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

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. 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 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 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,

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

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 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 what that proposal is and how it's going to make a difference in your family, for your kids.

right now in Israel. Do you know, just like here 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 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 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 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.

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 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

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.

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 to be on the Verdict. Because of best America I think can change the country. Yeah.

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.

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, 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 at one in the morning, and we began working together, uh, starting in spring of last year.

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.

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 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 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, 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, 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.

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, 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 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.

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 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 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. 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 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 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.

we both went through the experience. It's a traumatic experience when when you lose your home through through financial stress, and it makes an impact on a kid, whether sixth grade or for me it was eleventh grade, but it you never forget it.

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. 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 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 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 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 super easy for those parents to contribute.

at having great grades, or at a sport. It was made very clear to me. But I can't imagine how.

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, 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 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 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 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 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

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. 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 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. 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 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, 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 to make it happen.

with investing? And this is one of those things that 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.

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, 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 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.

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 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 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 the stock market. That changes their whole life. This is this is life changing.

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.

And we're talking about the power of compounding, and we were showing they were talking about the stocks that they owned, 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 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 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, 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 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 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. 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 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 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 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.

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.

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 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 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

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, 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 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.

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 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 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 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.

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 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. 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 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.

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, 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, but but it is really transformed. To Brad, what do you think about that? I kind of went at a rant.

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. 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 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 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

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, 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 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

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. 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 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, 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 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

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.

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