Who we elect will be deciding Social Security's insolvency | Hour 3

So, You know me, I have been kind of a little bit, just a teensy-weensy bit critical of media in North Carolina covering the U.S. Senate race simply through the horse race paradigm, right? They talk about the polling, they talk about ad spending, and that's it. It doesn't actually help voters make an informed decision on the particular candidates that are running because we don't know where they stand on various issues. So they, the, a lot of reporters just cover it like, Oh, Roy Cooper's ahead. Michael Watley's in the trailing and what can Watley do to get ahead? And no, we got a new poll and Roy Cooper's looking like he's in good shape and Here they come around the final stretch. Who's going to clear the stick first? It's not helpful. I'm not saying that there's no place for those kinds of stories. I'm only saying that that's the predominant coverage. So. When a reporter or an outlet does a story that even attempts to take a look at the positions of the candidates so people can have an idea about where they stand, what they would do, what their principles are, if votes come along that are really important, you have an idea about which way they may go on this stuff, I want to give them credit when they do those types of stories. And so, Will Durant. at WRAL, up in Raleigh, TV station. Headline, Social Security could start running out of money in six years. Would Cooper, Whatley, try to save it? So the answer to that is yes. They're both going to try to save it, okay? They're both going to do whatever their leadership tells them to do when it comes to, quote, saving Social Security. I have talked about this topic as well because whoever is going to the U.S. Senate is going to be there when Social Security becomes insolvent in 2032. That is six years from now. And the term of a U.S. Senator is six years. So Cooper or Whatley will be a vote in addressing the insolvency of Social Security at the end of their term. More than likely. Unless, of course, Congress finds a way to kick the can down the road and not address it, which is possible. But that will also be a choice. Right? So how do they intend to address this? That's the thrust of this piece. Now, I've praised Will Duran for even attempting to do the story. I am, however, I'm disappointed. Let me just say it that way. I'm disappointed in the way This story is told and we'll go over it, but let us proceed. The leading candidates in the race for North Carolina's open U S Senate seat are tailoring their messages to attract older voters, zeroing in on a key point of anxiety, social security, as they try to sway a reliable voting block. Okay. So, okay, fine. Yes, this is a little horse racy coverage, but, because you're approaching the story from older people on Social Security, reliable voting bloc, who's going to win them, horse race. But I will allow that. I'll allow it just for purposes of getting into the story and fleshing it out because, as we will find out as we read through, there's not a lot of information that either campaign is providing. Although one campaign seems to take the brunt of the criticism on that. You'll never guess which one. So here's the thing. When Social Security becomes insolvent in 2032, it's going to force the reduction in people's benefits. That's what's going to happen. You're going to see a 20% reduction in your Social Security benefits. This is not a surprise. I mean, it's not a surprise for me. I'm a Gen X and I've been told and have been planning my entire life, all my working career with the expectation social security will be zero. That that's been my approach. I'm not planning on getting anything. I just look at it as it's all going to the government and, and they're spreading it around to their preferred constituencies, and I'm never getting that money back. That's been my approach. So this is not a shock to me. Does that make me mad? Oh, absolutely. But I've been mad about this for 30 years. I don't expect there to be any Social Security. My expectation is the whole system will be bankrupted, And there won't be any money for retirees. So it is on me to make sure that I have money set aside for my own retirement, right? And that means lower standard of living, lower expenses, sell the house, move into, you know, some loft apartment above a garage again, just like I, you know, used to live in, like just a reversion back to a much lower standard of living. sell most of my possessions. That's been my expectation. Now, your results may vary, right? You can approach this differently, but that's what I have been anticipating. I don't anticipate being able to retire and having the luxury of, you know, traveling the world three times a year. I talk about, like, I do a lot of work in my community with the HOA, And as you might imagine, there are a lot of people in the HOA that are retirees. So they have a lot of time. And I've been... It has been an eye-opening experience in working with all of these different people for the last four years. How many of them travel, like, for two months straight? Like, they take a two-month trip and they do this two or three times a year. Like, I.... That is not in my cards. I mean, I chose the profession of radio, so that's kind of my own fault on that. But that is not part of my retirement equation. So this is probably, though, going to make a lot of people angry when they've been used to retirements. receiving the average social security retiree currently receives roughly $ 25, 000 a year. And by and large, like that's the money that they put in. However, not really because most people draw more out than they put in because you're going to get that money. Like if you put in, you know, let's say for the sake of math, it's $ 200, 000 over the course of your working life. You, put in 200K, well, that's eight years. That's what you would get back out, is eight years of retirement. And remember, the program was not set up for people to be retired for 10, 15, 20, 25 years. It wasn't set up for that. It was set up to basically take people's money when they would live just long enough to retire for like a year or two and then die. And then GovCo would keep all that extra money. So if this happens, you're going to lose 20%, which is going to be roughly 5K a year on average. So you go from 25,000 a year down to 20,000 a year. So whoever North Carolina voters elect to the Senate this year will be sworn into office. They'll be there until 2033. So they, along with their colleagues in Congress, will be tasked with voting on how or whether to address Social Security benefits and funding ahead of the 2032 deadline. Democratic nominee Roy Cooper has made that looming deadline a frequent theme of his campaign stops around the state. Do you want to take a guess what his solution is? Anyone? Alright, I'm going to give you some time to think about it. You may need some time. Because old Roy, my good friend Roy, he's got so many arrows in the quiver when it comes to his approach to governing. So it may take you a minute to think through, what would he possibly recommend as a fix for this problem? So think about that, and then I'll give you his answer, and you're probably right. The holidays will be here before you know it, and so now is the time to create precious and priceless family heirlooms that will last for generations. Take your old photos, slides, films, and tapes to create a video in Mint Hill. There, they'll turn those memories into the story of your lives, memories from past family events captured forever to pass down to future generations. 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And I asked you if you wanted to guess what it would be. I'm going to give you the answer. The answer is... You'll never guess. Raised taxes. That's right. Ding, ding, ding. Right, that's right. If you thought that Roy Cooper... was going to reach for any other arrow in his quiver of a lone arrow, you are mistaken. He is going to raise taxes. That's what he wants to do. Surprise, surprise. And the text line, you guys got it right. Everybody on the text line that was guessing raise taxes, tax the rich. Yes, that is it. That is it. Oh, and also expand government spending on all sorts of other things too, which you'll never guess what he wants to do to pay for all that. You probably can. It's tax the rich. Again, that's the answer to everything. Tax the rich. More taxes. Let me go over to Debbie. Hello, Debbie. Welcome to the program. Hey, how you doing? Hey, I'm okay. What's up? I just wanted to bring up something that I really haven't heard discussed a lot, and I want people not to forget it, is how Roy Cooper did the North Carolinians during COVID. For me, it was huge. Well, the first thing I want to say is don't forget how he did North Carolina, because if they got control of the Senate in the U.S., he could do the same kind of stuff to the whole United States. But some of the things that I'll say that he did that were touching me was my mom happened to temporarily be in a nursing home, and I understood that we couldn't go see or anything, but before you could bring food in and stuff, they would allow Pizza Hut. Boykoop would let Pizza Hut deliver food instead of letting the families drop food off, which who do you think took the most care about trying to make sure you were germ-free? Yeah, well, I mean, that was standard. He allowed Walmart to stay open but closed down mom-and-pop stores. Same thing. Oh, yeah. I was going to bring that up. There's a little golf shop that's probably no bigger than 500 square feet. They had to close up. And, yeah, they had the big thing. Yeah, they kept breweries open, allowed restaurants like Applebee's and TGI Fridays. They could stay open or were allowed to reopen, but clubs and bars, they were not. And beauticians need not to forget that either. Mm-hmm. Because they basically had to just basically not work. Yeah, he has completely skated on any kind of accountability for the decisions he made during COVID. And there are a lot of media that were part of that era that allowed Cooper to just issue all these orders and were never skeptical of. Of the decisions, right? Like they would just say, oh, Roy Cooper's doing this, and so we all have to do this. And it was all this sort of cheerleading approach. So now that they're covering them on the campaign trail, they don't want to revisit that because they were participants in it. I know, and I wish Watley would revisit it. You know, he needs to get. Up there to me and other things like that. So this is my theory on why they're not hammering Roy Cooper on the COVID stuff, on the shutdowns. This is just my theory. I have no inside information or anything like that. This is just my theory, which is that too many people have sort of a PTSD about that time period. And they were also like regular people, voters were also participants in, in some of the stuff, the masking, right. The, the, you know, people were, remember people were, they, they set up hotlines to rat out your neighbors and stuff. Right. I agree there. Yeah. So I think there are a lot of people that, that feel guilty about their own behavior during that period and, And so they don't want to be reminded of that time period. They don't want to be reminded of their own actions. And so bringing this stuff up will then like it'll it'll generate animosity towards the people bringing it up rather than the person that led them astray because they don't want to believe that they were led astray. You could be right there, but I think most of those people were liberal anyway. I don't know. I mean, we had, yeah, I mean, there were a lot of people. I mean, there were a lot of people that, that, I mean, like I, during the, I was wearing a mask. I would walk into a business. They're like, you got to have a mask. And I would have to put a mask on. I would do that. So, and I, and I knew that like these things, these things are not stopping a respiratory airborne virus. So, but that was the, those were the rules. And this is a private company and they're, they've got their edicts and mandates and, you know, all of that. Yeah, I don't know really for sure about how the other people know. I don't know if this is general knowledge, but I know that also during the COVID, for all these people that pay their bills and everything, utilities, you just didn't have to pay your bill. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they gave, yeah. That went on for months and months. And you could move, and you never had to pay that bill. Yeah, yeah. They did rent freezes, remember? And they forgave people. They told people they couldn't be evicted, so small landlords that owned, like, you know, one property, you know, they were left without rent being paid to them. Yeah, I mean, it was just a mess. And then you wonder why landlords needed to go up. Well, they got hooded out of their rent for so long. It was terrible. Yeah. I watched that happen, and not just me. I watched it happen to people because I happened to work in an area then that I saw it every day. Mm-hmm. But anyway, I just wanted to– I can see that. But also, you know, there's a lot of people, too, out there in North Carolina that had to watch people die that they loved and they had to die alone. And I don't know. Maybe that's not the best thing to bring up, but it brings me out to vote more than ever. But I was going to vote anyway that way. Yeah. And I think, uh, I think Watley should hammer, um, should hammer Cooper on it. And I, I think there's a way to do that. And I appreciate the call, Debbie. I, I think I have a good weekend. I think there is, I think there is a way to do it, um, which is to highlight the, the inconsistent application of his executive orders, right? Um, the, the, the, the different treatment and, uh, you know, for one over the other, the, the refusal to reopen the schools at the you know, based on the demands of the teachers union. Like there are, there are components. I think that he can go after Cooper on the hypocrisy of walking through the BLM marches without the mask on. There are things I think he can do why he's not doing it. Don't know. Like I said, I have no inside knowledge on any of that. All right, real quick. Every government number gets revised, right? Every projection gets walked back. Gold does not file corrections like GovCo. Revelation Gold Group helps families hold physical gold and silver, including in a tax-advantaged gold IRA. It's real, it's in your name, and 10 minutes tells you if your retirement account qualifies. If you want to learn more, go to calendarmetals.com. That's calendarmetals.com. There is a link in the podcast description. Or if you want to talk to somebody, you can call 888-465-3049. From the Twitter machine, Pete, I think that everyone who is fearful that Social Security will be funded, just think about a couple of additional incomes and funding. One, transfer of wealth from current baby boomers as they will be dying off over the next 20 to 30 years. Rising stock markets as well. With use of living trust, these values will be transferred tax-free and taxes at lower rates, thus giving billions to the treasury to help fund social security. Well, yeah, I mean, we'll see. That's from dad. So dad, I'm counting on you. No, I honestly, it's just, it's a different mindset. And that's been my approach my entire working life. That's why I've poured as much money into retirement accounts as I, as I've been able to. And, you know, don't live beyond my means. Like I've never owned a new car. Every car I purchase is a used car because like, I'm not going to spend that kind of money. It's just not because in the longterm, I'd prefer to be able to buy cat food to eat when I'm retired. You know? Um, let me see. This is from a coach who says, how come there was no debate between Watley and duper Cooper? Um, I don't know. I know why Roy Cooper would not want to debate. He's leading in the polls. As I've said this before, like, there's only a couple of things that can happen if he does a debate, and most of them are not beneficial to him, right? You're leading in the polls, you go on to a stage, and you get gutted by your opponent. Well, now you're at risk of losing. You could see your support crater, right? Or. You go on the stage, and it's a draw. Or you win. Okay. Well, you were already leading in the polls, so was that worth it? Was the risk worth it? Was the juice worth the squeeze? Right? At best, you're just going to improve your polling numbers. If you were already going to win, you're still going to win. Right? That's the idea. That's the calculation. So there's no benefit. And when he was asked one time, um, at a campaign event, a reporter asked him, are you going to debate? And he said, well, you know, if, uh, uh, if that's something that my opponent is interested in doing, then I'll have my people look at it. Okay. So that's a no, no, he's not interested in debating now, Michael Watley. I don't know. I haven't, I haven't been hearing him calling for debates. So, and maybe I've missed it, but I, I have not heard that. I haven't heard him hammering Cooper for, you know, dodging debates. Back to the WRAL story. A recent poll. So again, this is the horse race nature that is included in this story too. There was a recent poll by the AARP and this is not so good for Cooper because Among voters 50 years and older, Watley has an edge. Older voters vote in greater numbers than younger voters. Among older voters specifically, Michael Watley is up six points, 51 to 45 percent. The top issue for older voters is Social Security. Of those polled, 83% said Social Security was a key issue in deciding who they'd vote for. Whatley, like Cooper, has said he wants to protect Social Security. Okay, so that's the answer to your question in the headline, because remember the headline here on the story was, Social Security could start running out of money in six years. Would Cooper, Whatley try to save it? And then later on, halfway through the story, they both say they want to protect it. Okay, so there's your answer. Um, Watley told a group of coastal retirees this summer, quote, we need to make sure that social security is going to stay strong, that it's going to stay solvent, but you could smell a butt coming there. Didn't you? But what Watley has offered few details of what strategies and policy changes he might favor or oppose as part of that debate. Cooper favors higher taxes on the wealthy, which is obvious. Like, he's a Democrat. He comes from the see a penny, spend a penny budgeting philosophy. He's a Democrat. Okay, so while Whatley has offered, quote, few details, right, Cooper, on the other hand, I guess, has offered lots of details with his one idea of taxing the rich. Okay. So you get the... Just a... It's just a different way of looking at the responses, right? One candidate is offering few details, although we later find out there are some. And Cooper, who favors higher taxes on the rich, one detail, I guess now that's not few details. That's a lot of details, I guess, in this story, but I digress. Some strategies to keep Social Security solvent could include raising taxes. raising the retirement age, or changing the calculations used to determine what beneficiaries are paid. Social Security taxes are capped at the first $ 184, 500 of income. Meaning a married couple who each makes a high five-figure salary pays as much to help fund Social Security as somebody making half a million a year or 500 million a year. So there's this idea that you go above, you raise that cap. which I'm sure is what Roy Cooper is talking about, is to say that you take that $ 184, 500 cap and you raise that number so you can keep taxing higher levels of income. Social Security taxes are... I already read that, sorry. Cooper told the church in Henderson County the wealthy have to pay their fair share. Does that make it solvent? What's the math on that? He doesn't say few details. Would you say that? Okay. Uh, he also wants more spending, which not sure how that helps. Um, Whatley, on the other hand, is staunchly opposed to any tax increases. So while he has said he wants to keep Social Security solvent, it's unclear exactly how he'd propose doing so, whether by raising the retirement age or other tactics. When asked for comment on policies Whatley would support, his campaign pointed to a September questionnaire for the AARP, as well as a press release issued in June. The questionnaire indicated he opposes benefit cuts... And while Whatley provided no specific policies he would support to avoid the cuts that will be required if Social Security becomes insolvent, he indicated he's open to hearing ideas. Quote, Congress must work in a bipartisan way to ensure the system's solvency. If Congress gets to work now, we can have a serious conversation on strengthening the program without hurting those who rely on it. Okay, well, that doesn't really answer the question. Whatley's campaign website contains no details, neither does Cooper's, um, Trump, but he says that he would vote in the Senate for bills advancing Trump's America First agenda. Okay, so what is Trump been saying? Well, according to Will Duran at WRAL, Trump is paving the way towards privatizing Social Security. The one big, beautiful bill created a new savings vehicle that parents can use to create for their kids these Trump accounts. which Trump's top economic advisor, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson, said last year is a backdoor for privatizing Social Security. Wait a minute. So we do have a detail from Whatley. All right, let me get to some of these text messages. Indian Land Jeff. Good advice, Pete. Always, always live below your means and be sure to get a quality used gray Honda Civic. Furthermore, never turn on the headlights when driving in the rain. I hear local drivers love that. You are dead to me, Jeff. Dead to me. Gray cars, no headlights in the rain. I don't understand it. The gray car code. Pete, are they saying the Trump accounts would take the place or even subsidize Social Security? The first payouts from the Trump accounts won't even kick in until like 2095. No, the Trump accounts... are a privatization vehicle, right? Which George W. Bush first pitched in 2005. And he famously said he was touching the third rail of politics. And of course, Democrats and media, but I repeat myself, they pilloried him for it. How dare you? You're going to steal Social Security money. And all it was was the ability to take a small percent. I think it was like 3% of the total that you're putting into Social Security to just take a sliver of that and be able to put it in the stock market. Oh, no, we can't do that. No, it's too risky. Oh yeah. But a government that's $ 40 trillion in debt and printing money, like it's going out of style. Like that's, that's a more sustainable option. Okay. Uh, Josh says, I am super frustrated with Watley's campaign. So much stuff. They could be hitting Cooper on, uh, they're not doing anything. Yeah, I'm not sure what the strategy is there. Tony says, Pete, the highly recommended Fancy Feast pate. Yes, that is. It's actually one of the reasons why I agreed to get a cat was so this way I could start doing some testing of the various cat food products available to me. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support. and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalinershow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.