08-14-26 Part Two - The Future of Social Security

Now, it's Red Eye Radio, Gary McNamara, and Eric Hurley,

talk about everything from Father Tics to Social Issues and News of the Day, whether you're up late or you're just starting your day. Welcome to the show from the Relief Factor Studios. This is Red Eye Radio. All across America, we are Red Eye Radio.

He is Eric Hurley and I'm Gary McNamara. Good morning. Hello. Well, heading out here a few hours. Go visit Dad again and go to the party from my great nephew. It's his graduation, birthday, and I'm heading out of town to college.

Party. All right then. Everything into one. I'm going to miss him. One of the major reasons I've gone back over the last ten years

has been to hang with him. So that won't be happening as much. Yeah. They're all growing up. They're all getting older.

Yeah, tell me about it. And so it'll be a fun weekend. I mean, I'm out to see, out early in the more, not early, out about noon and back Sunday morning. Yeah.

Normal quick trip. Yeah. So. All right. Oh, I did.

Yeah. Speaking of flying on airplanes. I did.

I really never get into debates on X.

I just don't do it. Well, right. Once in a great whileing. Once this week, we responded to a. Somebody, one of our listeners and.

You went to the conversation was ended up real, real good. I, certainly with that call, it would just agree with something. Something we actually didn't say, but. But this was just a random one if somebody writing something out there. And.

And I must have hit the algorithm on the airlines or something because. I'm my X feet now. I get everybody complaining about the airlines. Mm. And this one guy.

Thinth. Or he, we're not to sat there. He wrote. He said, I was on an airliner. It's only three quarters full.

Mm. I don't know if it was American or whatever. It might have been American.

“Maybe that's why I got it because I fly them all the time.”

And maybe that's what the algorithm has figured out. Mm. But it's like, I was on an airliner. It was like 75% full. Nobody in the exit row.

So I went up and sat in the exit row. And the flight attendant came and kicked me out. Said, you can't be there. This cost extra. Because.

But it's empty. Because it doesn't matter. These are paid for seats. Mm. When you, when you make your ticket.

If you make it online, you didn't pay for people do. Yeah. There's an extra. You didn't pay for it. You can't sit there.

And he said, are all airlines this petty? I just can't believe it's this petty. The seat is open anyway. And, you know, it was like everybody complains about everything now. And most people said, yeah, the airline should have let him have it.

But then a ton of people said, you didn't pay for it. It's obvious. You must not fly at all. And a lot of complaints from people about the airlines are people that don't fly at all. Mm.

“You know, but I wrote on there and I went, you know, something?”

I understand this. You know, a few years back, I went to an NBA game. And I was sitting in the rafters. And I saw all these open seats right near the floor. Well, I went down to sitting one and they kicked me out.

It would have been much more convenient for me. Oh, he put that too. It was much more convenient because nobody was in these seats. And there was a lot more leg room. He put that in there too.

Yeah. And I used for you. Yeah. It was a lot more convenient for me. And they kicked me out.

I said, are all sports leagues this petty? I got a ton of likes. People had nobody commented. They just liked it because it was like, well, I mean, it would be like if people went to WMBA games.

And there were some open seats at court side, which they're probably are.

Yeah, no, I think about, no, I don't recall the last time I saw any open seats in the first class.

But like if there were an open seat in the first class, right? He was just going to walk up there and sit down. No. You didn't pay for it. Yeah.

That's not your seat. The US soccer podcast. I knew it was Meghan Klingerberg and after interviewing so many dudes. During this men's world cup. I'm so happy to be back with my US one Zash Team players.

“I know the US men's national team has changed how I think about myself.”

How I think about being an American, how I think about being on a team. It's one year out from that world cup. And we're going to talk about the brightest prospects in US soccer. Are you ready? It really looks good.

The US soccer podcast presented by Henkel.

It's like, but I love his.

They charge for everything now. They always did. Yeah. Yeah. They did.

“It's the same thing that I was, you know, it was, what did I see?”

Because I'm looking to do. I mean, I just did the doors in my house. I put a new salt water system in my pool. I'm going to get new windows and new blinds. And eventually I'm going to get my master.

Excuse me. My primary bathroom. Hmm. I don't think they should use the word primary. I don't think that's politically correct.

Primary over who I'm going to get my in the next couple of years. I'm going to do that. And but it was like, if you do. If you get your bathroom done by us, he will give you a free shower. Like, I'm not giving anything free.

But wait a minute, hold on a second, hold on.

What do they mean? They'll install a shower. Or someone will come to the house and bathe you. No, okay. We'll give you a free shower.

I'll give you a free shower. Hold on a second. Give me free shower. And I'm like, well, you're redoing the bathroom. You're going to be redoing all in there.

The shower is a part of it. Whether it's free or not is all in the cost of doing business. Business, nothing is free. It's like, buy one, get one free. Now you're simply selling both at half price.

You know, it's like, there is no free involved here. It's only free if I walk in and you say, it's free. And I just, but I just, I just love how people think that. Because I love that. Now the airlines are charging for everything.

And they didn't before. No, he was in the cost of the ticket. Yeah. It's, it's, it's known. It's known.

And there's, you know, I'm sure they figured it out through customer complaints. Should we charge? It just a bigger price for the ticket.

“Or should we make the ticket cheaper and put on all the add-ons?”

Now I will say this, even though because I've flown so much. I feel like the movie up in the air with the cloning.

But he got his 10 million mile thing.

I just got my million mile. But I have not checked a bag in 15 years. Not even golf clubs. Right. I actually bought my brother a set of golf clubs.

It was so funny when I did that. I've been such a great brother. It's not a golf club. You want to use them when you come in town. And you don't want to check baggage in the airplane.

I said, yeah. And he goes, okay. I think this is a good deal. All right. He wasn't insulted at all.

It's a win-win. I get to use them all the time. And you only want to use them. When you come in town, he goes, what if I want to golf with you? I go, we take the old bag of golf clubs that nobody wants to use.

“We put, you know, because you have to bring your own golf clubs.”

And we put them both on the back of the cart. We only use the clubs from one bag, though. It's like, okay, I can do that. Yeah. Why not?

But I just can't. In oversized baggage can take you 45-50 minutes. Sometimes an hour at DFW. I'm not going to do that. Right.

And I'm just like, no, I went, when I could off the plane, I want to be at my car in five minutes. And that's even taking the, what do you recall at the Skylink. Trying.

Yeah. Most of the time, though, most of the time, I landed the terminal where I'm parked and it's great. I mean, I've actually walked off the plane and bent up my car in like a minute and a half.

Those are the things. That's the George Costanza in me for people that ever watched Seinfeld were, you know, a George counts the minutes it takes to get to the airport and how he can beat it. I actually do that when I go home every night.

Yeah. Because I get home within a minute. Yeah. And if I can beat it by a minute. And if I'm coming up to a signal turns radical,

there's no damn traffic. Why'd you turn red? I want to break my record today. What is that? I'm sorry.

You pay attention to red lights at that, that time of morning. I don't, I don't do that. Well, you don't know my town's police department. My town's the same, but some of them go with me.

They're like, why are you stopping? There's nobody here. You see that road rage in Dallas, yes. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, it's probably about 25 miles from me and I 20. I, so somebody, somebody makes a mistake

Yeah.

“And murders you for something that happens on the road.”

Yeah. How blanked up is that? I, I mean, clearly the person, the murderer, you suspect here is, they got him. Yeah.

They did catch him. It was a female. But it's murder. Right. And I don't.

They're had, this, there was a lot more going on in that story. Like to be set off. Yeah. Because if you, if you live in a major metro area like we do,

with several million people going from A to B every day

and then you drive in that on a regular basis. Then you've come to expect that, you know, there's going to be delays. It's going to be people cut you off. It's just part of the deal.

And not think you're going to be happy about it. But yeah. Yeah. Because the last road, a road rage down a little bit further

“and I 20 back, I think it was November, December of last year.”

That was a domestic thing. Yeah. Right. It was said road rage. Right.

It wasn't road rage. Right. I thought the same thing. Yesterday I go, this just seems weird. You're telling me, there's, there's something that happens where you cut off

somebody on.

I 20 and you murder a woman.

There was something else on there. Yeah. I don't know what. I can't tell you. But yeah.

It's unreal. But I'll say hi to Dad for everybody. All right. Good. We hope he's doing well.

Good. It's tough. I mean, it's tough right now. I mean, with the dementia. I don't get a chance to talk.

You know, I used to call every day.

“Now, I talked to my brother and he keeps me updated.”

Hey, can Dad talk today. And most of the time, it's not because. Yeah. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing.

I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing.

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I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing.

I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing.

I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing.

I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing.

I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's doing. It's pretty much the same story with my mother-in-law. My mom has a different type of dementia, but it sends her into, you know, for my mom,

when she doesn't understand things, she just keeps asking questions over and over again. She gets more and more frustrated because she doesn't understand. Dad is dealing with an incurable blood cancer.

His chemo requires him basically.

His body has to nap a couple hours in the afternoon. Things have to happen on a certain schedule. Visitations and everything else. Mom just got some nurses that are with her at the house. That's another thing.

Change is not a good thing. Even though she's in her home environment, and we feel blessed that she can still be there.

He's fighting every day for himself, but for her.

And with my mother-in-law, she is in a great facility. You know, the same person just isn't there. You can walk out of the room and walk back in a few minutes later, and there's no recognition of you. And she is known to take pictures off her wall,

because she doesn't know the people in the pictures. So she does that almost on a daily basis now. It's for all the countless people out there going through it. It's interesting because what you like and what you hate is the fact that it's become the new normal,

and you hate that it becomes a new normal. You know, dealing with them in the state that they're in. But you have no or the choice.

“You have to, in order to take care of him.”

Like my brother, the one good thing I tell you this is what I found out about my siblings.

I mean, I always knew they were great people.

But to witness my brother and sister's full-time caretakers, and my sister and brother-in-law, the way that they help. I've talked to people, especially when I travel on the plane, the last school where I'm going to my dad, everything else. And almost everyone I've dealt with was around my age.

Or even 20 years younger, have dealt with some parent with dementia. And I'm amazed a number of people have told me, did your, the kids split apart because of it. And I said, no, just the opposite. Yeah. And I find out that that I'm probably in the minority on that where it's brought everybody, all the siblings together,

totally and completely unified with complete trust.

And I know that, you know, my, you know, my mom looking down. Yeah. And as I told everybody one time, she's really, really proud of everybody here. And my brother and sister, 24/7 full-time caretakers, their saints. Yeah. Yeah. Seriously. Yep.

“What you have to go through to do that each and every day.”

Now they've done it for a full almost, you know, we're going on. Well, December will be two years. Unbelievable sacrifice. Unbelievable sacrifice. It's a 24-hour day-to-op period.

I am blessed to have them as my brothers and sisters. We are Red Eye Radio. Brought to you by FPPF Fuel Power Max. Owner operators can save a hefty amount of money by participating in discount fuel networks. If you're least in your fleet has a fuel-optimizer program, use it.

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Go to OverdriveOnline.com to the partners in business section of the website for more details on this and many other topics. Brought to you by Shell Rotella, with advanced synthetic technology as designed to help keep your rig running with more mileage and less maintenance. He winds up in for your goals. 866-90 Red Eye on Red Eye Radio. [Music] We are Red Eye Radio. He's our Crony-Nan Gary McNamara.

So security and also Norway and Socialism and Norway coming up on the bottom of the hour. I just saw this one. Illinois Governor Pritzker asks oil executives to return profits to the drivers. Yeah, okay. How? You know, they tried that.

“Remember when Tillerson was CEO of ExxonMobile and they went after him, you have to take your paycheck.”

You should give that back to the people that are paying high prices. And then we did all the math on it and it came out to like, I don't know, 25 cents per person. Did we actually? Yeah, we did the math. Yeah.

Crazy.

And he is our Crony-Nan Gary McNamara.

“Good morning, download our Red Eye Radio app today and you can listen, when and where you choose.”

So I saw this a couple of things here.

First, I saw Joseph Sternberg, who is a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board and the political economics columnist.

And he had a column yesterday on his Congress about to reform Social Security. And you and I talked about the fact that they're all getting together. And what are they going to do? Form another board. Yeah.

And he writes a couple of just a couple of sentences here that I found really interesting. And we're approaching the limit of the burden.

We've already agreed as possible to bear.

And the means we've agreed on to spread the load between current workers and retirees. That agreement is embodied by Social Security's deceptive trust funds. They aren't really trust funds at all. They instead are a convoluted accounting gimmick that has the effect of camping the fiscal burden on current taxpayers, a benefit payouts at the amount equal to the cumulative tax payments the baby boomers made into the system.

This is why when the trust funds run dry, payments will fall. We need a new political agreement.

It's a very simple math problem.

Current workers will have to bear a higher burden to sustain a slurred there. Give me another vodka. Current benefit levels via increased taxes and further delays to the retirement age. Or current retirees will have to accept lower benefits in the form of means tested benefits. Increased taxation of Social Security checks or slower increases in future payouts or some combination of these.

There is no other option. It's a political rather than technical issues, which is why the proposals for outside panels to solve it for lawmakers missed the mark. Because such a panel would struggle to discern solutions that haven't already been contemplated over the decades, its work would devolve into guessing at a political balance between competing interests that voters might find tolerable. We've said that the entire time.

Of course, any reform plan from a committee would still require lawmakers to cast a difficult vote exposing them to charges of overtaxing working Americans or stiffing retirees. That the plan was concocted by an unelected committee is unlikely to offer much political cover in the end. If such a panel could devise a settlement lawmakers would be prepared to risk voting for lawmakers. They would have already crafted such an agreement themselves. So there you, and it was like, we've said it before.

We've said this is all about politics.

“And that's why you and I, we've talked about this before, we expect things like this to happen.”

You, you tax the consumer, but you do it in the way that consumers are so willing to be biased. You raise the amount the corporations have to pay on their side of the fight. Right. It still affects you, but it's stealth and Democrats. And even some Republicans believe you're a complete idiot.

And you believe that you're punishing the corporations and they're doing their fair share if you tax them and you're getting a benefit out of it. When in reality is it's a stealth tax and every consumer. But that probably politically, they'll look and go, now the public's a bunch, hey, what would Gruber said it? The American public is stupid. We can sell them anything.

“Yeah, and that's why Obamacare passed. Well, he said it. He was one of the creators of Obamacare and said that.”

And here, we believe they'll, they'll, they'll do that. They, they will raise the cap. They will raise the cap and they will increase what corporations pay. Whether they will continue to slide up very slowly when you can receive it.

Right. You know, that tax on investment income. This is all part of Bernie's plan that that he was talking about the other day. And he said it would expand benefits by roughly $2,400 a year. And fully fund the program for the next 75 years, lifting the payroll tax cap on high income households. All right.

A new minimum benefit establishes a four, you know, which, by the way, before you get into benefits,

you've got to solve the revenue incoming revenue government revenue problem first.

Well, with Bernie, you say, if you're, if you're going to lift the cap and then tax people with higher incomes, but you're also going to cap the top end, you're not going to do what's done now, where if you pay more, you collect more irrespective of your income, you know, or how rich you are when you retire.

“Now, so does Bernie's plan to fund magically this for 75 years?”

Yeah, come with lifting the cap and also limiting, limiting what people can pay for high net worth and that would be limited. I'm certain that's where the devil lives, because in those details, because they wish to make it less of a pseudo, you know, kind of semi-pension and make it welfare. Right.

Targeting investment income would be a big one.

That would be a big one. Because there is no employer on that side. It would just be, and I don't know what the rate is. I didn't look at the plan. I didn't see any numbers on that, but targeting, if they, if they didn't even put a percent percentage plan to that, but I assume it would be somewhere around six and a quarter or three, you know, three anywhere between three and six or started three and built to six over the years.

What is tax investment income mean? Your capital gains. Okay. So if you're a, if you make all your money from, from capital gains, then you would pay that tax and see there's no employer there. Right. But so you would pay, and my question is, so if there's no employer, because the employer matches, if you're employed, but there would be no employer there.

“So are you going to ask investors who have capital gains?”

To pay on that, again, and match what, again, get to a point of, I don't know, maybe meet the middle at eight or ten percent. I don't know. No, but as we know, when you add taxes like this, it reduces income to the federal government. Oh, of course. So you're, it changes behavior. You, you may be getting more money for so security, but on the other end, you're getting less tax dollars. Remember, and we all know this because of the Obama, Hillary, it was Obama, Hillary, right?

Yes. Yeah, Charlie Gibson. Charlie Gibson. Yep, asking Obama that when you raise corporate, when you raise capital gains taxes, you get less income. When you lower capital gains taxes, you get more income. Right. You actually get more taxes that are paid on the other end.

Right. Because of the expansion of the economy.

“So he was asked Charlie Gibson asked Obama the question, why would you do that because of a sense of fairness?”

Yeah, not the reality of fairness, but a sense of fairness. What he was saying is people are so envious, jealous, and selfish, that all they care is what a label looks like, not what the consequences of it actually is. Right. It would also like there's a definite benefit for children, right? But that only goes to 18 under Bernie's plan. It would be expanded to 22 if there are full-time students.

So the ultimate plan is for the wealthy to get less than what they paid in.

That's the ultimate plan. They're not going to promote that this way. They're saying expansion, but the expansion, basically, what they're trying to do is appeal to the middle class on that one.

Go after the wealthy by, again, lifting the cap going after capital gains. And then limiting benefits, ultimately, in the end, which is the only way you do. But what it's actually doing, you're putting again a stealth tax.

Therefore, we do it in a stealth way, and that is politically viable.

Right.

“Meanwhile, great article that was written here.”

We were talking about socialism, we only got a couple of minutes, but great article from advocates for self-government, economic liberty. No Norway is not some democratic socialist paradise. Really interesting, because this guy who wrote it, "Yoke and Book" grew up in the Nordic countries. And he goes, "Someone visits Norway and Denmark returns dazzle an obvious and parental leave in universal childcare, and ask why America refuses to copy what obviously works." On the day dedicated to celebrating America, a fourth of July, Nicholas Christophe, with the New York Times,

“wrote that America is so great that, in fact, that she'd been more like Norway, if American companies can pay high wages in generous benefits to workers there,”

Christophe observed they could do so in New York too. If only America was willing to embrace a little more social democracy and bigger government, this popular and recurring story goes, perhaps it could enjoy the same prosperity and flourishing that Norway does. I was born and raised in one Nordic country, have worked in another, and for the last six years, I've lived in a third, so I'm very familiar with our way of life. I've also spent much time in America, stunned and enamored of the way things are in this vast diverse and unruly union of states.

Europeans are simultaneously fascinated and bewildered by America.

Plenty of things are amazing about these United States, and quite a few things awful about the Nordics.

I suspect American intellectuals dreaming about Norway without understanding its nature and tradeoffs overlook both. Norwegian workers certainly have higher wages than those in many European countries, including those of fellow Scandinavians. But what the average American professional finds when they moved to Norway, what they would notice, if they moved to Norway, isn't the generous parental leave, but the great loss of disposable income and material well-being. Norwegian households average 30% less disposable income than those in the US, and the cost of everyday items is much higher. The Scandinavian bargain might look like free services, but it is a tradeoff, more public goods, fewer private goods.

Wow. When American politicians and intellectuals promise Nordic welfare states, most people imagine this happening automatically or by tax in the rich and everyone benefits. That's not the case in reality. The real Nordic model taxes earners, more 45% in Denver. Denmark, 40% in Norway, 41% in Sweden, compared to 25% in the United States, and charging flat tax added tax the that. Broad welfare states require broad tax bases. Nordic welfare states are not financed by billionaires, but by ordinary workers.

We do live. We are economically illiterate in this country. We really are. We really are.

“And you have to choose to be that ignorant, because there's no way you can say, well, I just didn't have any place I could learn it.”

You know, it's there's more information available to you now than ever. Yeah, people don't. We are right. I ready. Coming up more with Gary McNamara and Eric Hartley. It's right. I ready.

We are right. I ready. Oh, and he's are crawling. I'm Gary McNamara. Eric, I just don't understand this. You mean you had that one billion dollar powerball winner in Illinois.

You know, powerball, you know, ton of states are in it. You got a lot of liberal states. Why are liberal states in the business of creating evil billionaires? I thought about that now. I also thought, oh, that new billionaire might leave Illinois now. Welcome to Texas or Florida. You know, it's, you know, you're funny thing is I, you know, you put yourself in a situation if all of a sudden, you know, you want a billion dollars, and I'm sitting there thinking, I don't want that to happen in my life right now. Well, I like my life the way that it is, and a billion dollars would screw it up. I'm not going to give it away, but I don't want it to.

To all of a sudden becoming end after taxes of multi-millionaire. And it's, it's a life-changing event.

“And it's, it's also a full-time job keeping up with that money. Might help my social life, though.”

I can eat more chicks. Yeah, well, you're good. It's, it's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's going for you.

This is Ridae Radio on Westwood One. The Dan Bontino Show folks, some of my job to sit here and like try to stir you up for clicks.

“I think I've been very level-headed. I've had to tell people a lot of things they didn't want to hear. So let me tie together into a bullet point storyline.”

This information warfare against your mind is very real. Be careful where you're getting your information. Do not gap this off.

Telling you like this is why I've been so passionate. This stuff is real. Now does it make sense? The Dan Bontino Show. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. March your day with the morning jolt of Drake toll. See now it's on demand. My podcast is kind of a radio thing.

“I think, but also it's a bit of a TV show and it's about whatever I want it to be. It's listening live as it happened when it happened with the instant reaction.”

Your home for talking sports. We go back. The great toll show. Westwood One sports network. And there will be on demand on your radio. Anywhere in the country, I'll see you there. Westwood One sports talk. Your home for Drake toll. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.