January 2006

Podcast (1/21/06) - Transcript

The following transcript is for the podcast entitled “Gritty Determination.”

Note: Senator Barack Obama's remarks are displayed in blue.

Welcome to the PACT America podcast.

It's been a while since I've done any podcasting; I really haven't been in the mood. I've been looking for a good job, and it has been kind of tough. So this has been the last thing on my mind.

Anyway, I've got kind of a special podcast planned for today. I was at a town hall meeting this week with Senator Barack Obama, and I've got some audio excerpts from that speech that I would like to include into this podcast. I'll make a few comments at the end, but right now, let's just go to the speech.

(pause)

“Alright, here are the rules on the town hall meeting. I've done enough just lecturing. There really are no rules except: a, when you raise your hand and I call on you, please actually try to ask a question or make a succinct statement, because we want to get to as many people as possible, and we've got a limited amount of time. The second thing is: introduce yourself. And the third thing is: if you have an individual problem--let's say your Social Security check didn't come in this week; I don't know where your Social Security check is.”

(laughter)

“So I won't be able to just answer right here and tell you, but I can guarantee you I'll find it. We will find it, but you need to just give us a little bit of time. So I've got some staff members here. Let's see where they are...

“Everybody who's either a staff member or a volunteer raise your hand. Okay, so here's one over here and there's another one and back there, there's another one.

“So those folks, if you have a veteran's issue, a Social Security issue, etc. that's particular to you, that needs constituent service, please contact my staff after the meeting and I promise you we will respond promptly and get back to you to let you know how we can help you. Okay?

“Alright, let's go at it.”

[excluded material]

(applause)

“Young guy right here.”

[inaudible material]

“Oh, Adam, hold on a second. I want to see if I can get this mic, because the people outside can't hear your question.”

“Step on up to the microphone. Is it on?”

“Yeah, we can hear you.”

“My name is Adam Florzak, and I went to night school here at COD for welding. But it has been kind of tough finding a job. You know, a lot of corporations are exporting jobs to places like China and that. And you know, even our nation now, we're borrowing money from China, and I don't care what anybody says, I don't think we should be borrowing money from a communist country.”

(applause)

“And my question is, you know, we see corporations that are like cutting their pension benefits and they're basically making up the rules as they go along. You know, it's not just small companies--it's multinational corporations. And then you have this Social Security thing. And you know, you said you didn't want us to ask when our Social Security check would come, but you know--I want to know. When will my Social Security check come?”

(laughter)

“And I also...”

“Well, how old are you now?”

“Twenty-four.”

“Twenty-four?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I guess in about forty years then the first ones should start arriving.”

“But...”

“It will still be around by that point, but finish your question.”

“But seriously, I mean, you know it's like the President had a plan to invest in the stock market. And you know, I don't want to give my hard-earned money to Wall Street, because corporations are doing everything they can to cut my pay and export my job. And I just think we shouldn't invest in corporations, we should invest in the country. So you know, I've been working on this plan, and I think it would be good, and I hope you'll take a look at it.”

“You've got a plan?”

(laughter)

“Yeah.”

(applause)

“Man, let's take a look at Adam's plan.”

(laughter and applause)

“We've got to get a copy of the plan.”

(Adam reaches towards the stage and hands Senator Obama a copy of his plan)

(applause)

“Alright, this is the PACT America--this is a nice looking plan here. Look at this; it's all...”

“Yeah.”

“Is this a super-secret plan? Or...”

“No, I've got a website. You know, I don't really know... I didn't know too much about web programming or anything like that, but you can check it out.”

“Alright, well Adam, you have a bunch of witnesses that if suddenly Senator Obama introduces the Patriotic Americans Collective Trust Act...”

(laughter and applause)

“That this is... This is actually Adam's plan.”

(laughter)

“Let me respond to a couple of points that you made Adam, real quick.

“First of all, you are absolutely accurate that our long-term sustainability as a country is going to depend in part on how we manage our budget and our fiscal priorities. We can't... Remember when I said we're running that big credit card? The Chinese have issued the credit card, and they're happy to do it just like Chase is happy to give you a credit card right before Christmas. Because they know that you're going to be on the hook for a lot of money for a long time to come. Part of the reason China has been willing to do this is because we're buying their exports.

“So the loop that you've got going right now is we've got manufacturers who used to operate here in the United States moving to China, China is then manufacturing goods that used to be made here, they are selling them back to us essentially on an installment plan where they say, ‘Don't worry, you don't need to pay now; you can pay later. You can keep your interest rates low; don't worry about it.’

“And that imbalance, that trade imbalance that we are developing, is essentially mortgaging much of our future, much of our children's future. So that's point number one. The way to reverse that is for us to essentially get our budget in order so we're not borrowing as much from overseas. That in turn allows us to take money that we might spend on interest either now or down the line, and invest it in productive capacity here at home. That would be point number one.

“Point number two that you raised is the whole issue of retirement security. Along with healthcare, this is probably one of the most important structural issues that we're seeing in the economy that has to change. Social Security used to be one leg of the retirement stool, personal savings was the other leg, and the third leg was private pensions. Private pensions are essentially being gutted. It is very unlikely that young people here are going to have a defined benefit plan. You will not have that; you will have a 401(k) plan in which if you're lucky, the employer matches, say five percent. If you're unlucky, then it's basically just a tax-free savings account for you, but it's your own money coming out of your pocket that's going into it.

“That is a profound shift in terms of retirement security. It's worse for older workers who are counting on pensions and are now seeing companies go through bankruptcy to get rid of their pensions and leaving the workers completely vulnerable and not having the benefits that they expected.

“There have been a number of proposals to do a couple of things, and I've been the co-sponsor of a couple of them. One is truth in pension operations where you essentially say to a corporation, ‘If you tell somebody that you're going to give them a pension, not only do you actually have to follow through with it, but you also have to save enough money, set aside enough money, to make sure that these pension liabilities can be met.’

“It is also important though for us to give workers more tools to save and invest more effectively--particularly lower-income workers. And so, I've been proposing that we give a tax credit to workers in the bottom half of the income scale, so that for every dollar that they save, the government contributes fifty cents. So that over time, they can build up a substantial set of assets for themselves.

“Now, this is going to be a major debate that is going to be taking place. The reason the Social Security plan that the President proposed didn't make sense was that Social Security is not... That's the leg of the stool that you want to be most secure. Your personal... Your 401(k) is already going into a mutual fund. If you have additional personal savings outside of that, you're probably investing in some kind of investment, long-term investment, that gets a higher return.

“Social Security--that's your safety net. So you don't want... It would be nice to get a twenty percent return if you could guarantee it, but that's not how it works. If you go in the stock market, you may have invested in Enron a year before you retire. And Social Security is designed to be that bottom-line where if everything else goes wrong, there's still something. And that's why I think the American people, not Congress, but the American people rejected the President's proposal. Okay.”

(applause)

(pause)

Welcome back to the PACT America podcast.

For the most part, I agreed with what the Senator had to say, and I was encouraged, because I think that he would really like my ideas or like my proposal for Social Security reform. I hope that he'll actually take the chance or take the time to read it.

I would like to comment on one thing that he said though, and that was the idea that he set forth whereby the government could establish some sort of savings incentive by contributing fifty cents for every dollar that a lower income was able to save. You know, I don't agree with that at all. Not at all. Number one, there's just not the money for an idea like that; we've got enormous budget deficits as it is without trying to contribute money for savings accounts.

And secondly, there's a real problem in this country. You know, you've got these big corporations who are paying workers really low wages, so low that in some cases these workers qualify for welfare or food stamps or government subsidized housing. Meanwhile, these corporations are making billions upon billions of dollars in profits. So supposedly they can't afford to pay their workers a decent wage even though they're making so much in profits. And then, we the taxpayers must subsidize those paychecks by providing these people with basically these welfare type services. I just don't think that's right. Number one, these people--I mean, they work hard; they shouldn't have to feel bad for working hard. They shouldn't have to feel like they're a drain on the system because they can't afford enough to live on what they're being paid.

But I don't think it's the government's job or the taxpayers' job to make up the shortfall in what these corporations are paying their employees, especially when these corporations are making record profits in some cases.

(pause)

Anyway, real briefly here, I wanted to get into the story behind the story.

It seems kind of amazing that I was actually able to speak with the Senator during this event. Or you know, to some people, I'm sure it almost seems staged, but I can assure you that it was not.

About a week and a half before this event, I received a letter from the office of Senator Barack Obama. Previously, I had sent him a letter requesting that he call me at his convenience so that we might discuss my ideas or that I could give him a basic overview of my plan. However, this letter was informing me that my request was denied. It said that the Senator just did not have time to meet with me or speak with me. So that was disappointing to say the least, especially since I was only asking for a brief phone call.

(sigh)

And you know, several months ago I had actually gone to Washington D.C. And about sixteen hours into my train trip, or train ride, I received a phone call from the Senator's office informing me that the meeting they had scheduled with me would have to be rearranged. I ended up canceling it, because it was more important for me to make it to my brother's graduation from the Army's Basic Training program.

And about one year ago, I was at another town hall meeting with Senator Barack Obama. I had brought several copies of my plan hoping that I might be able to ask a question, but I just wasn't called upon. After the meeting, I tried to get in contact with the Senator, but his assistants pretty much intervened or I don't know... It just didn't work out.

(pause)

Anyway, one week before this event, I was giving a local speech. I've been invited to several groups, or by several organizations, to speak to them about my ideas for Social Security reform. At this particular meeting, there wasn't a very good turnout. In fact, it seemed like everybody who was there was either a speaker or a part of the executive committee. You know, there were quite a few empty seats. And as I was driving home that night, I was kind of disappointed. This whole Social Security project has had quite a few disappointments; it has been quite difficult.

And you know, I was kind of feeling down, and I kind of said a prayer about it. And anyway, as I was driving home, I received a phone call. It was from the State Representative whose Social Security forum I had spoken at a few months previously. She wanted to know if I would be her guest at a town hall meeting that was going to be having Senator Barack Obama, and of course I accepted the invitation.

I was scheduled to ride with her to the event, but when I went to her office that morning, her assistant told me that she had to leave for something else and that I would have to drive myself.

Then when I got there, I tried to reach her on her cell phone, but there was no signal in the building. I went into the auditorium, but there were so many people there that I just couldn't see her among the crowd. I went back out to the lobby, and I was feeling really disappointed at this time. You know, I felt like another opportunity had slipped past and...

(sigh/groan)

But as the event was beginning and the doors were closing, I started to walk in when one of the ushers called to me and said that I might have a better chance if I went through the other doors on the other side of the auditorium. So I did, and as I was walking into the auditorium, at that precise moment, this State Representative stood up in her seat, turned around, and I think she was putting her coat on her seat or something like that.

So if it hadn't been for that usher who told me to try the other door, I would have missed the whole thing. Anyway, I went down to the front and was able to get a good seat right in the second row, right in front of the podium. But it almost never happened.

I don't know, it was just... It was really cool to finally be able to give the Senator a copy of my plan. You know, face to face, from my hand to his. Just hand him the copy of it. And whether he reads it or not is a different matter, but at least I feel like I've done my part, you know?

And I am one determined guy. Yeah, if nothing else, I've got that going for me. And I'd like to think that maybe the Lord is looking out for me a little bit too. Alright, that's enough.

This is Adam Florzak keeping it real.