🔑 Invest America Initiative
- Core Idea: Automatically create an investment account for every newborn in the U.S., seeded with $1,000 from the government.
- Contribution Cap: Up to $5,000 per year can be added to the account in a tax-advantaged way by family, friends, employers, or philanthropists.
- Investment Strategy: Funds would be invested in broad market instruments like ETFs or mutual funds tied to the S&P 500.
- Goal: To promote financial literacy, economic mobility, and long-term wealth accumulation for all children, regardless of socioeconomic background.
🧠 Key Arguments in Favor
- Compound Growth: Starting at birth allows for decades of compounding, potentially resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars by adulthood.
- Capitalist Mindset: Encourages children to become stakeholders in the economy, fostering a pro-capitalist outlook.
- Bipartisan Appeal: Though led by Republicans, the initiative has conceptual overlap with Democratic proposals like Cory Booker's "baby bonds."
- Private Sector Support: Backed by major CEOs and companies, with commitments to contribute to employee children's accounts.
- Philanthropic Potential: Wealthy individuals and foundations could match or supplement contributions, especially for low-income families.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It is Verdict with Sentater, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with
You and Center.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is one of those shows and I just want to.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Tell everybody please take this show and share it wherever
you can on social media, because this is one of
those shows that could have a massive impact on this country,
dealing with a really important issue and an idea that
is becoming very close to reality that could fundamentally change
(00:28):
his country for every single child that's born.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Well, Ben, that is exactly right. This week was a
momentace week. It was a momenace week in Washington and
in the country. So this week the House Ways and
Means Committee, which is the tax writing committee in the House,
rolled out their Reconciliation Bill, and I will tell you
in that bill there were four major victories of bills
that I've introduced that I'm leading on that are all
(00:53):
included in the House Reconciliation Bill. Number one, they included
my legislation on no tax on tip. No tax on
tips is a president It is a promise President Trump made.
It is a powerful policy that benefits every waiter and
waitress and taxicab driver and bartender and barber and hairstylist.
(01:14):
And nail salon, beautician, everyone who operates on tips. It
is a policy that benefits the working men and women
of America, and we the Republican Party, is a blue
collar party. So that is in the bill. Number two.
I've been leading the fight to open up significant electromagnetic
(01:37):
spectrum to auction to the private sector, six hundred megahertz's spectrum.
When we do that, that will produce billions of dollars
of new investment and hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
That is in the House bill. They've taken my pipeline
language included in there. Number three, school choice, The House
(01:58):
included a version of my school choice bill that is
scholarship tax credits for contributions for scholarship granting organizations in
the state that, if it is passed, will be the
most significant federal school choice legislation ever passed in history.
And Monday's podcast. If you didn't listen to Monday's podcast,
(02:20):
I did a deep dive on that idea. I thought
it was going to come this week, and so I
laid out how we had the opportunity to win the
most significant victory for school choice of our lifetimes. The
House included it that's a huge victory. But the fourth,
which is going to be the topic of this podcast,
is legislation I've introduced called invest America. Invest America is
(02:43):
basically four to oh one k's for kids. It is
creating investment accounts for kids, and it is seating it
with one thousand dollars and allowing contributions to let every
newborn child in America accumulate resources. We're going to break
that down because that is in the House bill. They
call it the MAGA account, but it is. It is
(03:04):
my statutory language, and I got to say, when we
enact that language, President Trump enthusiastically supports it. When we
enact that language, it is going to have a profound
impact on this country, not just this year or next year,
but ten, twenty, thirty, forty fifty years from now. I'm
really excited. We're going to explain to you all about
(03:26):
what that proposal is and how it's going to make
a difference in your family, for your kids.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, it's awesome and it's something that again I'll say it,
make sure you listen to show and share it, even
with people that don't traditionally listen to political podcasts, because
this is not really that political. It's actually about the
future of this country and can have a huge impact
on every child that is born. I want to talk
to you for just a moment though, about what's happening
right now in Israel. Do you know, just like here
(03:54):
in the US, Israel has their own Independence Day in
case you missed it this year, Israel's independence was a
few days ago on May first. But for the people
of Israel, freedom is nothing more than a daily struggle
just to survive. There is no real peace, only tear,
no joy, just suffering. The Israeli government recognizes the International
(04:16):
Fellowship of Christians and Jews for ongoing help to make
sure the elderly, the sick, the wounded soldiers, and the
impoverished families don't fall through the cracks. And that is
where your gift to the Fellowship today will provide life
saving aid, medicine, hearty meals, safety, and comfort. I believe
(04:37):
that when you bless the people of Israel, we unlock
God's blessings in our own lives as well. So show
your support for Israel's independence by making a life saving
gift today. You can call to make your gift eight
eight eight four eight eight IFCJ. That's eight eight eight
(04:57):
four eight eight four to three two five. You can
also go online to IFCJ dot org. That's if CJ
dot org. All right, so Center, let's talk about the
invest America.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
This idea.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It is something you've actually been working on for quite
some time. Plus you have a special guest joining us
to explain it as well.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Well.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
I'm very proud to welcome to Verdict Brad Gershner. Brad
is a major Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He runs a hedge fund,
Altimeter Capital, in Silicon Valley. He's been incredibly successful and
he's become a really good friend over the past year.
And he is calling in and joining Verdict from Riad,
Saudi Arabia. So he is there with the President, with
(05:42):
David Sachs. He is on the trip. And I will
tell you when we talked about the four victories in
the House bill, the victory of invest America. I don't
think there is any person who has worked harder to
make this a reality than has. And I met Brad
a little over a year ago. He and I have
(06:04):
been working together on this since April of last year,
and he has been working to build the business coalition
behind Invest America and bringing together major CEOs, business leaders
that see the incredible power of four oh one k's
for every newborn in America. And so Brad from from
(06:26):
Riod on the other side of the planet. And it
is by the way, right now, Ben and I are
doing this. It is eleven twenty six pm in d C.
It is six twenty six in the morning in Riod,
And so he got up to join us. Brad, Welcome
to Verdict.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Oh, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me. Ben,
good to connect and Senator Wow, just watching the launch
of Invest America under your leadership. Today the Housewaves and
Means Committee Jason Smith, the Speaker of the House, it's
an exciting day, and I can tell you it's also
an incredibly exciting day in Riat, Saudi Arabia. The US
(07:03):
is back on its front foot. As you said, I'm
traveling with David Sachs, who is spreading the accelerationists gospel
of artificial intelligence. We want the world running on US
compute on USAI, and so it's been it's been a
really encouraging trip. But I'm thrilled to be here, thrilled
(07:25):
to be on the Verdict. Because of best America I
think can change the country. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Look, I fully agree, and I will say to our listeners.
David Sachs is another incredibly successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He's
been someone I've known for a long time. He's one
of the hosts of the All In podcast, which is
incredibly successful. And Brad runs in that circle as well.
And David is serving in the White House right now
(07:50):
as the President's Chief advisor on Artificial Intelligence and chief
advisor and cryptocurrency, and so he's doing a great job.
And he and Brad are are traveling to the Middle East,
and just today they announced what a trillion dollars in
new investments in the United States, and so it's really potent.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
But but let's let's do a deep dive into invest America. Now,
I'll tell you, bet Ben, Do you know how I
got to know Brad?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
How is that?
Speaker 4 (08:20):
So?
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Last spring, I'm sitting at a poker table in Vegas.
It's about one in the morning.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
I'm already I'm already in on this story, and I'm.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Every story starts with the poker table.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
That's right at one am in Vegas.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yes, and every every year I do a fundraiser in
Vegas where we play poker. It's great fun. We usually
play till three or four in the morning, and we
get typically a number of poker pros who come and
join us and play. And so last year I was
playing with, among others, Phil Hellmuth, who who is one
of the greatest poker players to ever live. If if
(08:57):
Phil were on, he would say he is the greatest
poker layer to ever live. And Brad, you know that's true,
but but greatest. He's got a good argument. He's got
he he has got fifteen bracelets, he's he's a World
Series champion. And we're talking and we're sitting there talking
and playing. And I played with Phil a number of times,
(09:18):
and he says, hey, do you know Brad gerstro I said, no,
no idea, who is he? And he said, all right,
you got to know him. He's a great guy. He's
like driving this this great program to to like have
every every baby at every child in America invested the
stock market. I said, that's interesting. I want to know
more about that. Phil pulled out his phone and texted
Brad and me connected us on on cell that night
(09:41):
at one in the morning, and we began working together, uh,
starting in spring of last year.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
That's incredible. That's that is how a friendship grows. And
let me guess that's how you guys both got in
on this. Hey, what a brilliant idea to allow every
kid in America that's got so siecut you're your number,
to be able to start investing in essence a day
they're born understand that they have a chance to have
a nest egg when they grow older. I've got three boys, center.
(10:10):
This is something I think about. It's two things. I
think about college, I think about saving for school, and
I think about them having something to start out their
lives with. And that's the essence of what you guys
are trying to pull off here.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
So let me describe the vision of it, and then
I want Brad to tell the story because he really
did the shoe leather to make this work. But the
vision of it, and it is included in the House
Ways and Means draft right now, is that every newborn
child in America will have an investment account created automatically
open for them and seeded with one thousand dollars one
(10:45):
thousand dollars that comes from the government to start it
that's important to get it going. But even more important
is that every one of those accounts, you can contribute
up to five thousand dollars a year to those accounts
in a tax advantaged way. And and that money can
come from friends, it can come from family, and it
(11:06):
can come from your parents or relatives, employers. And I
think that's a really big we're going to talk about
how that's a big accelerator. Uh And and you could
accumulate in a tax advantage way. And and there are
two massive advantages for this. Number One, every child in
America begins to experience the benefits of compound growth. And
(11:30):
these accounts, by the way, they're not savings accounts. These
are investment accounts that are that that that that are
invested in neither ETFs or mutual funds that are invested
in the S and P five hundred. So so it
makes every newborn child an investor in the American stock market.
That enables them And and and look, as you know,
(11:51):
well as our listeners know well, compound growth, the miracle
of compound growth is one of the great miracles of
the world. And if you get people investing for a
long time, starting at birth, you can get incredible numbers.
So Ben, let me ask you this. You have a
newborn child born this year, thousand dollars comes in to
seat it, and through friends and family or an employer,
(12:12):
five thousand dollars a year gets invested for the first
eighteen years of their life. If you assume seven percent growth,
which has been the historical average for the stock market,
what do you think that eighteen year old has on
his eighteenth birthday.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
I'm going to go with hundreds of thousands, if not
over a million.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
One hundred and seventy thousand dollars. One hundred and seventy
thousand dollars. And by the way, this is not for
a rich kid. This is every baby in America. If
you're contributing all along, what do you think they have
if they continue doing that until age thirty five?
Speaker 1 (12:46):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Seven hundred thousand dollars?
Speaker 1 (12:49):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Now, that is transformational. But I'll tell you that's not
what Brad said that sold me on this. So Brad,
when he talked to me about this, I said, all right,
tell me your idea, and he pitched it. Here was
the argument he made. I'm gonna let him make it
in about thirty seconds. But the argument he made is
he said, look, young people, roughly half of them say
(13:10):
they believe in socialism, they don't believe in capitalism. The
real power of this is you're making every child in
America a capitalist. You're giving them a stake in the
American free enterprise system. You're giving him an ownership. So
you could have a ten twelve year old kid pull
out an app on his or her phone and say,
wait a second, I own one hundred dollars worth of Applestock,
(13:34):
I own fifty bucks worth of Boeing. I own seventy
five bucks worth of worth of McDonald's. And when they
go in and buy a Big Mac, they're like, wait
a second. I'm not just a customer. I'm a stockholder.
I'm an owner of this company. And I think that
is profoundly powerful. And Brad, I want to give you
credit because you have been a relentless evangelist. You have
(13:58):
devoted thousands, if not tens of thousands of hours to
this and and and this vision. I believe in it.
But but but I would not have been sold on
this idea had had you not put in so much
shoe leather and built such a strong business coalition behind it.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
Well, you described it incredibly well. And the reason I
think we have such incredible support, incredible support in the
business community. These are the world's uh, you know, greatest CEOs.
You know, Jensen Hwang and Dvidian Renee has at arm
and Michael Dell's and and and Soffra cats at uh
you know at Oracle, and Pittman at iHeartMedia and and
(14:37):
Lisa Sue at A and b uh you know, Ryan
McInerney at Visa or Mel McDermott at uh uh you
know Service now, Darkasha shahiat Uber and the list goes on.
And notice you know are on the CEOs. It's not
a partisan issue. And we have incredible bipartisan support as
well on Capitol Hill because every parent wants a better
(15:00):
life for their kid, right. I grew up in rural Indiana.
My dad was a first time entrepreneur and in nineteen
seventy eight in the Rust Belt, starting an autoparts manufacturing
business with double digit inflation, double digit interest rates. We
lost the house, we lost everything. So I understand profoundly
(15:20):
what it feels like to finally be in the game,
to finally own something. But for every parent who wants
a better life for their kid. Whether they're in rural Texas,
whether they're in inner city Trenton, whether they're in rural Indiana.
I'm talking every town, every main street in America. Those
kids will have a shot. They have skin in the game.
(15:41):
The most powerful economy in the world is the American economy.
For seventy five years, the S and P five hundred
has compounded at ten point two percent. And what has
Warren Buffett told us, start with a really small snowball,
got a really long hill, and the longest hill you
can possibly imagine, and is starting at birth. Almost every
(16:02):
American today misses the first twenty five years of compounding.
That's nearly one third of your life. By starting these
kids off early, we give every kid a shot. We
unlocked all of that human potential and the financial literacy,
the hope and optimism, and their opportunity to participate in
the system is going to skyrocket. It's sad that less
(16:23):
than half of kids under the age of forty or
folks under the age of forty have a positive view
of capitalism. Yeah, but they're left out. They're not capitalists,
they're not owners. So it's easier for them to feel
like the system is rigged against them. This is going
to change that by aligning everybody with our capitalist, free
enterprise principles.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
So let me ask a quick question. Brad, you mentioned
your dad. You guys lost your home when you were
a kid, so I did too. How old were you
when that happened.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
I was in sixth grade, so I was.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
In high school and my parents were small business owner
in Houston. And in the eighties, oil collapsed and my
parents went bankrupt and we lost our business, we lost
our home. I didn't realize You and I've been friends
a long time, but we haven't talked about this that
we both went through the experience. It's a traumatic experience
when when you lose your home through through financial stress,
(17:17):
and it makes an impact on a kid, whether sixth
grade or for me it was eleventh grade, but it
you never forget it.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
Well I you know, I say, in life, you're either
running away from something or running towards something, And to me,
it planted a seed, and that seed was that I
didn't want my family to feel the pain that I
was feeling at that point in my life. And you know,
as a kid, my life thought I thought was pretty good,
but I felt bad for my dad. I felt bad
(17:47):
for my mom because I saw them struggling. And so
I know, you know later in life talking to mom,
she's now turning eighty nine, next door turning ninety here
next week. Amazing, beautiful woman. But you know, she felt
the guilt of not being able to provide, not knowing
whether her child was going to have a better tomorrow.
(18:09):
And you know, she is such a supporter of this
idea because she said it would have taken so much
pressure off her just knowing that her kids were going
to have a shot. And so I think everybody deserves
you know, you and I have talked about this. See
this with a thousand bucks in the SMB five hundred
and then get out of the way and let the
(18:29):
magic of the private sector do its thing. We're going
to have a thousand to one contribution by parents, you know,
and we've done the study that it's not just rich
parents who say for their kids. Here's a little known fact.
You know, the reason poorer folks don't save as much
is because of course they don't have savings accounts. This
(18:51):
is going to disproportionately benefit the people who are least
likely to participate in the market. And who is that right?
Those are the people who are the lowest, bottomn fifty
percent of the economy today. Because it's hard to open
up a custodial account for your child, almost nobody does it.
But if you start them off with an account, and
(19:13):
you make it really easy for these parents to vendmull
in twenty bucks a week or thirty bucks a week,
right to give up their Starbucks in order that their
kid might be able to save a little bit more money.
What we've learned is that cohorts of four families say
that about the rate that the cohorts from wealthier families
if they have an account. We're going to make it
(19:35):
super easy for those parents to contribute.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
My dad was a police officer I grew up.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
I would say lower middle class would be a fair
way of putting it. But there were several times where we,
you know, things got really really tight and my dad
just put his head down and went to work as
a police officer. And I remember thinking if he only
he was able to at a younger age start investing,
(20:05):
especially even thinking about college. We knew that we were
on our own. I mean, I knew that if I
want to go to college, I better be either good education,
at having great grades, or at a sport. It was
made very clear to me. But I can't imagine how.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
By the way, brad Ben went to Ole miss on
a on a tennis scholarship. So that's how he went
to college.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
No, and I knew that. I knew for that.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
The pressure to get out was if I'm going to
go to college, I have to do these are my
only two options. Because there was no savings account, there
was no college fund.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
There was nothing.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
And I and I and I look now as a
father with two three kids, and I and I sit there,
I know, right, one of the twins, right, which everyone's
my favorite.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Today, I'm gonna get you in trouble because whoever it is,
he's gonna listen and be like, dad, what about me?
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Exactly?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
And And but I sit there and I look at
my dad, and I feel bad now because I'm I'm like,
I know, he just put his head down and he
made whatever he could make being a police officer.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
This could have been transformative.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
I think for the pressure that you just mentioned, it
seems overwhelming to set up an account. It seems overwhelming
to start it, and so many parents just assume I.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Don't have enough money to do it.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
So I'm not even going to be embarrassed and go
in and try seven account with one hundred dollars or
fifty dollars to start that nest egg.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
This could be transforming.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
And for a lot of parents that are just wanting
their kids to have a better life, the number one
thing that holds them back is that worry or the
embarrassment that they're not walking in with enough might have start.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
It one hundred percent that well said. They call it
in economics the cold start problem, right, the cold start
problem is I don't know how, or I'm embarrassed, or
I don't have the time. Remember, lots of parents are
working one or two jobs. You know they not only
do they not know how, It takes time right to
(21:58):
set these things up, and then you run into questions
and then how do you fund it? And you know
you have to have that next next tag to get started,
so it will unlock that power. But let's let me
talk about two other areas. We're going to get incredible
private sector participation. So we now have companies representing ten
millions of employees, and I mentioned a lot of them,
(22:21):
you know, but literally from Uber to Goldman Sachs, from
T Mobile to iHeartMedia, from a m D to the
Southern companies, you know, an energy company. And we're just
getting started, right Wait until the President and folks on
Capitol Hill and all these CEOs, wait until we have
this seat, this set up, and we're going to ask
(22:41):
every company in America to participate in this, and it's
going to become a feature of their corporate benefit program.
And they're going to match and what we've asked them
to do by joining the CEO Council, they've committed to
two things. Number One, that they that they agree to
do what they can to help get this past. They
think it's a great idea. But number two, they've all
(23:03):
made a commitment to contribute to the count the accounts
of the kids of their employees at a level of
participation that makes sense for their company. And so I
just had, you know, over here we're talking about some
people heard me talking about it yesterday. Another couple of companies,
you know set up. I was, you know, I was
on Charlie Kirk last night and Charlie said, we're going
(23:24):
to do this for our employees. And so you know,
I think that once people know about this, we're going
to have broad based participation. And when they start adding
one thousand dollars at birth or two thousand dollars in
that in those first few years, you're going to double
and triple those amounts that Ted was talking about through
the power of compounding. So whatever number you get to
(23:47):
starting at age zero, by agat, if you start with twice,
the amount of three times, the amount of just skyrockets.
But so that's corporos. But we're also going to have
some other big announcements. We have philanthropy this in this country.
These are folks who you know, may have millions of dollars,
may have billions of dollars, may have hundreds of billions
of dollars, who've committed to adding dollars to the accounts
(24:10):
of these kids. So we're going to make it really
easy for philanthropy. Remember, we have twenty trillion dollars of
wealth transfer that's going to occur in this country over
the next fifteen years, you know, as baby as the
baby boomers retire, move on, et cetera. And many of
these people want to give away this money during their lifetime.
(24:31):
But if you're Mikeeldell and you have over one hundred
billion dollars, you simply can't give it away through charity
fast enough. This gives you a financial infrastructure right in
order to match. So Michael might say, I'm going to
contribute to this five O one C three and match
for every kid in the state of Texas, or maybe
every kid in the country, or maybe just every kid
(24:54):
in the state of Texas whose family earns under one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He's going to give five
thousand dollars to each of those kids. So we're going
to unlock the power of philanthropy for invest America. And
then finally I'll drop this out there. I think you're
going to see incredible experimentation at the state and local
and church level. Right this is going to uh we.
(25:18):
I've had states reach out to me, folks running for
governor reach out to me, and you're going to be
hearing some announcements where they say, in order to attract
people to our state, we're going to launch them at birth.
We'll take some of our our revenue from you know,
from alcohol and cigarettes, We'll take some of the you
know that revenue, and we'll put in into account for
(25:40):
a kid who's born in this state, and better yet,
we may make you know, in a bonus account if
they graduate from high school in the state. Because not
only do we want to attract people, what we want
to keep them here. And so listen, there's going to
be a million entrepreneurial flowers that bloom on top of this,
(26:01):
and all of it gets back to this fundamental We
have too few people who participate in the upside of
America less. You know, seventy percent of people have no
skin of the game. They'll never have an account their
entire lifetime. That compounds. We're going to change all that,
and the senators leadership has been absolutely crucial in order
(26:21):
to make it happen.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
So Ben, let me ask you something. Yeah, are you
excited listening to this?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
I am because cause I am. No I am, and
I think this is something that we've been missing. You know,
you remember when I was working with the Bush administration,
it was on Social Security form because it was just
a Ponzi scheme in essence, where I was like, what
are we doing? How are we not giving people more
with investing? And this is one of those things that
(26:49):
for me, is about financial freedom, and it allows people
a chance to succeed in the greatest country in the
world and do it in a way that is just
so smart. And I can't imagine what this is going
to do for single moms, for people that are working
nine to five jobs, two jobs, working hourly jobs.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
They say, now I.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Feel like even I can give my kids a better life,
because that's ultimately I think what every parent wants. They
want to give their chance, their kid a chance to
a better life than they live. And this is an
example of starting literally at day one of their birth
saying we've got you and dag, now let's go and
build on it.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
So, Ben, one of the things Brad was describing that
has me really excited is the accelerator that is built
into it. So seating every account with a thousand dollars
is valuable. By the way, there are three point seven
million babies born every year, and so one thousand dollars
for three point seven million babies a three point seven
(27:49):
billion dollars a year. That means this will cost thirty
seven billion dollars over ten years. This is a four
to five trillion dollar tax cut. So thirty seven billion
dollars is a relatively small piece, but you want to
talk about how it transforms America. That seed money is important.
Even more important is simply creating the account. As Brad noticed,
(28:12):
two thirds of Americans will not have an investment account,
will not be invested in the market. And we're creating
a world where every child, every single child, from gazillionaire
kids to a homeless kid on the street is suddenly
has an account invested the market. That is transformative. But
then the accelerator. So what Brad has worked for several
(28:35):
years is he's brought together world class ceo some of
the most prominent CEOs in the country. He mentioned Michael Dell.
That was not theoretical. Michael is Michael is a good
friend of mine. He's a Texan, incredible entrepreneur worth over
one hundred billion dollars. Michael is the chairman of the
CEO Council for Invest America. So Michael is leaning in heart.
(28:55):
He's committed Dell Computers. When this passes, Dell will help
fund the accounts for the kids of their employees. That's powerful.
But as Brad said, also Michael is quite interested on
the philanthropic side in supporting not just the accounts for
the children of his employees, but more broadly having a
(29:16):
bigger impact. I think we will see think for a second,
ben about four to one k's. Remember when we were kids,
four oh one k's didn't exist. Now just about every
every job at a big company, it's part of the plan.
It's part of the plan, and the employer matches four
a one k contributions makes their own contributions. It's a
(29:39):
really attractive employee benefit. And what I like about this
is the accelerator component that I think you will end
up having real wealth creation that changes. Look an eighteen
year old kid who's got a single mom, who's not
coming from money, who's living in a rough environment, who
suddenly got a couple of hundred thousand dollars invested in
(30:01):
the stock market. That changes their whole life. This is
this is life changing.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
And well this also seems I go back to the
trickle down effect. And you know, it's like four to
one k's. You remember when it was your grandparents and
your parents when you go to get your first job,
your first real job, and do they have a four
to one k. It's not the twenty one to twenty
three year old that's asking that question. It's the parents
and grandparents. I remember when I got my first other.
(30:30):
They do they match? Where they match? They have a
four to one k imagine if you get that started
in the mindset at age literally zero, that can transform
an entire nation.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
So, Brad, let me ask you something. How did you
get involved in this to begin with? Because you were
passionate and working on this. I got involved with you
about a year ago, but you were passionate involved in
this long before that. What was the kernel of the
idea that started this?
Speaker 4 (30:56):
Well, you know, you'll appreciate the senator as a dad,
you're but you know I have two boys, Lincoln and Jack,
and they're sixteen and fourteen. And one of the things
we talk about a lot when we sit around the
dinner table is when we see problems, don't complain about them, right,
(31:17):
have a bias to action, have a bias to action,
Do something about it, don't just sit around and complain.
And so, coming out of COVID, I was showing them
the investment accounts I set up when they were born, yep.
And we're talking about the power of compounding, and we
were showing they were talking about the stocks that they owned,
(31:38):
and I could see their excitement and they said, Dad,
when are we going to be able to, you know,
have some control over what we're investing in. We want
to learn more. Will you set up a robin Hood
account course, et cetera. And then we started talking about
the wealth gap and we started you know, my son
Lincoln brought me something you know that was the headline
(31:59):
and that said ninety three percent of stocks are owned
by the wealthiest ten percent of Americans. Yeah, and he said, Dad,
I feel I feel like you know, I'm I'm glad
you set this up for me when I was a kid,
but I kind of feel guilty, like what, why can't
everybody you know have this this uh you know, saying
benefit and and I said, you know, we got to
(32:21):
fix this. And so he said to me, what are
you going to do about it? And I turned to
him and I said, no, what are we going to
do about it? And we made a commitment as a
family that we're going to do something about this. Yep,
And you know, it's been been one of the best
parts of the journey. We set up a five oh
one C three uh call invest America and we literally,
(32:42):
you know, just started uh, you know, making the calls.
And it was lining up light minded thinkers in the
private sector and lining up light light minded folks in Washington.
And you and I have talked about this. I you know,
I had the fortune when I was returning from studying
overseas in nineteen ninety ninety one to show up in
(33:05):
Washington and go work for the late and great Senator
from Indiana, Richard Lueger. Luber was a Rhodes scholar. He
was a mayor of Indianapolis, became a long serving senator,
credible senator and at the time he was working on
denuclearizing the nuclear stockpiles coming out of the Cold War
(33:26):
with Sam Nunn. And let's just say later in life,
I went on to have some success. And when I
saw the Senator in those later years, he said to me,
you know, don't waste it. You know, remember those days,
remember those runs around the wall in the mall in Washington,
and make sure you do something that matters. And so
as a family, we want to do something that matters.
(33:48):
And I will say in the House, in the Senate,
you know, you know, in the White House, and in
a broad bipartisan way, and that was something that was
really important to me. We've had incredible support, and I said,
I've never seen an idea with a better product market fit.
Everybody I talked to in the private sector in Washington
(34:10):
was intrigued by the idea. But I remember we were
speaking with them. Speaker McCarthy in the House. Lincoln was
in the meeting with me. We had an incredible meeting
with the Speaker and we walked out 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. Right as an entrepreneur
(34:34):
in Silica Valley, nothing happened in Zilica Valley right, not Google,
not open Ai, not Facebook. Right without a conversation on
the back of a napkin. That starts as an idea.
And so I had started a few companies in Valley.
I knew something about starting things, and we just got
started and the snowball started rolling. And here we are
(34:54):
three and a half years later, and I think we're
on the precipice. I think you're great leaders the great
leadership in the House and the White House of making
this happen, and I agree with you. I think we're
going to look back in ten or twenty years and
this is going to be a massive legacy of this moment.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
You just said a word. A moment ago, the word
and it's become a bad word now. Is bipartisan? It
like never happens anymore. So I'm going to ask both
of you this, is there a chance that this can
be such a great idea that it is in fact
bi partisan and that Democrats and Republicans can work together
like they used to twenty thirty years ago when there
(35:33):
are nonpartisan ideas that are just great ideas that are
great for all Americans. And this one, by the way,
I would actually argue with Skew Moore to helping those
that are poor in this country.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Look at anyone.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Else, unquestionably, and I'll give you some positive signs on
this one. There are significant overlaps between this idea and
an idea that Corey Booker had called baby bonds, and
his idea was to create bonds and create a savings
account for every baby worn in America, and he when
he was running for president, he campaign on that. Corey's
a friend of mine. Brad knows Corey. Well, I will
(36:07):
say this is different from Corey's baby bonds, because I
was not a supporter of just the baby bonds of
an investment account that is accruing interest. 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
(36:28):
is investing in the equity markets. It is making children
owners of the major companies in America, and that to
me was really exciting. That being said, I think there's
a good chance that we will get Democrats to support this.
I'll say Dick Durbin, who is the Democrat whip and
very liberal senator, although I've served with him on the
(36:49):
Judiciary Committee for thirteen years. Dick Durbin, in a press
story today, actually praised this idea. And it's common about
me that Dick is wicked smart, but we said about
me as he said, well, a stop clock is right
twice a day. And I actually ran into Dick in
the wall in the hallway and I said, Dick, you
(37:10):
praised me in the press. He said it must have
been a mistake, and I reminded him of the quote
and he laughed, and I said, Dick, it's a good
thing you're retiring. They might primary in the Democrat primary
for saying something nice about me. It's and I'll tell
you there was another Democrat senator, a freshman, it was
newly elected, who came and approached me and said, I
really like this idea. This is interesting. And I said, well, look,
(37:31):
so no Democrat is going to vote for the reconciliation bill.
That's going to be a pure party line bill. So
the actual bill that passes this no Democrat will vote for.
But what I told this this Democrat freshman, I said, well,
co sponsor my invest America bill, so you can make
clear you supported. I think we've got a decent chance
of getting Democrats on board. Brad did a good job
(37:52):
of talking to them. And I will tell you a
couple of things. So Brad was describing all the time
in entergy he put in and he said, quite modestly,
he said, well, I've had some success in business.
Speaker 4 (38:05):
Ben.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
Let me be clear, Brad is a billionaire. 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, and his kids
would be fine, and his grandkids would be fine. But
he's not doing that. A He's got a ton of energy,
but he has poured so much time and energy and money.
(38:26):
So I will tell you the way this got done
is he was relentless. He was talking to everybody in
the House. Why is this in the House bill? Because
Brad was talking repeatedly to Jason Smith, the Chairman of
Ways and Means. He was talking repeatedly to Mike Johnson,
the Speaker of the House. By the way, I was too,
I was talking to both of them. They're both good friends.
He was talking repeatedly to me and other senators. I
(38:48):
sat down with Brad this week with Mike Crapo, the
chairman of the Finance Committee, who's drafting the tax portion
of the reconciliation of the Senate. He's been talking in
the White House to Kevin Hasset, who runs the National
Economic Council, over and over and over again. He's been
talking to the President. It is been that relentless. And
by the way, President Trump weighed in directly with the
Speaker of the House and said, I like this idea
(39:10):
included How did this idea get like like a lot
of the press is shocked. Why is this in the
House bill? A big part of the reason is the
President weighed in and said I really like this idea,
and so the House included it. That wouldn't have happened
without Brad's efforts and my efforts making the case to
(39:31):
the House, to the Senate and to the White House.
And I think we will get this done and it
will have an impact. When all three of us are
dead and buried, this will still be having a profound impact.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
So for people that are listening, and this is when
I get genuinely excited and they say, all right, I
want to support this, what do they do?
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Is it call?
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Is this one of those where you say, call your
congress person, regardless of party, call your senator?
Speaker 1 (39:58):
I mean that sound like the White House is on born.
You don't have to call them.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
But what is it that the American people need to
do to help this get across the finish line as well?
Speaker 3 (40:05):
So I've got an answer to that, and I want
Brad to chime in on this also, but I'd say
speak out, use your voice and say this is a
great idea and I like this, And Brad today was texting,
so he and I started the morning. Early this morning,
I did an interview on Squawkbox on CNBC, which I
love doing, and Brad called in from Riod. By the way,
(40:26):
you might think, Okay, a billionaire Silicon Valley investor in
Saudi Arabia calling in to CNBC Squawkbox, this is high falutin.
This is fancy schmancy. Brad sent me the picture of him.
He was literally standing there holding his laptop in the
air like filming it on a zoom. It was as
(40:48):
low tech as can be. And we did the interview together.
But I want to tell you two things on this
because this is the answer to what you can do. One,
when I finished that interview, and also when I finished
the interview with Cudler, which I did this afternoon, this
is so cool. In both instances, the cameraman who was
filming us like the I haven't told you this, Brad.
(41:10):
At the end of squawk the cameraman said, Wow, I
have a daughter as a senior in high school. I'd
love for her to have one hundred and seventy thousand dollars.
And like the cameraman on Cudler said basically the same thing.
I mean it was you want to talk about a
message that resonates people think, wait, this could really help
my kid, And that was cool, But on the question
(41:32):
of what you can do, and I'm so brad today
at eleven thirty six am, he texted me, how are
you tackling the quote this is socialism? Retort? And so
there are some people online who are saying that's saying that.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
By the way, people are coming after you in the
White House saying this.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Is socialism straight up. So let's respond to that.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
Okay. So I texted him back, I'm just going to
read you my text. I said, yep, it's the opposite
of socialism. The definition of socialism is government ownership or
control of the means of production or distribution. This is
ownership and control by millions of citizens. It is making
them capitalists. Online people use quote socialism as a shorthand
(42:19):
for any government spending or tax credits. But obviously some
is good and some is bad. 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,
(42:40):
to start a business, to climb the economic ladder much faster.
That is incredibly worthwhile. And creating people who are capitalists
and invested in the free market system, that is, if anything,
more valuable. And so I think adding your voices. And
by the way, for some of the critics, they're quiet
by the fact that the President Trump enthusiastically supports this,
(43:04):
but but it is really transformed. To Brad, what do
you think about that? I kind of went at a rant.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
No, well said number one. I would say on Twitter
or X follow it at invest America twenty four. So
it's just at invest America twenty four. 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. Right. Secondly, as the senator said,
way in, you know, use your voice, use your voice
(43:32):
in your social networks, direct people to follow it. We're
building the movement, and the movement's going to last well
beyond just getting the legislation pass. Remember when we passed
the legislation. Now, the Treasury Department is going to set
up these accounts and so you know we're going to
integrate this into the financial literacy across the country. There
are already thirty states that require literacy in high school.
(43:57):
But think about this, it's hard to learn about financial
life when your parents don't own anything, when you don't
own anything and you have no prospect of owning anything.
Now they're going to say, get out your phone, open
up your Best America account. We're going to talk about
how you got twenty five thousand dollars in that account,
what it means to own a little bit of Nvidia
or Berkshire halfway, how compounding works, how stocks work, what
(44:20):
voting rights you know in these companies mean. So like,
this is going to be a movement that lasts well beyond,
you know, just getting the legislation, but certainly way in.
And yeah, I want to underscore Senator that you know,
the Senator's leadership has been incredible here. But what will
(44:41):
make this big and beautiful is by building a giant tent.
I will tell you this. I have had former Democratic president,
I had 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. They can't wait
until this happens for the benefit of their kids. Because
(45:02):
I want to return to this fundamental principle. 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.
There's nothing parents want more that a better shot for
their kid than the shot that they had. And this
is the way that we do it. It unleashes economic mobility,
(45:23):
it unleashes human potential. It aligns everybody with the democratic,
free market, free enterprise principles which has made this country
so great. You know, here I am in Saudi Arabia today,
I'm looking out the window of my hotel and I
will tell you, while it's a very wealthy nation, the
wealth is not equally distributed. Right. One of the powers
(45:46):
of America is we have the greatest economic mobility in
the world. But for too long, over the course of
the last thirty years, we've had a concentration of that
because the stuff has been the thing that's compounded all
the value, and less than three percent of the market
(46:07):
is owned by the bottom sixty percent of people. We're
going to turn that on its head by getting everybody
into the game. 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, doesn't matter if
you're working one or two jobs. You're going to have
a lot more hope for your kid and you're going
to have account that you can contribute to that future.
(46:29):
So that's all I would weigh in, you know, and
I hope people have an open mind. I think they will.
You know, you mentioned Social Security and obviously that's a
sacred promise got to be met, and this is something
totally different. But you know, if I asked you guys,
most Americans would have no idea whether that was passed
(46:49):
by a Republican or a Democrat. Most Americans would have
no idea about the political debates. Most Americans would have
no idea you know how many votes had caught in
favor of it? Where they Republican votes, were they Democrat votes? Right?
What people remember is doing something that helps America come
together on Team America, something that unites us not divides us, right,
(47:11):
something that uplifts families around the country. And I can't
think of anything more powerful than the power of invest
America accounts for all these kids born. You know, I'll
leave you with this. Twenty twenty six is the two
hundred and fiftieth anniversary of this great American experiment. Right,
and the three folks on this on the Zoom or
(47:32):
on this podcast are living testiments. Right, our parents struggled.
Two of us had parents still bankrupt. Right, and this
country has been unbelievably good to us. We can unlock
that power for millions and millions and millions more kids.
And this is one of the ways we can do.
Lots of great ideas out there, but you know, we
(47:55):
got work to do to get this passed. So I'm
gonna be back in Washington working with the Senate, are
building that broad coalition making sure that we get it done.
And you know, and just can't thank you enough for
your support.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Well, I want to make sure people know that are
listening where to follow you guys on X and I'm
going to say it again at invest America twenty four.
At Invest America twenty four, don't forget We do this
show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Make sure you hit that
subscriber auto download button wherever you are share this episode.
This is one of those that really can make a
(48:28):
difference in the future of this country. So make sure
you do that and again at follow what they're doing
at invest America twenty four on X you can see
a lot more about this and share videos as well
in the center and I will see you back here
in a couple of days
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It is Verdict with Sentater, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with
You and Center.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is one of those shows and I just want to.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Tell everybody please take this show and share it wherever
you can on social media, because this is one of
those shows that could have a massive impact on this country,
dealing with a really important issue and an idea that
is becoming very close to reality that could fundamentally change
(00:28):
his country for every single child that's born.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Well, Ben, that is exactly right. This week was a
momentace week. It was a momenace week in Washington and
in the country. So this week the House Ways and
Means Committee, which is the tax writing committee in the House,
rolled out their Reconciliation Bill, and I will tell you
in that bill there were four major victories of bills
that I've introduced that I'm leading on that are all
(00:53):
included in the House Reconciliation Bill. Number one, they included
my legislation on no tax on tip. No tax on
tips is a president It is a promise President Trump made.
It is a powerful policy that benefits every waiter and
waitress and taxicab driver and bartender and barber and hairstylist.
(01:14):
And nail salon, beautician, everyone who operates on tips. It
is a policy that benefits the working men and women
of America, and we the Republican Party, is a blue
collar party. So that is in the bill. Number two.
I've been leading the fight to open up significant electromagnetic
(01:37):
spectrum to auction to the private sector, six hundred megahertz's spectrum.
When we do that, that will produce billions of dollars
of new investment and hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
That is in the House bill. They've taken my pipeline
language included in there. Number three, school choice, The House
(01:58):
included a version of my school choice bill that is
scholarship tax credits for contributions for scholarship granting organizations in
the state that, if it is passed, will be the
most significant federal school choice legislation ever passed in history.
And Monday's podcast. If you didn't listen to Monday's podcast,
(02:20):
I did a deep dive on that idea. I thought
it was going to come this week, and so I
laid out how we had the opportunity to win the
most significant victory for school choice of our lifetimes. The
House included it that's a huge victory. But the fourth,
which is going to be the topic of this podcast,
is legislation I've introduced called invest America. Invest America is
(02:43):
basically four to oh one k's for kids. It is
creating investment accounts for kids, and it is seating it
with one thousand dollars and allowing contributions to let every
newborn child in America accumulate resources. We're going to break
that down because that is in the House bill. They
call it the MAGA account, but it is. It is
(03:04):
my statutory language, and I got to say, when we
enact that language, President Trump enthusiastically supports it. When we
enact that language, it is going to have a profound
impact on this country, not just this year or next year,
but ten, twenty, thirty, forty fifty years from now. I'm
really excited. We're going to explain to you all about
(03:26):
what that proposal is and how it's going to make
a difference in your family, for your kids.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, it's awesome and it's something that again I'll say it,
make sure you listen to show and share it, even
with people that don't traditionally listen to political podcasts, because
this is not really that political. It's actually about the
future of this country and can have a huge impact
on every child that is born. I want to talk
to you for just a moment though, about what's happening
right now in Israel. Do you know, just like here
(03:54):
in the US, Israel has their own Independence Day in
case you missed it this year, Israel's independence was a
few days ago on May first. But for the people
of Israel, freedom is nothing more than a daily struggle
just to survive. There is no real peace, only tear,
no joy, just suffering. The Israeli government recognizes the International
(04:16):
Fellowship of Christians and Jews for ongoing help to make
sure the elderly, the sick, the wounded soldiers, and the
impoverished families don't fall through the cracks. And that is
where your gift to the Fellowship today will provide life
saving aid, medicine, hearty meals, safety, and comfort. I believe
(04:37):
that when you bless the people of Israel, we unlock
God's blessings in our own lives as well. So show
your support for Israel's independence by making a life saving
gift today. You can call to make your gift eight
eight eight four eight eight IFCJ. That's eight eight eight
(04:57):
four eight eight four to three two five. You can
also go online to IFCJ dot org. That's if CJ
dot org. All right, so Center, let's talk about the
invest America.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
This idea.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It is something you've actually been working on for quite
some time. Plus you have a special guest joining us
to explain it as well.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Well.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
I'm very proud to welcome to Verdict Brad Gershner. Brad
is a major Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He runs a hedge fund,
Altimeter Capital, in Silicon Valley. He's been incredibly successful and
he's become a really good friend over the past year.
And he is calling in and joining Verdict from Riad,
Saudi Arabia. So he is there with the President, with
(05:42):
David Sachs. He is on the trip. And I will
tell you when we talked about the four victories in
the House bill, the victory of invest America. I don't
think there is any person who has worked harder to
make this a reality than has. And I met Brad
a little over a year ago. He and I have
(06:04):
been working together on this since April of last year,
and he has been working to build the business coalition
behind Invest America and bringing together major CEOs, business leaders
that see the incredible power of four oh one k's
for every newborn in America. And so Brad from from
(06:26):
Riod on the other side of the planet. And it
is by the way, right now, Ben and I are
doing this. It is eleven twenty six pm in d C.
It is six twenty six in the morning in Riod,
And so he got up to join us. Brad, Welcome
to Verdict.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Oh, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me. Ben,
good to connect and Senator Wow, just watching the launch
of Invest America under your leadership. Today the Housewaves and
Means Committee Jason Smith, the Speaker of the House, it's
an exciting day, and I can tell you it's also
an incredibly exciting day in Riat, Saudi Arabia. The US
(07:03):
is back on its front foot. As you said, I'm
traveling with David Sachs, who is spreading the accelerationists gospel
of artificial intelligence. We want the world running on US
compute on USAI, and so it's been it's been a
really encouraging trip. But I'm thrilled to be here, thrilled
(07:25):
to be on the Verdict. Because of best America I
think can change the country. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Look, I fully agree, and I will say to our listeners.
David Sachs is another incredibly successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He's
been someone I've known for a long time. He's one
of the hosts of the All In podcast, which is
incredibly successful. And Brad runs in that circle as well.
And David is serving in the White House right now
(07:50):
as the President's Chief advisor on Artificial Intelligence and chief
advisor and cryptocurrency, and so he's doing a great job.
And he and Brad are are traveling to the Middle East,
and just today they announced what a trillion dollars in
new investments in the United States, and so it's really potent.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
But but let's let's do a deep dive into invest America. Now,
I'll tell you, bet Ben, Do you know how I
got to know Brad?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
How is that?
Speaker 4 (08:20):
So?
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Last spring, I'm sitting at a poker table in Vegas.
It's about one in the morning.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
I'm already I'm already in on this story, and I'm.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Every story starts with the poker table.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
That's right at one am in Vegas.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yes, and every every year I do a fundraiser in
Vegas where we play poker. It's great fun. We usually
play till three or four in the morning, and we
get typically a number of poker pros who come and
join us and play. And so last year I was
playing with, among others, Phil Hellmuth, who who is one
of the greatest poker players to ever live. If if
(08:57):
Phil were on, he would say he is the greatest
poker layer to ever live. And Brad, you know that's true,
but but greatest. He's got a good argument. He's got
he he has got fifteen bracelets, he's he's a World
Series champion. And we're talking and we're sitting there talking
and playing. And I played with Phil a number of times,
(09:18):
and he says, hey, do you know Brad gerstro I said, no,
no idea, who is he? And he said, all right,
you got to know him. He's a great guy. He's
like driving this this great program to to like have
every every baby at every child in America invested the
stock market. I said, that's interesting. I want to know
more about that. Phil pulled out his phone and texted
Brad and me connected us on on cell that night
(09:41):
at one in the morning, and we began working together, uh,
starting in spring of last year.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
That's incredible. That's that is how a friendship grows. And
let me guess that's how you guys both got in
on this. Hey, what a brilliant idea to allow every
kid in America that's got so siecut you're your number,
to be able to start investing in essence a day
they're born understand that they have a chance to have
a nest egg when they grow older. I've got three boys, center.
(10:10):
This is something I think about. It's two things. I
think about college, I think about saving for school, and
I think about them having something to start out their
lives with. And that's the essence of what you guys
are trying to pull off here.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
So let me describe the vision of it, and then
I want Brad to tell the story because he really
did the shoe leather to make this work. But the
vision of it, and it is included in the House
Ways and Means draft right now, is that every newborn
child in America will have an investment account created automatically
open for them and seeded with one thousand dollars one
(10:45):
thousand dollars that comes from the government to start it
that's important to get it going. But even more important
is that every one of those accounts, you can contribute
up to five thousand dollars a year to those accounts
in a tax advantaged way. And and that money can
come from friends, it can come from family, and it
(11:06):
can come from your parents or relatives, employers. And I
think that's a really big we're going to talk about
how that's a big accelerator. Uh And and you could
accumulate in a tax advantage way. And and there are
two massive advantages for this. Number One, every child in
America begins to experience the benefits of compound growth. And
(11:30):
these accounts, by the way, they're not savings accounts. These
are investment accounts that are that that that that are
invested in neither ETFs or mutual funds that are invested
in the S and P five hundred. So so it
makes every newborn child an investor in the American stock market.
That enables them And and and look, as you know,
(11:51):
well as our listeners know well, compound growth, the miracle
of compound growth is one of the great miracles of
the world. And if you get people investing for a
long time, starting at birth, you can get incredible numbers.
So Ben, let me ask you this. You have a
newborn child born this year, thousand dollars comes in to
seat it, and through friends and family or an employer,
(12:12):
five thousand dollars a year gets invested for the first
eighteen years of their life. If you assume seven percent growth,
which has been the historical average for the stock market,
what do you think that eighteen year old has on
his eighteenth birthday.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
I'm going to go with hundreds of thousands, if not
over a million.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
One hundred and seventy thousand dollars. One hundred and seventy
thousand dollars. And by the way, this is not for
a rich kid. This is every baby in America. If
you're contributing all along, what do you think they have
if they continue doing that until age thirty five?
Speaker 1 (12:46):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Seven hundred thousand dollars?
Speaker 1 (12:49):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Now, that is transformational. But I'll tell you that's not
what Brad said that sold me on this. So Brad,
when he talked to me about this, I said, all right,
tell me your idea, and he pitched it. Here was
the argument he made. I'm gonna let him make it
in about thirty seconds. But the argument he made is
he said, look, young people, roughly half of them say
(13:10):
they believe in socialism, they don't believe in capitalism. The
real power of this is you're making every child in
America a capitalist. You're giving them a stake in the
American free enterprise system. You're giving him an ownership. So
you could have a ten twelve year old kid pull
out an app on his or her phone and say,
wait a second, I own one hundred dollars worth of Applestock,
(13:34):
I own fifty bucks worth of Boeing. I own seventy
five bucks worth of worth of McDonald's. And when they
go in and buy a Big Mac, they're like, wait
a second. I'm not just a customer. I'm a stockholder.
I'm an owner of this company. And I think that
is profoundly powerful. And Brad, I want to give you
credit because you have been a relentless evangelist. You have
(13:58):
devoted thousands, if not tens of thousands of hours to
this and and and this vision. I believe in it.
But but but I would not have been sold on
this idea had had you not put in so much
shoe leather and built such a strong business coalition behind it.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
Well, you described it incredibly well. And the reason I
think we have such incredible support, incredible support in the
business community. These are the world's uh, you know, greatest CEOs.
You know, Jensen Hwang and Dvidian Renee has at arm
and Michael Dell's and and and Soffra cats at uh
you know at Oracle, and Pittman at iHeartMedia and and
(14:37):
Lisa Sue at A and b uh you know, Ryan
McInerney at Visa or Mel McDermott at uh uh you
know Service now, Darkasha shahiat Uber and the list goes on.
And notice you know are on the CEOs. It's not
a partisan issue. And we have incredible bipartisan support as
well on Capitol Hill because every parent wants a better
(15:00):
life for their kid, right. I grew up in rural Indiana.
My dad was a first time entrepreneur and in nineteen
seventy eight in the Rust Belt, starting an autoparts manufacturing
business with double digit inflation, double digit interest rates. We
lost the house, we lost everything. So I understand profoundly
(15:20):
what it feels like to finally be in the game,
to finally own something. But for every parent who wants
a better life for their kid. Whether they're in rural Texas,
whether they're in inner city Trenton, whether they're in rural Indiana.
I'm talking every town, every main street in America. Those
kids will have a shot. They have skin in the game.
(15:41):
The most powerful economy in the world is the American economy.
For seventy five years, the S and P five hundred
has compounded at ten point two percent. And what has
Warren Buffett told us, start with a really small snowball,
got a really long hill, and the longest hill you
can possibly imagine, and is starting at birth. Almost every
(16:02):
American today misses the first twenty five years of compounding.
That's nearly one third of your life. By starting these
kids off early, we give every kid a shot. We
unlocked all of that human potential and the financial literacy,
the hope and optimism, and their opportunity to participate in
the system is going to skyrocket. It's sad that less
(16:23):
than half of kids under the age of forty or
folks under the age of forty have a positive view
of capitalism. Yeah, but they're left out. They're not capitalists,
they're not owners. So it's easier for them to feel
like the system is rigged against them. This is going
to change that by aligning everybody with our capitalist, free
enterprise principles.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
So let me ask a quick question. Brad, you mentioned
your dad. You guys lost your home when you were
a kid, so I did too. How old were you
when that happened.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
I was in sixth grade, so I was.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
In high school and my parents were small business owner
in Houston. And in the eighties, oil collapsed and my
parents went bankrupt and we lost our business, we lost
our home. I didn't realize You and I've been friends
a long time, but we haven't talked about this that
we both went through the experience. It's a traumatic experience
when when you lose your home through through financial stress,
(17:17):
and it makes an impact on a kid, whether sixth
grade or for me it was eleventh grade, but it
you never forget it.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
Well I you know, I say, in life, you're either
running away from something or running towards something, And to me,
it planted a seed, and that seed was that I
didn't want my family to feel the pain that I
was feeling at that point in my life. And you know,
as a kid, my life thought I thought was pretty good,
but I felt bad for my dad. I felt bad
(17:47):
for my mom because I saw them struggling. And so
I know, you know later in life talking to mom,
she's now turning eighty nine, next door turning ninety here
next week. Amazing, beautiful woman. But you know, she felt
the guilt of not being able to provide, not knowing
whether her child was going to have a better tomorrow.
(18:09):
And you know, she is such a supporter of this
idea because she said it would have taken so much
pressure off her just knowing that her kids were going
to have a shot. And so I think everybody deserves
you know, you and I have talked about this. See
this with a thousand bucks in the SMB five hundred
and then get out of the way and let the
(18:29):
magic of the private sector do its thing. We're going
to have a thousand to one contribution by parents, you know,
and we've done the study that it's not just rich
parents who say for their kids. Here's a little known fact.
You know, the reason poorer folks don't save as much
is because of course they don't have savings accounts. This
(18:51):
is going to disproportionately benefit the people who are least
likely to participate in the market. And who is that right?
Those are the people who are the lowest, bottomn fifty
percent of the economy today. Because it's hard to open
up a custodial account for your child, almost nobody does it.
But if you start them off with an account, and
(19:13):
you make it really easy for these parents to vendmull
in twenty bucks a week or thirty bucks a week,
right to give up their Starbucks in order that their
kid might be able to save a little bit more money.
What we've learned is that cohorts of four families say
that about the rate that the cohorts from wealthier families
if they have an account. We're going to make it
(19:35):
super easy for those parents to contribute.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
My dad was a police officer I grew up.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
I would say lower middle class would be a fair
way of putting it. But there were several times where we,
you know, things got really really tight and my dad
just put his head down and went to work as
a police officer. And I remember thinking if he only
he was able to at a younger age start investing,
(20:05):
especially even thinking about college. We knew that we were
on our own. I mean, I knew that if I
want to go to college, I better be either good education,
at having great grades, or at a sport. It was
made very clear to me. But I can't imagine how.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
By the way, brad Ben went to Ole miss on
a on a tennis scholarship. So that's how he went
to college.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
No, and I knew that. I knew for that.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
The pressure to get out was if I'm going to
go to college, I have to do these are my
only two options. Because there was no savings account, there
was no college fund.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
There was nothing.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
And I and I and I look now as a
father with two three kids, and I and I sit there,
I know, right, one of the twins, right, which everyone's
my favorite.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Today, I'm gonna get you in trouble because whoever it is,
he's gonna listen and be like, dad, what about me?
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Exactly?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
And And but I sit there and I look at
my dad, and I feel bad now because I'm I'm like,
I know, he just put his head down and he
made whatever he could make being a police officer.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
This could have been transformative.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
I think for the pressure that you just mentioned, it
seems overwhelming to set up an account. It seems overwhelming
to start it, and so many parents just assume I.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Don't have enough money to do it.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
So I'm not even going to be embarrassed and go
in and try seven account with one hundred dollars or
fifty dollars to start that nest egg.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
This could be transforming.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
And for a lot of parents that are just wanting
their kids to have a better life, the number one
thing that holds them back is that worry or the
embarrassment that they're not walking in with enough might have start.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
It one hundred percent that well said. They call it
in economics the cold start problem, right, the cold start
problem is I don't know how, or I'm embarrassed, or
I don't have the time. Remember, lots of parents are
working one or two jobs. You know they not only
do they not know how, It takes time right to
(21:58):
set these things up, and then you run into questions
and then how do you fund it? And you know
you have to have that next next tag to get started,
so it will unlock that power. But let's let me
talk about two other areas. We're going to get incredible
private sector participation. So we now have companies representing ten
millions of employees, and I mentioned a lot of them,
(22:21):
you know, but literally from Uber to Goldman Sachs, from
T Mobile to iHeartMedia, from a m D to the
Southern companies, you know, an energy company. And we're just
getting started, right Wait until the President and folks on
Capitol Hill and all these CEOs, wait until we have
this seat, this set up, and we're going to ask
(22:41):
every company in America to participate in this, and it's
going to become a feature of their corporate benefit program.
And they're going to match and what we've asked them
to do by joining the CEO Council, they've committed to
two things. Number One, that they that they agree to
do what they can to help get this past. They
think it's a great idea. But number two, they've all
(23:03):
made a commitment to contribute to the count the accounts
of the kids of their employees at a level of
participation that makes sense for their company. And so I
just had, you know, over here we're talking about some
people heard me talking about it yesterday. Another couple of companies,
you know set up. I was, you know, I was
on Charlie Kirk last night and Charlie said, we're going
(23:24):
to do this for our employees. And so you know,
I think that once people know about this, we're going
to have broad based participation. And when they start adding
one thousand dollars at birth or two thousand dollars in
that in those first few years, you're going to double
and triple those amounts that Ted was talking about through
the power of compounding. So whatever number you get to
(23:47):
starting at age zero, by agat, if you start with twice,
the amount of three times, the amount of just skyrockets.
But so that's corporos. But we're also going to have
some other big announcements. We have philanthropy this in this country.
These are folks who you know, may have millions of dollars,
may have billions of dollars, may have hundreds of billions
of dollars, who've committed to adding dollars to the accounts
(24:10):
of these kids. So we're going to make it really
easy for philanthropy. Remember, we have twenty trillion dollars of
wealth transfer that's going to occur in this country over
the next fifteen years, you know, as baby as the
baby boomers retire, move on, et cetera. And many of
these people want to give away this money during their lifetime.
(24:31):
But if you're Mikeeldell and you have over one hundred
billion dollars, you simply can't give it away through charity
fast enough. This gives you a financial infrastructure right in
order to match. So Michael might say, I'm going to
contribute to this five O one C three and match
for every kid in the state of Texas, or maybe
every kid in the country, or maybe just every kid
(24:54):
in the state of Texas whose family earns under one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He's going to give five
thousand dollars to each of those kids. So we're going
to unlock the power of philanthropy for invest America. And
then finally I'll drop this out there. I think you're
going to see incredible experimentation at the state and local
and church level. Right this is going to uh we.
(25:18):
I've had states reach out to me, folks running for
governor reach out to me, and you're going to be
hearing some announcements where they say, in order to attract
people to our state, we're going to launch them at birth.
We'll take some of our our revenue from you know,
from alcohol and cigarettes, We'll take some of the you
know that revenue, and we'll put in into account for
(25:40):
a kid who's born in this state, and better yet,
we may make you know, in a bonus account if
they graduate from high school in the state. Because not
only do we want to attract people, what we want
to keep them here. And so listen, there's going to
be a million entrepreneurial flowers that bloom on top of this,
(26:01):
and all of it gets back to this fundamental We
have too few people who participate in the upside of
America less. You know, seventy percent of people have no
skin of the game. They'll never have an account their
entire lifetime. That compounds. We're going to change all that,
and the senators leadership has been absolutely crucial in order
(26:21):
to make it happen.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
So Ben, let me ask you something. Yeah, are you
excited listening to this?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
I am because cause I am. No I am, and
I think this is something that we've been missing. You know,
you remember when I was working with the Bush administration,
it was on Social Security form because it was just
a Ponzi scheme in essence, where I was like, what
are we doing? How are we not giving people more
with investing? And this is one of those things that
(26:49):
for me, is about financial freedom, and it allows people
a chance to succeed in the greatest country in the
world and do it in a way that is just
so smart. And I can't imagine what this is going
to do for single moms, for people that are working
nine to five jobs, two jobs, working hourly jobs.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
They say, now I.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Feel like even I can give my kids a better life,
because that's ultimately I think what every parent wants. They
want to give their chance, their kid a chance to
a better life than they live. And this is an
example of starting literally at day one of their birth
saying we've got you and dag, now let's go and
build on it.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
So, Ben, one of the things Brad was describing that
has me really excited is the accelerator that is built
into it. So seating every account with a thousand dollars
is valuable. By the way, there are three point seven
million babies born every year, and so one thousand dollars
for three point seven million babies a three point seven
(27:49):
billion dollars a year. That means this will cost thirty
seven billion dollars over ten years. This is a four
to five trillion dollar tax cut. So thirty seven billion
dollars is a relatively small piece, but you want to
talk about how it transforms America. That seed money is important.
Even more important is simply creating the account. As Brad noticed,
(28:12):
two thirds of Americans will not have an investment account,
will not be invested in the market. And we're creating
a world where every child, every single child, from gazillionaire
kids to a homeless kid on the street is suddenly
has an account invested the market. That is transformative. But
then the accelerator. So what Brad has worked for several
(28:35):
years is he's brought together world class ceo some of
the most prominent CEOs in the country. He mentioned Michael Dell.
That was not theoretical. Michael is Michael is a good
friend of mine. He's a Texan, incredible entrepreneur worth over
one hundred billion dollars. Michael is the chairman of the
CEO Council for Invest America. So Michael is leaning in heart.
(28:55):
He's committed Dell Computers. When this passes, Dell will help
fund the accounts for the kids of their employees. That's powerful.
But as Brad said, also Michael is quite interested on
the philanthropic side in supporting not just the accounts for
the children of his employees, but more broadly having a
(29:16):
bigger impact. I think we will see think for a second,
ben about four to one k's. Remember when we were kids,
four oh one k's didn't exist. Now just about every
every job at a big company, it's part of the plan.
It's part of the plan, and the employer matches four
a one k contributions makes their own contributions. It's a
(29:39):
really attractive employee benefit. And what I like about this
is the accelerator component that I think you will end
up having real wealth creation that changes. Look an eighteen
year old kid who's got a single mom, who's not
coming from money, who's living in a rough environment, who
suddenly got a couple of hundred thousand dollars invested in
(30:01):
the stock market. That changes their whole life. This is
this is life changing.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
And well this also seems I go back to the
trickle down effect. And you know, it's like four to
one k's. You remember when it was your grandparents and
your parents when you go to get your first job,
your first real job, and do they have a four
to one k. It's not the twenty one to twenty
three year old that's asking that question. It's the parents
and grandparents. I remember when I got my first other.
(30:30):
They do they match? Where they match? They have a
four to one k imagine if you get that started
in the mindset at age literally zero, that can transform
an entire nation.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
So, Brad, let me ask you something. How did you
get involved in this to begin with? Because you were
passionate and working on this. I got involved with you
about a year ago, but you were passionate involved in
this long before that. What was the kernel of the
idea that started this?
Speaker 4 (30:56):
Well, you know, you'll appreciate the senator as a dad,
you're but you know I have two boys, Lincoln and Jack,
and they're sixteen and fourteen. And one of the things
we talk about a lot when we sit around the
dinner table is when we see problems, don't complain about them, right,
(31:17):
have a bias to action, have a bias to action,
Do something about it, don't just sit around and complain.
And so, coming out of COVID, I was showing them
the investment accounts I set up when they were born, yep.
And we're talking about the power of compounding, and we
were showing they were talking about the stocks that they owned,
(31:38):
and I could see their excitement and they said, Dad,
when are we going to be able to, you know,
have some control over what we're investing in. We want
to learn more. Will you set up a robin Hood
account course, et cetera. And then we started talking about
the wealth gap and we started you know, my son
Lincoln brought me something you know that was the headline
(31:59):
and that said ninety three percent of stocks are owned
by the wealthiest ten percent of Americans. Yeah, and he said, Dad,
I feel I feel like you know, I'm I'm glad
you set this up for me when I was a kid,
but I kind of feel guilty, like what, why can't
everybody you know have this this uh you know, saying
benefit and and I said, you know, we got to
(32:21):
fix this. And so he said to me, what are
you going to do about it? And I turned to
him and I said, no, what are we going to
do about it? And we made a commitment as a
family that we're going to do something about this. Yep,
And you know, it's been been one of the best
parts of the journey. We set up a five oh
one C three uh call invest America and we literally,
(32:42):
you know, just started uh, you know, making the calls.
And it was lining up light minded thinkers in the
private sector and lining up light light minded folks in Washington.
And you and I have talked about this. I you know,
I had the fortune when I was returning from studying
overseas in nineteen ninety ninety one to show up in
(33:05):
Washington and go work for the late and great Senator
from Indiana, Richard Lueger. Luber was a Rhodes scholar. He
was a mayor of Indianapolis, became a long serving senator,
credible senator and at the time he was working on
denuclearizing the nuclear stockpiles coming out of the Cold War
(33:26):
with Sam Nunn. And let's just say later in life,
I went on to have some success. And when I
saw the Senator in those later years, he said to me,
you know, don't waste it. You know, remember those days,
remember those runs around the wall in the mall in Washington,
and make sure you do something that matters. And so
as a family, we want to do something that matters.
(33:48):
And I will say in the House, in the Senate,
you know, you know, in the White House, and in
a broad bipartisan way, and that was something that was
really important to me. We've had incredible support, and I said,
I've never seen an idea with a better product market fit.
Everybody I talked to in the private sector in Washington
(34:10):
was intrigued by the idea. But I remember we were
speaking with them. Speaker McCarthy in the House. Lincoln was
in the meeting with me. We had an incredible meeting
with the Speaker and we walked out 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. Right as an entrepreneur
(34:34):
in Silica Valley, nothing happened in Zilica Valley right, not Google,
not open Ai, not Facebook. Right without a conversation on
the back of a napkin. That starts as an idea.
And so I had started a few companies in Valley.
I knew something about starting things, and we just got
started and the snowball started rolling. And here we are
(34:54):
three and a half years later, and I think we're
on the precipice. I think you're great leaders the great
leadership in the House and the White House of making
this happen, and I agree with you. I think we're
going to look back in ten or twenty years and
this is going to be a massive legacy of this moment.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
You just said a word. A moment ago, the word
and it's become a bad word now. Is bipartisan? It
like never happens anymore. So I'm going to ask both
of you this, is there a chance that this can
be such a great idea that it is in fact
bi partisan and that Democrats and Republicans can work together
like they used to twenty thirty years ago when there
(35:33):
are nonpartisan ideas that are just great ideas that are
great for all Americans. And this one, by the way,
I would actually argue with Skew Moore to helping those
that are poor in this country.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Look at anyone.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Else, unquestionably, and I'll give you some positive signs on
this one. There are significant overlaps between this idea and
an idea that Corey Booker had called baby bonds, and
his idea was to create bonds and create a savings
account for every baby worn in America, and he when
he was running for president, he campaign on that. Corey's
a friend of mine. Brad knows Corey. Well, I will
(36:07):
say this is different from Corey's baby bonds, because I
was not a supporter of just the baby bonds of
an investment account that is accruing interest. 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
(36:28):
is investing in the equity markets. It is making children
owners of the major companies in America, and that to
me was really exciting. That being said, I think there's
a good chance that we will get Democrats to support this.
I'll say Dick Durbin, who is the Democrat whip and
very liberal senator, although I've served with him on the
(36:49):
Judiciary Committee for thirteen years. Dick Durbin, in a press
story today, actually praised this idea. And it's common about
me that Dick is wicked smart, but we said about
me as he said, well, a stop clock is right
twice a day. And I actually ran into Dick in
the wall in the hallway and I said, Dick, you
(37:10):
praised me in the press. He said it must have
been a mistake, and I reminded him of the quote
and he laughed, and I said, Dick, it's a good
thing you're retiring. They might primary in the Democrat primary
for saying something nice about me. It's and I'll tell
you there was another Democrat senator, a freshman, it was
newly elected, who came and approached me and said, I
really like this idea. This is interesting. And I said, well, look,
(37:31):
so no Democrat is going to vote for the reconciliation bill.
That's going to be a pure party line bill. So
the actual bill that passes this no Democrat will vote for.
But what I told this this Democrat freshman, I said, well,
co sponsor my invest America bill, so you can make
clear you supported. I think we've got a decent chance
of getting Democrats on board. Brad did a good job
(37:52):
of talking to them. And I will tell you a
couple of things. So Brad was describing all the time
in entergy he put in and he said, quite modestly,
he said, well, I've had some success in business.
Speaker 4 (38:05):
Ben.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
Let me be clear, Brad is a billionaire. 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, and his kids
would be fine, and his grandkids would be fine. But
he's not doing that. A He's got a ton of energy,
but he has poured so much time and energy and money.
(38:26):
So I will tell you the way this got done
is he was relentless. He was talking to everybody in
the House. Why is this in the House bill? Because
Brad was talking repeatedly to Jason Smith, the Chairman of
Ways and Means. He was talking repeatedly to Mike Johnson,
the Speaker of the House. By the way, I was too,
I was talking to both of them. They're both good friends.
He was talking repeatedly to me and other senators. I
(38:48):
sat down with Brad this week with Mike Crapo, the
chairman of the Finance Committee, who's drafting the tax portion
of the reconciliation of the Senate. He's been talking in
the White House to Kevin Hasset, who runs the National
Economic Council, over and over and over again. He's been
talking to the President. It is been that relentless. And
by the way, President Trump weighed in directly with the
Speaker of the House and said, I like this idea
(39:10):
included How did this idea get like like a lot
of the press is shocked. Why is this in the
House bill? A big part of the reason is the
President weighed in and said I really like this idea,
and so the House included it. That wouldn't have happened
without Brad's efforts and my efforts making the case to
(39:31):
the House, to the Senate and to the White House.
And I think we will get this done and it
will have an impact. When all three of us are
dead and buried, this will still be having a profound impact.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
So for people that are listening, and this is when
I get genuinely excited and they say, all right, I
want to support this, what do they do?
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Is it call?
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Is this one of those where you say, call your
congress person, regardless of party, call your senator?
Speaker 1 (39:58):
I mean that sound like the White House is on born.
You don't have to call them.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
But what is it that the American people need to
do to help this get across the finish line as well?
Speaker 3 (40:05):
So I've got an answer to that, and I want
Brad to chime in on this also, but I'd say
speak out, use your voice and say this is a
great idea and I like this, And Brad today was texting,
so he and I started the morning. Early this morning,
I did an interview on Squawkbox on CNBC, which I
love doing, and Brad called in from Riod. By the way,
(40:26):
you might think, Okay, a billionaire Silicon Valley investor in
Saudi Arabia calling in to CNBC Squawkbox, this is high falutin.
This is fancy schmancy. Brad sent me the picture of him.
He was literally standing there holding his laptop in the
air like filming it on a zoom. It was as
(40:48):
low tech as can be. And we did the interview together.
But I want to tell you two things on this
because this is the answer to what you can do. One,
when I finished that interview, and also when I finished
the interview with Cudler, which I did this afternoon, this
is so cool. In both instances, the cameraman who was
filming us like the I haven't told you this, Brad.
(41:10):
At the end of squawk the cameraman said, Wow, I
have a daughter as a senior in high school. I'd
love for her to have one hundred and seventy thousand dollars.
And like the cameraman on Cudler said basically the same thing.
I mean it was you want to talk about a
message that resonates people think, wait, this could really help
my kid, And that was cool, But on the question
(41:32):
of what you can do, and I'm so brad today
at eleven thirty six am, he texted me, how are
you tackling the quote this is socialism? Retort? And so
there are some people online who are saying that's saying that.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
By the way, people are coming after you in the
White House saying this.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Is socialism straight up. So let's respond to that.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
Okay. So I texted him back, I'm just going to
read you my text. I said, yep, it's the opposite
of socialism. The definition of socialism is government ownership or
control of the means of production or distribution. This is
ownership and control by millions of citizens. It is making
them capitalists. Online people use quote socialism as a shorthand
(42:19):
for any government spending or tax credits. But obviously some
is good and some is bad. 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,
(42:40):
to start a business, to climb the economic ladder much faster.
That is incredibly worthwhile. And creating people who are capitalists
and invested in the free market system, that is, if anything,
more valuable. And so I think adding your voices. And
by the way, for some of the critics, they're quiet
by the fact that the President Trump enthusiastically supports this,
(43:04):
but but it is really transformed. To Brad, what do
you think about that? I kind of went at a rant.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
No, well said number one. I would say on Twitter
or X follow it at invest America twenty four. So
it's just at invest America twenty four. 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. Right. Secondly, as the senator said,
way in, you know, use your voice, use your voice
(43:32):
in your social networks, direct people to follow it. We're
building the movement, and the movement's going to last well
beyond just getting the legislation pass. Remember when we passed
the legislation. Now, the Treasury Department is going to set
up these accounts and so you know we're going to
integrate this into the financial literacy across the country. There
are already thirty states that require literacy in high school.
(43:57):
But think about this, it's hard to learn about financial
life when your parents don't own anything, when you don't
own anything and you have no prospect of owning anything.
Now they're going to say, get out your phone, open
up your Best America account. We're going to talk about
how you got twenty five thousand dollars in that account,
what it means to own a little bit of Nvidia
or Berkshire halfway, how compounding works, how stocks work, what
(44:20):
voting rights you know in these companies mean. So like,
this is going to be a movement that lasts well beyond,
you know, just getting the legislation, but certainly way in.
And yeah, I want to underscore Senator that you know,
the Senator's leadership has been incredible here. But what will
(44:41):
make this big and beautiful is by building a giant tent.
I will tell you this. I have had former Democratic president,
I had 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. They can't wait
until this happens for the benefit of their kids. Because
(45:02):
I want to return to this fundamental principle. 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.
There's nothing parents want more that a better shot for
their kid than the shot that they had. And this
is the way that we do it. It unleashes economic mobility,
(45:23):
it unleashes human potential. It aligns everybody with the democratic,
free market, free enterprise principles which has made this country
so great. You know, here I am in Saudi Arabia today,
I'm looking out the window of my hotel and I
will tell you, while it's a very wealthy nation, the
wealth is not equally distributed. Right. One of the powers
(45:46):
of America is we have the greatest economic mobility in
the world. But for too long, over the course of
the last thirty years, we've had a concentration of that
because the stuff has been the thing that's compounded all
the value, and less than three percent of the market
(46:07):
is owned by the bottom sixty percent of people. We're
going to turn that on its head by getting everybody
into the game. 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, doesn't matter if
you're working one or two jobs. You're going to have
a lot more hope for your kid and you're going
to have account that you can contribute to that future.
(46:29):
So that's all I would weigh in, you know, and
I hope people have an open mind. I think they will.
You know, you mentioned Social Security and obviously that's a
sacred promise got to be met, and this is something
totally different. But you know, if I asked you guys,
most Americans would have no idea whether that was passed
(46:49):
by a Republican or a Democrat. Most Americans would have
no idea about the political debates. Most Americans would have
no idea you know how many votes had caught in
favor of it? Where they Republican votes, were they Democrat votes? Right?
What people remember is doing something that helps America come
together on Team America, something that unites us not divides us, right,
(47:11):
something that uplifts families around the country. And I can't
think of anything more powerful than the power of invest
America accounts for all these kids born. You know, I'll
leave you with this. Twenty twenty six is the two
hundred and fiftieth anniversary of this great American experiment. Right,
and the three folks on this on the Zoom or
(47:32):
on this podcast are living testiments. Right, our parents struggled.
Two of us had parents still bankrupt. Right, and this
country has been unbelievably good to us. We can unlock
that power for millions and millions and millions more kids.
And this is one of the ways we can do.
Lots of great ideas out there, but you know, we
(47:55):
got work to do to get this passed. So I'm
gonna be back in Washington working with the Senate, are
building that broad coalition making sure that we get it done.
And you know, and just can't thank you enough for
your support.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Well, I want to make sure people know that are
listening where to follow you guys on X and I'm
going to say it again at invest America twenty four.
At Invest America twenty four, don't forget We do this
show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Make sure you hit that
subscriber auto download button wherever you are share this episode.
This is one of those that really can make a
(48:28):
difference in the future of this country. So make sure
you do that and again at follow what they're doing
at invest America twenty four on X you can see
a lot more about this and share videos as well
in the center and I will see you back here
in a couple of days
Host
Ben Ferguson
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