.
00:17:16.980 It's, it's a traumatic experience when, when you lose your home through, through financial
00:17:21.780 stress and it, it, it makes an impact on a kid, whether sixth grade or for me, it was
00:17:26.220 11th grade, but it, it, uh, it, you never forget it.
00:17:30.400 Well, I, I, you know, I say in life, you're either running away from something or running
00:17:35.420 towards something.
00:17:36.500 And to me, it planted a seed and that seed was that I didn't want my family to feel
00:17:41.800 the pain, uh, that, that I was feeling at that point in my life.
00:17:45.880 And, you know, as a kid, I, my life, I thought, I thought it was pretty good, but I felt bad
00:17:49.840 for my dad.
00:17:50.620 I felt bad for my mom because I saw them struggling.
00:17:54.580 And so I, I know, uh, you know, later in life talking to mom, she's now, uh, turning 89
00:18:00.540 next door, turning 90, uh, here next week, amazing, beautiful woman. 1.00
00:18:05.260 But, you know, she felt the guilt of not being able to provide, not, not knowing whether her
00:18:10.760 child was going to have a better tomorrow.
00:18:13.360 And, you know, she is such a supporter of this idea because she said it would have taken
00:18:18.160 so much pressure off her just knowing that her kids were going to have a shot.
00:18:23.560 And so, um, I think everybody deserves, you know, you and I have talked about this, see
00:18:28.320 this with a thousand bucks in the S and P 500 and then get out of the way and let the magic 0.87
00:18:33.960 of the private sector do its thing.
00:18:36.080 We're going to have a thousand to one contribution by parents, you know, and, and we've done this
00:18:42.380 study that it's not just rich parents who, uh, who save for their kids.
00:18:47.380 Here's a little known fact.
00:18:48.820 You know, the reason poorer folks don't save as much is because of course they don't have 1.00
00:18:54.460 savings accounts.
00:18:56.020 This is going to disproportionately benefit the people who are least likely to participate
00:19:01.620 in the market.
00:19:02.620 And who is that?
00:19:04.120 Right.
00:19:04.440 Those are the people, uh, who are the lowest bottom 50% of the economy today, because it's
00:19:10.420 hard to open up a custodial account for your child.
00:19:13.600 Almost nobody does it.
00:19:15.040 But if you start them off with an account and you make it really easy for these parents
00:19:20.500 to Venmo in 20 bucks a week or 30 bucks a week, right?
00:19:24.980 To give up their Starbucks in order that their kid might be able to save a little bit more
00:19:29.320 money.
00:19:29.900 What we've learned is that cohorts of poorer families save at about the rate that the cohorts
00:19:36.080 from wealthier families, if they have an account, we're going to make it super easy for those
00:19:41.020 parents to contribute.
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00:20:11.920 My dad was a police officer.
00:20:15.440 I grew up, I would say, lower middle class would be a fair way of putting it.
00:20:21.760 But there were several times where we, you know, things got really, really tight.
00:20:26.020 And my dad just put his head down and went to work as a police officer.
00:20:31.820 And I remember thinking if he only was able to, at a younger age, start investing, especially
00:20:40.700 even thinking about college, we knew that we were on our own.
00:20:43.840 I mean, I knew that if I want to go to college, I better be either good at education, at having
00:20:49.440 great grades, or at a sport.
00:20:51.600 It was made very clear to me.
00:20:53.520 But I can't imagine how he felt.
00:20:55.640 And by the way, Brad, Ben went to Ole Miss on a tennis scholarship.
00:20:59.800 Yeah.
00:21:00.000 So that's how he went to college.
00:21:01.480 No.
00:21:01.660 And I knew that, I knew for, that the pressure to get out was, if I'm going to go to college,
00:21:07.720 I have to do, these are my only two options.
00:21:10.100 Because there was no savings account, there was no college fund, there was nothing.
00:21:14.940 And I, and I, and I look now as a father with two kids, three kids.
00:21:18.940 And I, and I sit there and I can't imagine.
00:21:20.400 Which kid did you forget, Ben?
00:21:21.760 I know, right?
00:21:22.320 Exactly.
00:21:22.580 One of the twins, right?
00:21:23.700 Whichever one's my favorite today.
00:21:25.000 I'm going to get you in trouble, because whoever it is, he's going to listen and be
00:21:28.280 like, Dad, what about me?
00:21:30.020 Exactly.
00:21:31.180 And, and, but I sit there and I look at my dad and I'm, and I feel bad now because I'm
00:21:35.300 like, I know he just put his head down and he made whatever he could make being a police
00:21:39.460 officer.
00:21:40.400 This could have been transformative, I think, for the pressure that you just mentioned.
00:21:44.960 It seems overwhelming to set up an account.
00:21:47.620 It seems overwhelming to start it.
00:21:50.220 And so many parents just assume I don't have enough money to do it.
00:21:53.580 So I'm not even going to be embarrassed and go in and try to set up an account with $100
00:21:57.060 or $50 to start that nest egg.
00:21:59.780 Exactly.
00:22:00.100 This could be transforming.
00:22:01.880 And, and for a lot of parents that are just wanting their kids to have a better life, the
00:22:07.000 number one thing that holds them back is the worry or the embarrassment that they're not
00:22:10.740 walking in with enough money to start it.
00:22:13.120 100% Ben, well said.
00:22:16.580 They call it in economics, the cold start problem, right?
00:22:21.120 The cold start problem is I don't know how, or I'm embarrassed, or I don't have the time.
00:22:26.760 Remember, lots of parents are working one or two jobs.
00:22:29.740 You know, they, not only do they not know how, it takes time, right, to set these things
00:22:34.480 up.
00:22:34.820 They're complex.
00:22:35.620 And then you run into questions.
00:22:37.160 And then how do you fund it?
00:22:38.640 And, you know, you have to have that next nest egg to get started.
00:22:41.760 So it will unlock that power.
00:22:44.160 But let, let me talk about two other areas.
00:22:46.220 We're going to get incredible private sector participation.
00:22:49.720 So we now have companies representing tens of millions of employees.
00:22:55.020 And I mentioned a lot of them, you know, but literally from Uber to Goldman Sachs, from
00:23:00.620 T-Mobile to iHeartMedia, from AMD to the Southern companies, you know, an energy company.
00:23:07.100 And we're just getting started, right?
00:23:09.300 Wait until the president and folks on Capitol Hill and all these CEOs, wait until we have
00:23:14.440 this set up.
00:23:16.140 And we're going to ask every company in America to participate in this.
00:23:20.480 And it's going to become a feature of their corporate benefit program.
00:23:25.180 And they're going to match.
00:23:26.500 And what we've asked them to do by joining the CEO Council, they've committed to two things.
00:23:31.360 Number one, that they agree to do what they can to help get this passed.
00:23:35.660 They think it's a great idea.
00:23:36.760 But number two, they've all made a commitment to contribute to the accounts of the kids of
00:23:42.900 their employees at a level of participation that makes sense for their company.
00:23:47.940 And so I just had, you know, over here, we're talking about some people heard me talking
00:23:51.520 about it yesterday.
00:23:52.580 Another couple companies, you know, set up.
00:23:55.300 I was, you know, I was on Charlie Kirk last night and Charlie said, we're going to do this
00:23:59.680 for our employees.
00:24:00.600 And so, you know, I think that once people know about this, we're going to have broad-based
00:24:05.860 participation.
00:24:07.320 And when they start adding $1,000 at birth or $2,000 in those first few years, you're going
00:24:14.740 to double and triple those amounts that Ted was talking about through the power of compounding.
00:24:20.460 So whatever number you get to, starting at age zero by age 18, if you start with twice
00:24:26.640 the amount or three times the amount, it just skyrockets.
00:24:29.340 But so that's corporate.
00:24:30.960 But we're also going to have some other big announcements.
00:24:34.320 We have philanthropists in this country.
00:24:36.640 These are folks who, you know, may have millions of dollars, may have billions of dollars, may
00:24:40.700 have hundreds of billions of dollars who've committed to adding dollars to the accounts
00:24:46.020 of these kids.
00:24:46.520 And so we're going to make it really easy for philanthropy.
00:24:49.520 Remember, we have $20 trillion of wealth transfer that's going to occur in this country over the
00:24:56.140 next 15 years, you know, as the baby boomers retire, move on, et cetera. 0.81
00:25:02.800 And many of these people want to give away this money during their lifetime.
00:25:06.660 But if you're Michael Dell and you have over $100 billion, you simply can't give it away
00:25:13.100 through charity fast enough.
00:25:14.760 This gives you a financial infrastructure, right, in order to match.
00:25:19.520 So Michael might say, I'm going to contribute to this 501c3 and match for every kid in the
00:25:24.860 state of Texas, or maybe every kid in the country, or maybe just every kid in the state
00:25:30.420 of Texas whose family earns under $150,000.
00:25:33.980 He's going to give $5,000 to each of those kids.
00:25:36.700 So we're going to unlock the power of philanthropy for Invest America.
00:25:41.280 And then finally, I'll drop this out there.
00:25:44.080 I think you're going to see incredible experimentation at the state and local and church level, right?
00:25:51.860 This is going to – I've had states reach out to me, folks running for governor reach
00:25:57.520 out to me, and you're going to be hearing some announcements where they say, in order
00:26:01.040 to attract people to our state, we're going to launch them at birth.
00:26:05.660 We'll take some of our tax revenue from alcohol and cigarettes.
00:26:11.680 We'll take some of that revenue.
00:26:14.100 And we'll put it into account for a kid who's born in this state.
00:26:18.700 And better yet, we may make, you know, in a bonus account if they graduate from high
00:26:24.920 school in this state.
00:26:25.720 Because not only do we want to attract people, we want to keep them here.
00:26:29.480 And so, listen, there's going to be a million entrepreneurial flowers that bloom on top of
00:26:35.600 this.
00:26:36.080 And all of it gets back to this fundamental fact.
00:26:39.060 We have too few people who participate in the upside of America.
00:26:44.420 70% of people have no skin in the game.
00:26:47.580 They'll never have an account for their entire lifetime that compounds.
00:26:51.540 We're going to change all that, and the senator's leadership has been absolutely crucial in order
00:26:57.120 to make it happen.
00:26:58.860 So, Ben, let me ask you something.
00:27:00.620 Yeah.
00:27:00.960 Are you excited listening to this?
00:27:03.100 I am, because –
00:27:04.120 Because I am.
00:27:05.020 No, I am.
00:27:05.740 And I think this is something that we've been missing.
00:27:07.840 You know, you remember, when I was working with the Bush administration, it was on social
00:27:11.880 security reform.
00:27:13.160 Because it was just a Ponzi scheme, in essence, where I was like, what are we doing?
00:27:18.940 How are we not giving people more with investing?
00:27:22.300 And this is one of those things that, for me, is about financial freedom.
00:27:26.900 And it allows people a chance to succeed in the greatest country in the world and do it
00:27:31.600 in a way that is just so smart.
00:27:33.620 And I can't imagine what this is going to do for single moms, for people that are working 0.99
00:27:42.060 nine to five jobs, two jobs, working hourly jobs.
00:27:45.060 They say, now I feel like even I can give my kids a better life.
00:27:49.880 Because that's ultimately, I think, what every parent wants.
00:27:52.100 They want to give their kid a chance to a better life than they live.
00:27:57.100 And this is an example of starting literally at day one of their birth, saying, we've got
00:28:01.820 you a nest egg.
00:28:02.660 Now let's go and build on it.
00:28:04.560 So, Ben, one of the things Brad was describing that has me really excited is the accelerator
00:28:09.640 that is built into it.
00:28:11.840 So seeding every account with $1,000 is valuable.
00:28:15.400 By the way, there are 3.7 million babies born every year.
00:28:18.560 And so $1,000 for 3.7 million babies is $3.7 billion a year.
00:28:25.800 That means this will cost $37 billion over 10 years.
00:28:29.940 This is a $4 to $5 trillion tax cut.
00:28:32.780 So $37 billion is a relatively small piece.
00:28:35.920 But you want to talk about how it transforms America.
00:28:39.040 That seed money is important.
00:28:41.500 Even more important is simply creating the account.
00:28:44.320 As Brad noticed, you know, two-thirds of Americans will not have an investment account, will not
00:28:51.420 be invested in the market.
00:28:52.760 And we're creating a world where every child, every single child, from gazillionaire kids
00:28:59.380 to a homeless kid on the street suddenly has an account invested in the market.
00:29:05.580 That is transformative.
00:29:07.120 But then the accelerator.
00:29:08.740 So what Brad has worked for several years is he's brought together world-class CEOs.
00:29:14.040 Some of the most prominent CEOs in the country.
00:29:16.360 He mentioned Michael Dell.
00:29:17.580 That was not theoretical.
00:29:19.520 Michael is a good friend of mine.
00:29:21.520 He's a Texan, incredible entrepreneur, worth over $100 billion.
00:29:25.940 Michael is the chairman of the CEO Council for Invest America.
00:29:29.660 So Michael is leaning in hard.
00:29:31.020 He's committed.
00:29:32.200 Dell Computers, when this passes, Dell will help fund the accounts for the kids of their
00:29:40.200 employees.
00:29:40.700 That's powerful.
00:29:41.420 But as Brad said also, Michael is quite interested on the philanthropic side in supporting not
00:29:48.060 just the accounts for the children of his employees, but more broadly, having a bigger
00:29:52.480 impact.
00:29:53.100 I think we will see.
00:29:54.380 Think for a second, Ben, about 401ks.
00:29:57.880 Remember, when we were kids, 401ks didn't exist.
00:30:00.640 Yeah.
00:30:00.740 Now, just about every job at a big company.
00:30:06.160 It's part of the plan.
00:30:07.180 It's part of the plan.
00:30:08.380 And the employer matches 401k contributions, makes their own contributions.
00:30:13.580 It's a really attractive employee benefit.
00:30:16.840 And what I like about this is the accelerator component that I think you will end up having
00:30:22.300 real wealth creation that changes.
00:30:25.500 Look, an 18-year-old kid who's got a single mom, who's not coming from money, who's living
00:30:31.520 in a rough environment, who suddenly got a couple of hundred thousand dollars invested
00:30:36.960 in the stock market.
00:30:38.240 That changes their whole life.
00:30:40.640 This is life-changing.
00:30:43.540 Well, this also seems, I go back to the trickle-down effect, and it's like 401ks.
00:30:50.540 You remember when it was your grandparents and your parents, when you go to get your first
00:30:54.320 job, your first real job, and they're like, do they have a 401k?
00:30:57.420 It's not the 21 to 23-year-old that's asking that question.
00:31:02.100 It's the parents and grandparents.
00:31:03.660 I remember when I got my first job, do they match?
00:31:06.240 What do they match?
00:31:06.860 Do they have a 401k?
00:31:07.800 Okay, imagine if you get that started in the mindset at age literally zero.
00:31:14.160 That can transform an entire nation.
00:31:16.940 So, Brad, let me ask you something.
00:31:18.540 How did you get involved in this to begin with?
00:31:21.420 Because you were passionate in working on this.
00:31:24.120 I got involved with you about a year ago, but you were passionate and involved in this
00:31:27.580 long before that.
00:31:28.360 What was the kernel of the idea that started this?
00:31:31.780 Well, you know, you'll appreciate this, Senator, as a dad yourself.
00:31:35.660 But, you know, I have two boys, Lincoln and Jack, and they're 16 and 14.
00:31:43.280 And one of the things we talk about a lot when we sit around the dinner table is when
00:31:48.480 we see problems, don't complain about them, right?
00:31:52.260 Have a bias to action.
00:31:54.420 Have a bias to action.
00:31:55.900 Do something about it.
00:31:57.180 Don't just sit around and complain.
00:31:58.600 And so, coming out of COVID, I was showing them the investment accounts I set up when
00:32:06.660 they were born.
00:32:07.760 Yep.
00:32:07.960 And we're talking about the power of compounding.
00:32:10.460 And we're showing, they were talking about the stocks that they owned.
00:32:14.200 And I could see their excitement.
00:32:15.760 And they said, Dad, when are we going to be able to, you know, have some control over
00:32:20.640 what we're investing in?
00:32:21.900 We want to learn more.
00:32:23.420 Will you set up a Robinhood account for us, et cetera?
00:32:26.020 And then we started talking about the wealth gap.
00:32:29.940 And we started, you know, my son Lincoln brought me something, you know, that was a headline.
00:32:35.020 And it said, 93% of stocks are owned by the wealthiest 10% of Americans.
00:32:40.400 Yep.
00:32:40.660 And he said, Dad, I feel like, you know, I'm glad you set this up for me when I was a kid,
00:32:46.640 but I kind of feel guilty.
00:32:48.400 Like, why can't everybody, you know, have this, you know, same benefit?
00:32:54.400 And I said, you know, we've got to fix this.
00:32:57.700 And so he said to me, what are you going to do about it?
00:33:00.580 And I turned to him and I said, no, what are we going to do about it?
00:33:04.320 And we made a commitment as a family that we're going to do something about this.
00:33:08.020 Yep.
00:33:08.140 And, you know, it's been one of the best parts of the journey.
00:33:12.400 We set up a 501c3 called Invest America.
00:33:16.840 And we literally, you know, just started, you know, making the calls.
00:33:22.780 And it was lining up like-minded thinkers in the private sector and lining up like-minded folks in Washington.
00:33:31.760 And you and I have talked about this.
00:33:34.000 You know, I had the good fortune when I was returning from studying overseas in 1990-91 to show up in Washington
00:33:41.520 and go work for the late and great senator from Indiana, Richard Lugar.
00:33:47.220 Lugar was a Rhodes Scholar.
00:33:49.200 He was a mayor of Indianapolis, became a long-serving senator, credible senator.
00:33:54.740 And at the time, he was working on denuclearizing the nuclear stockpiles coming out of the Cold War with Sam Nunn.
00:34:03.260 And let's just say later in life, I went on to have some success.
00:34:08.020 And when I saw the senator in those later years, he said to me, you know, don't waste it.
00:34:13.620 You know, remember those days.
00:34:14.940 Remember those runs around the mall in Washington and make sure you do something that matters.
00:34:20.620 And so as a family, we want to do something that matters.
00:34:23.340 And I will say, in the House, in the Senate, you know, in the White House, and in a broad bipartisan way.
00:34:31.980 And that was something that was really important to me.
00:34:35.320 We've had incredible support.
00:34:37.260 And I said, I've never seen an idea with a better product market fit.
00:34:41.920 Everybody I talked to in the private sector in Washington was intrigued by the idea.
00:34:47.260 But I remember we were speaking with then-Speaker McCarthy in the House.
00:34:52.640 Lincoln was in the meeting with me.
00:34:54.160 We had an incredible meeting with the Speaker.
00:34:56.900 And we walked out.
00:34:57.760 And I said to him, as we're looking at the rotunda in the House, I said, every single good idea in America has started with a conversation just like that.
00:35:07.640 As an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, nothing happened in Silicon Valley, right?
00:35:12.500 Not Google, not OpenAI, not Facebook, right?
00:35:16.700 Without a conversation on the back of a napkin that starts as an idea.
00:35:20.460 And so I had started a few companies in Silicon Valley.
00:35:23.380 I knew something about starting things.
00:35:25.680 And we just got started.
00:35:27.300 And the snowball started rolling.
00:35:28.840 And here we are, three and a half years later, and I think we're on the precipice of your great leadership, the great leadership in the House and the White House of making this happen.
00:35:40.380 And I agree with you.
00:35:41.600 I think we're going to look back in 10 or 20 years, and this is going to be a massive legacy of this moment.
00:35:47.640 You just said a word a moment ago.
00:35:49.260 The word, and it's become a bad word now, is bipartisan.
00:35:52.440 It, like, never happens anymore.
00:35:53.780 So I'm going to ask both of you this.
00:35:55.440 Is there a chance that this can be such a great idea that it is, in fact, bipartisan and that Democrats and Republicans can work together like they used to 20, 30 years ago when there are nonpartisan ideas that are just great ideas that are great for all Americans?
00:36:14.540 And this one, by the way, I would actually argue would skew more to helping those that are poor in this country than anyone else.
00:36:20.860 Unquestionably, and I'll give you some positive signs on this.
00:36:23.700 One, there are significant overlaps between this idea and an idea that Cory Booker had called baby bonds, and his idea was to create bonds and create a savings account for every baby born in America.
00:36:36.160 And when he was running for president, he campaigned on that, and Cory's a friend of mine.
00:36:39.960 Brad knows Cory well.
00:36:41.020 I will say this is different from Cory's baby bonds because I was not a supporter of just the baby bonds of an investment account that is accruing interest.
00:36:51.980 What really sold me on this was making a generation of capitalists, was the fact that this money is not just a savings account, which is easy for Democrats to support, but rather it is investing in the equity markets.
00:37:05.520 It is making children owners of the major companies in America, and that to me was really exciting.
00:37:12.220 That being said, I think there's a good chance that we will get Democrats to support this.
00:37:17.680 I'll say Dick Durbin, who is the Democrat whip and very liberal senator, although I've served with him on the Judiciary Committee for 13 years.
00:37:26.440 Dick Durbin, in a press story today, actually praised this idea.
00:37:31.360 And his comment about me, that Dick is wicked smart, but what he said about me is he said, well, a stop clock is right twice a day.
00:37:38.360 And I actually ran into Dick in the hallway, and I said, Dick, you praised me in the press.
00:37:46.740 He said, it must have been a mistake.
00:37:48.160 And I reminded him of the quote, and he laughed.
00:37:50.860 And I said, Dick, it's a good thing you're retiring.
00:37:53.060 They might primary you in the Democrat primary for saying something nice about me.
00:37:57.180 And I'll tell you, there was another Democrat senator, a freshman who was newly elected, who came and approached me and said, I really like this idea.
00:38:04.040 This is interesting. And I said, well, look, so no Democrat is going to vote for the reconciliation bill.
00:38:09.800 That's going to be a pure party line bill.
00:38:11.800 So the actual bill that passes this, no Democrat will vote for.
00:38:15.880 But what I told this Democrat freshman, I said, well, co-sponsor my Invest America bill so you can make clear you support it.
00:38:23.260 I think we've got a decent chance of getting Democrats on board.
00:38:26.660 Brad did a good job of talking to them.
00:38:28.900 And I will tell you a couple of things.
00:38:33.340 So Brad was describing all the time and energy he put in, and he said quite modestly, he said, well, I've had some success in business.
00:38:41.300 Ben, let me be clear.
00:38:42.640 Brad is a billionaire.
00:38:44.140 Like, he's got a crap ton of money, and he could sit back and play golf all day long and never need to work again, and he'd be fine.
00:38:52.080 And his kids would be fine, and his grandkids would be fine.
00:38:55.100 But he's not doing that.
00:38:56.340 A, he's got a ton of energy, but he has poured so much time and energy and money.
00:39:01.940 So I will tell you, the way this got done is he was relentless.
00:39:05.800 He was talking to everybody in the House.
00:39:07.560 Why is this in the House bill?
00:39:09.360 Because Brad was talking repeatedly to Jason Smith, the chairman of Ways and Means.
00:39:13.060 He was talking repeatedly to Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House.
00:39:15.960 By the way, I was too.
00:39:16.960 I was talking to both of them.
00:39:18.000 They're both good friends.
00:39:19.340 He was talking repeatedly to me and other senators.
00:39:22.240 I sat down with Brad this week with Mike Crapo, the chairman of the Finance Committee, who's drafting the tax portion of the reconciliation in the Senate.
00:39:30.980 He's been talking in the White House to Kevin Hassett, who runs the National Economic Council, over and over and over again.
00:39:36.080 He's been talking to the president.
00:39:37.720 It has been that relentless.
00:39:39.180 And by the way, President Trump weighed in directly with the Speaker of the House and said, I like this idea included.
00:39:46.540 How did this idea get like like a lot of the press is shocked?
00:39:50.480 Why is this in the House bill?
00:39:53.320 A big part of the reason is the president weighed in and said, I really like this idea.
00:39:58.240 And and so the House included it.
00:40:00.660 That wouldn't have happened with without Brad's efforts and my efforts making the case to the House, to the Senate and to the White House.
00:40:08.660 And I think we will get this done and it will have an impact when all three of us are dead and buried.
00:40:17.020 This will still be having a profound impact.
00:40:20.100 So for people that are listening and this is when I get genuinely excited and they say, all right, I want to support this.
00:40:26.220 What do they do?
00:40:26.980 Is it call?
00:40:27.700 Is this one of those where you say, call your congressperson, regardless of party, call your senator?
00:40:33.220 I mean, it sounds like the White House is on board, so you don't have to call them.
00:40:36.360 But what is it that the American people need to do to help this get across the finish line as well?
00:40:40.240 So I've got an answer to that.
00:40:41.500 And I want Brad to chime in on this also.
00:40:43.420 But I'd say speak out.
00:40:44.900 Use your voice and say, this is a great idea.
00:40:48.080 And I like this.
00:40:49.340 And Brad today was was texting.
00:40:51.460 So he and I started the morning early this morning.
00:40:54.660 I did an interview on Squawk Box on CNBC, which I love doing.
00:40:58.000 And Brad called in from Riyadh.
00:41:00.220 By the way, you might think, OK, billionaire Silicon Valley investor in Saudi Arabia calling in to see NBC Squawk Box.
00:41:10.180 This is highfalutin.
00:41:11.600 This is fancy schmancy.
00:41:14.300 Brad sent me the picture of him.
00:41:16.060 He was literally standing there holding his laptop in the air, like filming it on a Zoom.
00:41:22.400 It was as low tech as can be.
00:41:24.600 And we did the interview together.
00:41:25.740 But but I want to tell you two things on this, because this is the answer to what you can do.
00:41:31.060 One, when I finished that interview and also when I finished the interview with Larry Kudlow, which I did this afternoon.
00:41:37.780 This is so cool.
00:41:38.880 In both instances, the cameraman who was filming us like the squad.
00:41:43.400 I haven't told you this, Brad.
00:41:45.380 At the end of Squawk, the cameraman said, wow, I have a daughter as a senior in high school.
00:41:50.860 I'd love for her to have one hundred seventy thousand dollars and like the cameraman on Kudlow said basically the same thing.
00:41:57.820 I mean, it was you want to talk about a message that resonates.
00:42:01.020 People think, wait, this could really help my kid.
00:42:05.860 And that was cool.
00:42:06.820 But on the question of what you can do and I'm so Brad today at eleven thirty six a.m.
00:42:12.740 He texted me, how are you tackling the, quote, this is socialism retort?
00:42:18.980 And so there are some people online who are saying that, by the way, people are coming after you in the White House saying this is socialism straight up.
00:42:27.140 So so let's respond to that.
00:42:28.860 OK, so so I texted him back.
00:42:30.940 I'm just going to read you my text.
00:42:32.200 I said, yep, it's the opposite of socialism.
00:42:35.120 The definition of socialism is government ownership or control of the means of production or distribution.
00:42:42.260 This is ownership and control by millions of citizens.
00:42:46.560 It is making them capitalists.
00:42:50.360 Online people use, quote, socialism as a shorthand for any government spending or tax credits.
00:42:57.060 But obviously some is good and some is bad.
00:43:00.620 And so I will say what I will encourage our listeners to just speak out and say, look, helping people, creating a vehicle for our children to invest, to accumulate wealth, to transform their lives, to have resources, to get an education, to buy a house, to start a business, to to to to climb the economic ladder much faster.
00:43:20.220 That is incredibly worthwhile.
00:43:22.800 And creating people who are capitalists and invested in the free market system.
00:43:27.360 That is, if anything, more valuable.
00:43:29.660 And so I think adding your voices.
00:43:31.300 And by the way, for some of the critics, they're quieted by the fact that President Trump enthusiastically supports this.
00:43:40.060 But but but it is really transformative.
00:43:42.460 Brad, what what do you think about that?
00:43:44.000 I kind of went on a rant.
00:43:45.360 No, well said.
00:43:47.140 Number one, I would say on Twitter or X, follow it at Invest America 24.
00:43:53.100 So it's just at Invest America 24.
00:43:55.400 And what we're going to do there, like we've been doing for three years, we're just going to continue to post the updates so people can stay informed.
00:44:02.860 Right.
00:44:03.120 Secondly, as the senator said, weigh in.
00:44:06.040 You know, use your voice.
00:44:07.140 Use your voice in your social networks.
00:44:09.860 Direct people to follow it.
00:44:11.620 We're building the movement.
00:44:12.840 And the movement's going to last well beyond just getting the legislation passed.
00:44:17.280 Remember, when we passed the legislation, now the Treasury Department is going to set up these accounts.
00:44:22.940 And so, you know, we're going to integrate this into the financial literacy across the country.
00:44:27.640 There are already 30 states that require financial literacy in high school.
00:44:32.480 But think about this.
00:44:33.780 It's hard to learn about financial literacy when your parents don't own anything, when you don't own anything, and you have no prospect of owning anything.
00:44:40.600 Now they're going to say, get out your phone, open up your Invest America account.
00:44:44.660 We're going to talk about how you got $25,000 in that account, what it means to own a little bit of NVIDIA or Berkshire Hathaway, how compounding works, how stocks work, what voting rights, you know, in these companies mean.
00:44:58.480 And so, like, this is going to be a movement that lasts well beyond, you know, just getting the legislation passed, but certainly way in.
00:45:08.080 And, yeah, I want to underscore, Senator, that, you know, the senator's leadership has been incredible here.
00:45:15.540 But what will make this big and beautiful is by building a giant tent.
00:45:20.560 I will tell you this.
00:45:21.940 I have had former Democratic presidents.
00:45:24.400 I have had lots of members of the Democratic Party in the Senate, in the House, and across America tell me what a great idea this is.
00:45:34.420 They can't wait until this happens for the benefit of their kids.
00:45:37.620 Because I want to return to this fundamental principle.
00:45:40.640 If you're a parent, if you've experienced having a child, you know you would give the shirt off your back to your child.
00:45:48.160 There's nothing parents want more than a better shot for their kid than the shot that they had.
00:45:53.700 And this is the way that we do it.
00:45:55.700 It unleashes economic mobility.
00:45:58.480 It unleashes human potential.
00:46:00.880 It aligns everybody with the Democratic free market, free enterprise principles, which has made this country so great.
00:46:10.200 You know, here I am in Saudi Arabia today.
00:46:12.300 I'm looking out the window of my hotel.
00:46:14.600 And I will tell you, while it's a very wealthy nation, the wealth is not equally distributed.
00:46:19.160 One of the powers of America is we have the greatest economic mobility in the world.
00:46:27.840 But for too long, over the course of the last 30 years, we've had a concentration of that because the stock market has been the thing that's compounded all the value.
00:46:38.660 And less than 3% of the market is owned by the bottom 60% of people.
00:46:45.320 We're going to turn that on its head by getting everybody into the game.
00:46:49.760 And so every rural town in Texas, Senator, where you have folks who want to vote for you, it doesn't matter the color, the race.
00:46:56.660 It doesn't matter if you're working one or two jobs.
00:46:59.080 You're going to have a lot more hope for your kid.
00:47:01.020 And you're going to have an account that you can contribute to that future.
00:47:04.440 So that's how I would weigh in, you know, and I hope people have an open mind.
00:47:10.400 I think they will.
00:47:11.160 You know, you mentioned Social Security, and obviously that's a sacred promise.
00:47:14.880 It's got to be met.
00:47:16.300 And this is something totally different.
00:47:18.660 But, you know, if I asked you guys, most Americans would have no idea whether that was passed by a Republican or a Democrat.
00:47:26.760 Most Americans would have no idea about the political debates.
00:47:30.080 Most Americans would have no idea, you know, how many votes it got in favor of it.
00:47:34.100 And were they Republican votes or were they Democrat votes, right?
00:47:37.400 What people remember is doing something that helps America come together on Team America, something that unites us, not divides us, right?
00:47:46.960 Something that uplifts families around the country.
00:47:49.380 And I can't think of anything more powerful than the power of Invest America accounts for all these kids born.
00:47:56.840 You know, I'll leave you with this.
00:47:58.740 2026 is the 250th anniversary of this great American experiment.
00:48:04.100 Right?
00:48:04.840 And the three folks on this Zoom or on this podcast are living testaments, right?
00:48:12.520 Our parents struggled.
00:48:13.920 Two of us had parents still bankrupt, right?
00:48:16.600 And this country has been unbelievably good to us.
00:48:20.580 We can unlock that power for millions and millions and millions more kids.
00:48:25.680 And this is one of the ways we can do it.
00:48:27.540 Lots of great ideas out there.
00:48:29.760 But, you know, we got work to do to get this passed.
00:48:32.120 So I'm going to be back in Washington working with the senator, building that broad coalition, making sure that we get it done.
00:48:38.460 And, you know, and just can't thank you enough for your support.
00:48:43.580 Well, I want to make sure people know that are listening where to follow you guys on X.
00:48:47.800 And I'm going to say it again, at Invest America 24, at Invest America 24.
00:48:53.980 Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
00:48:56.880 Make sure you hit that subscribe or auto-download button wherever you are.
00:49:01.580 Share this episode.
00:49:02.560 This is one of those that really can make a difference in the future of this country.
00:49:05.600 So make sure you do that.
00:49:07.240 And, again, follow what they're doing at Invest America 24 on X.
00:49:12.580 You can see a lot more about this and share videos as well.
00:49:15.340 And the senator and I will see you back here in a couple of days.
00:49:18.660 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:49:21.540 Guaranteed human.
00:49:22.200 Guaranteed human.