Plan For America

Dr. Daniel Hall is the dean of the business school at High Point University in North Carolina.  High Point bills itself as the premier life skills university in the nation, and Dr. Hall shares some of the innovative things the university is doing.  As a college professor, he shares a matrix of how he evaluates Plan For America in comparison with the existing system.  How does Plan For America stack up?

We have long thought that mutual fund managers are the rock stars of the financial services industry because they get to manage the largest chunks of money.  We were therefore thrilled to have Idanna Appio, the portfolio manager for First Eagle Income Builder Fund as our guest.  In the first half of the episode, she sheds light on some current investment strategies she is using as well as a general outlook on the economy.  In the second half, we discuss Plan For America as a potential solution to a sovereign debt crisis which, in Appio's opinion, is the most serious type of financial crisis a nation can face.

Dr. Vance Ginn is a noted economist who has worked at the state and national levels.  From Texas, he served the Texas Public Policy Institute, and nationally he worked in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in Washington, DC.  As someone who is very concerned with government debts and deficits, we wanted his opinion on Plan For America and how it can address those problems.

Phil Cusa has been a healthcare administrator for over 40 years.  In the first half of the episode, Phil gives us an overview of the current state of healthcare in the U.S. and why it needs fixing.  The second half explores how some of the specific provisions of Plan For America could help solve those problems. 

One of the greatest challenges in addressing the problem of unfunded Social Security obligations is getting current retirees on board.  Saul Anuzis is the President of 60-Plus, a senior advocacy group, so we thought he would be an excellent guest to weigh in on the topic.  Doing nothing about Social Security, as both major political parties seem to advocate, means massive benefit cuts within a decade so that path is unsustainable.  The key in Saul's view is a public-private partnership that gives retirees access to market returns with a government guarantee, and that is exactly what Plan For America is proposing.

A graduate of Vanderbilt University, John Steele Gordon is an author and thought leader.  One of his books is The Great Game: The Emergence of Wall Street as a World Power and he has also written about the economic history of the U.S. in general.  One of his observations is that enormous government debts and deficits is a relatively recent phenomenon and we do not know how that will end if not reversed.  How would Plan For America fit into this economic history?  Gordon shares his thoughts in this episode.

Dan Mitchell is the Chairman of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, a thinktank in Washington, DC, that focuses on free markets end encouraging governments around the world to compete with each other economically.  As an economist, we thought Dan would be perfect to comment on the Plan For America provision that retirement monies would be invested in an all-market index of publicly traded, U.S. domiciled companies (with a guaranteed minimum return).  The incentive would be for foreign companies to relocate to the United States in order to access this reliable flow of capital and therefore be subject to U.S. corporate reporting and transparency requirements.  If you like what you hear and want to be a part, visit our website planforamerica.us and donate today. 

AnneMarie Schieber is a healthcare expert with Heartland Institute and writes their healthcare newsletter.  She is our first guest on the healthcare side of Plan For America, which is important because Medicare represents about 85% of the unfunded liability problem facing our country, while Social Security only represents about 15%.   Ms. Schieber has endorsed our book: Plan For America: How to Place the American Dream on a Sure Foundation Forever and has interviewed plan founder Terry Nager on her podcast.

Spike Cohen ran for Vice President on the Libertarian Party ticket in 2020.  A successful businessman, he is thinking about running for President in 2024.  If he does, Plan for America will be part of his platform, and he has heartily endorsed the plan, mentioning it on national television interviews. 

A renowned economist, Dr. Alexander William Salter is professor of economics at Texas Tech University. A co-author of the book "Money and the Rule of Law," Dr. Salter heads up the Sound Money Project for the American Institute of Economic Research, focused on improving our monetary system.   Dr. Salter explains the gold standard and the significance of getting away from it over 50 years ago. He is also perfectly positioned to comment on Plan For America and its provision to inject up to $1 trillion annually into U.S. markets. We think that would help the U.S. dollar to maintain its position as the reserve currency of the world.

Len Gilroy is with the Reason Foundation in Los Angeles and heads up their Pension Integrity Project. Reason is a national Libertarian think tank that also publishes a magazine by the same name. Len's particular interest is in state and local pension liabilities, many of which are not currently fully funded. This poses a threat to state budgets because most are constitutionally required to be balanced.    According to Gilroy, these liabilities total $1.5 trillion across state and local governments, in addition to another $1.5 trillion in unfunded healthcare liabilities.  Since Plan For America would be enacted through contract law including the 50 state governments, it could be a solution to both unfunded state liabilities because they could opt into the plan.

Johnny Gwin was one of the first independent candidates to declare for President of the United States in the 2024 election cycle. A social media and podcast expert from Mobile, Alabama, Gwin has a unique take on the issues of the day.  What does he think about Plan For America?  With Republicans and Democrats at loggerheads and unpopular, is there an opening for a third-party candidate? 

 Our guest for this episode is Adam Houser with the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT).  The twin goals of this organization are environmental stewardship and human prosperity, on the assumption that these goals are not in conflict with one another.    We thought Adam would be a good guest because he heads up CFACT's college outreach, and today's college students generally do not believe they will ever see one dime out of Social Security or Medicare.  What better way to promote human prosperity than with Plan For America so that we will have the means to take care of our environment?

Gregory van Kipnis is the chairman of the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) based in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.  We thought he would be a good guest for Plan For America Podcast because AIER is a nonpartisan research and education nonprofit focused on the importance of markets.  Their mission is to affirm free enterprise, economic liberty, property rights, sound money, and legal institutions.  All of these, in addition to the government guarantee we are proposing, are elements of PFA and we think his thoughtful approach is well worth the listen!

Who better to explain Plan For America than its author, Terry Nager? Terry has been a Certified Financial Planner since 1980, and he also has designations as a Chartered Life Underwriter and a Chartered Financial Consultant.  Some years ago, he was walking along the beach wondering if his sons would enjoy the same opportunities he had growing up in this country.  He then hit upon a plan that would serve as a reasonably comprehensive financial plan for every American citizen, Plan For America. It covers all five basic areas of financial planning: retirement, health care, insurance, taxation, and estate planning. Tune into this show and learn how this plan can solve our nation's debt crisis.

Grover Norquist is the President of Americans for Tax Reform, based in Washington, DC.  He is perhaps best known for the "pledge" that he attempts to get from candidates for public office that they will not raise taxes of any kind if elected.  We therefore thought he would be a fascinating guest on the show because of PFA's approach to taxes.  Under the plan, all promises will be kept to current retirees so that they will receive their Social Security and health care benefits.  And, once all unfunded liabilities are paid off under the plan, somewhere between 30-50 years down the road, the unique funding mechanism of Plan For America would replace taxation of any kids as the source of government revenue.  See Grover's reaction on this episode!

Plan For America is a public-private partnership, and we could not think of a better expert in such partnerships than our guest, Tom Cellucci.  He was appointed as Chief Commercialization Officer by President George W. Bush and reappointed by President Barack Obama. Today he heads up Bravatek, a company specializing in the mining of rare earth metals. His CEO at the time, Travis Nagle, is also a guest on the podcast.   Together, the guests explain what rare earth metals are and why they are so important for the economy. For example, electric vehicles and cell phones are made with significant quantities of these metals. Strategically, the majority of many rare earth metals are found in China. Exploring this as well as providing a bipartisan take on Plan For America makes for a fascinating episode.

If you ever want to get an idea like Plan For America going, a good place to start is with your own representative in Congress.  Bradley Byrne was the Congressman for Alabama's first district from 2014-2021.   Prior to that he served as a state senator and ran for governor.  A graduate of Duke University, Byrne has a law degree from the University of Alabama.  His wide-ranging background made him an ideal guest to discuss the implications of a plan to eliminate our national debts and deficits.

Speaker and author Chris Hogan is our guest, who many will recognize from his years in the Dave Ramsey organization.  Ramsey's goal is to shift individuals from a culture of debt to one of equity, or ownership, and that is exactly what Plan For America is trying to do on a national basis.   One of Chris's books is "Everyday Millionaire," something that will become easier for more people to achieve if Plan For America is ever enacted.  

FreedomFest is an annual festival where free minds meet to celebrate freedom in an open-minded environment.  It is independent, non-partisan, and not officially affiliated with any organization or think tank.   That is exactly why Plan For America chose FreedomFest as the first event to unveil our plan.  Dr. Mark Skousen is the founder and producer of FreedomFest.  In this episode he talks about the 2022 conference and also shares his take on some of the key aspects of Plan For America.  

One of the first people to endorse Plan For America is Stephen Moore, an economist affiliated with Freedom Works and The Heritage Foundation. If you like political and economic commentary, you have probably seen him on TV often! Our topic is Modern Monetary Theory, the idea that government debts and deficits do not matter. For a while when interest rates remained near zero for many years, it seemed that it might be true. But as anyone who has run a household or a business knows, debts and deficits DO matter and need to be addressed. Plan For America is an idea to address them nationally and Steve Moore reacts to some of the plan's features.

What is Plan For America?  There is no one better to explain it than the man who built the economic model to see if it would work: Dr. Kyre Lahtinen of Wright State University.     One of Kyre's super powers is taking complex topics and explaining them in simple terms.  That is what he does here, describing the retirement and health care components of our plan to save our country from crushing debt.   Check it out for yourself!  And, if you have a question that was not answered here, please email us and we will get you the answer: [email protected]