10.27.25 The Credit Card Rewards Game / New Tax Brackets & Your 401(k)

Summary

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The Clark Howard Podcast

Episode: 10.27.25 — The Credit Card Rewards Game / New Tax Brackets & Your 401(k)
Host: Clark Howard
Date: October 27, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Clark Howard takes listeners inside the world of credit card rewards—who the “game” is for, who should steer clear, and how airlines and banks profit from the reward ecosystem. Clark then dives into newly announced tax brackets and shares a strong, clear stance on using Roth versus traditional 401(k) accounts in light of recent changes. Throughout, he fields listener questions on maximizing points, privacy concerns with major issuers, medical billing, payment apps safety, and navigating the 529 education savings plan.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Credit Card Rewards Game: Who Wins, Who Loses?

• Main Point: Not everyone should chase reward cards; banks target heavy spenders with high credit scores. For most, cashback cards are better.
• Deep-Dive:
  • Airlines (notably Delta) now earn more profit from reward card partnerships than from flying planes (03:00).
    • “Delta airlines makes virtually 100% of its profit not from flying planes…but from the money they get from American Express…” — Clark (03:12)
  • Heavy users (often with 50+ cards) are courted with huge sign-up bonuses, but annual fees can go as high as $900 for American Express Platinum.
  • To make big-fee cards work, you must spend tens of thousands monthly, typically via business expenses.
  • Most people would benefit more from a no-annual-fee 2% cash back card.
    • “Probably 90%…paying these annual fees on these points or mileage based cards would actually more efficiently…have a no annual fee 2% cash back card.” — Clark (08:55)
  • Points devalue—use them before each new devaluation or stick with simple cash back.

Memorable Moment on the Rewards Obsession:

• "It's like you ever been to the dog track and they're chasing the rabbit around the track. The rabbit is for you—'Oh man, I got those points!'" — Clark (05:00)

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2. Listener Q&A: Credit Card Decisions & Data Privacy

Southwest Airlines Card Dilemma

• Actionable Advice: Replace high-fee airline cards with no-annual-fee 2% cashback cards; don't worry about losing long credit history as long as you have other long-standing accounts.
• Quote: “Dump the Southwest card after you've replaced it with one of the 2% cash back, no annual fee cards.” — Clark (11:18)
• When canceling, expect retention offers—be 'all ears' but stick to what benefits your finances.

Data Sharing Concerns with Wells Fargo

• Overview: Listeners worry about Wells Fargo collecting and sharing browsing data.
• “Why? I mean, I get capturing information to make sure that…a crook's not doing it, but to share with third parties…that would be really uncool because of the unhappy history that Wells Fargo has had.” — Clark (12:50)
• Clark team commits to investigating specifics and reiterates importance of security over marketing.

Redeeming Cash Back Correctly

• Advice: Always redeem Citi Double Cash as a direct deposit, not a statement credit, to get full 2%.
  • “If you use a credit to pay your bill, you lose the second 1%. Yes. So that is absolutely right.” — Clark (14:26)

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3. New Tax Brackets & Your 401(k): Go Roth, Unless You're Exceptionally High Income

• Big News: 2026 tax brackets are out, and Clark is adamant this clarifies Roth vs. Traditional 401(k) for most savers.
  • “It's not pretty clear. It's crystal clear…You want your money all in the Roth version of the retirement plan offered at work, period. No money in the traditional 401k. Period.” — Clark (18:01)
• General Guidance:
  • Single: Under $200K per year? Use Roth.
  • Married: Under $400K per year? Use Roth.
  • Above $500K (single) or $700K (married): Traditional 401(k) may make sense.
• Clark highlights Roth as a way to effectively save ~30% more due to after-tax contributions and future tax-free withdrawals.
  • “If you do this all through your working lifetime, you're able to retire when you want to—way ahead of the clock…” — Clark (20:24)

Memorable Moment:

• “I'm the one person who would actually pay attention to [new tax brackets] and be excited about it because I have screws loose.” — Clark (15:26)

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4. Advanced Listener Q&A

529 Plan Rollover Limits

• Listener Concern: What if child doesn’t need the 529 (e.g. full scholarship)? Are rollovers to Roth IRA capped at $35,000?
• Clark’s Breakdown:
  • $35,000 is indeed the max for Roth conversion; excess can go to another child’s education tax-free, but unused, non-qualified withdrawals face ordinary income tax plus 10% penalty—unless the reason is a scholarship (tax, but no penalty).
  • “If your child scholarships out, money…could be transferred to the benefit of another child tax free…But if not, there’s a stick that hits you…with tax and penalties…” — Clark (24:22)

Medical Bills & Balance Billing

• Rule: With in-network providers, you pay only your plan’s share (copay, co-insurance); anything above that is not your responsibility.
• No Surprises Act: Further protects against unexpected bills in emergencies or when you don’t choose the out-of-network provider.

Payment Apps & Bank Safety

• Question: Linking primary and secondary banks—can fraud travel through an external bank transfer link?
• Clark: “Not in any way I’ve ever heard of…” The only real risk is automatic replenishments; always move funds manually.
• Editorial Moment: Clark laments lack of consumer protections in modern payment systems, blaming campaign finance and political access.
  • “[Politicians'] only loyalty is to one direction only, and that’s to who gives the money.” — Clark (29:00)
  • “If I’m some giant mega monster bank…want a meeting…bam…” — Clark (31:09)

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Notable Quotes

• “Most people would benefit more from a no-annual-fee 2% cash back card.” — Clark (08:55)
• “Probably 90%…paying these annual fees…would actually more efficiently in their lives have a no annual fee 2% cashback card.” — Clark (08:55)
• "Dump the Southwest card after you've replaced it with one of the 2% cash back, no annual fee cards." — Clark (11:18)
• "If you use a credit to pay your bill, you lose the second 1%. Yes." — Clark (14:26)
• "It's not pretty clear. It's crystal clear… You want your money all in the Roth version of the retirement plan offered at work, period." — Clark (18:01)
• “If your child scholarships out… money could be transferred to another child tax free… Otherwise, taxes and penalties.” — Clark (24:22)
• "[Politicians'] only loyalty is to one direction only, and that’s to who gives the money.” — Clark (29:00)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 01:10 – 09:30: The Credit Card Rewards Game: Industry, who the game is for, big annual fees, should you play or not?
• 09:29 – 14:26: Listener Q&A: Airline card cancellation, data privacy with credit cards, redeeming points/cash back correctly.
• 17:42 – 22:29: New Tax Brackets, Roth vs. Traditional 401(k) Decision Matrix.
• 22:35 – 30:28: Advanced listener Q&A: 529 plan rollovers, medical bills and "balance billing," bank safety with payment apps; Clark’s commentary on the political ecosystem.
• 31:09 – 32:37: Clark’s reflection on political access and closing thoughts on empowerment.

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Final Takeaways

• Credit card rewards can be lucrative for heavy spenders with discipline, but most people are better off with a simple 2% cash back card with no annual fee.
• Periodically review your reward cards; don’t hang on to those with high annual fees unless you’re truly maximizing them.
• Roth 401(k)s are almost always the superior choice for those under $200K (single) or $400K (married) in annual income—new tax brackets reinforce this.
• Always redeem credit card cash back in ways that give you the full benefit (e.g. direct deposit, not statement credit with Citi Double Cash).
• Protect your privacy and finances by managing banking links deliberately and advocating for stronger consumer protection.
• For 529 plans, $35K is the max Roth rollover; educate yourself about alternative options if your child won’t use all the funds.

Clark’s sign-off wisdom: Always equip yourself with knowledge to avoid life’s financial landmines: “Save more, spend less, and don’t ever let anybody rip you off.”

Transcript

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[Clark Howard]

It's great to have you here on the Clark Howard Show. I hope you had a great weekend. You know our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you to make better financial decisions in your life. And if you're subscribed to our free newsletter. Free. I hope you enjoyed Yesterday's Clark Smart Investor Edition comes out every Sunday. If you want to sign up, go to clark.com newsletter or newsletters. Either works. Today I'm going to talk about the credit card rewards game who should play it and who should stay far, far away. Also, the new tax brackets are out. The new tax brackets are out and I was so excited. What a loser I am. Anyway, I want to tell you how you use that to make a decision with money you're investing. If you should be in the Roth version of, let's say 401k, IRA, whatever, or you should be in traditional I've got the exact dollars and cents for your choices you make for 26. So reward cards are where all the action is right now with the credit card companies. In fact. Wow. Read a industry story recently that Delta airlines makes virtually 100% of its profit not from flying planes all over the world, but from the money they get from American Express from people who are using the American Express Sky Miles credit cards. That Delta will get $10 billion that falls straight to profit this year, estimated from The American Express Sky Miles. A lot of Americans are absolutely hooked on credit cards so much. There was a headline I saw online recently. Okay, I'm going to read this headline. They each own 50 credit cards. Should you? 55. Oh, what's going on. Is people who have a credit score generally above about 740 and people who show that they use extremely low credit card utilization, meaning of the credit cards they have, they're using a tiny amount of their available credit are big targets for all the banks to try to get you to sign up for reward cards. And then the battle is to get you to use one particular reward card. So Chase is trying to get you to use one of theirs, American Express, one of theirs, city, one of theirs, blah blah, blah blah. Because they make so much money from merchant fees and the default and delinquency rates are teensy tiny if people meet those profiles. So they're luring you with sign up bonuses of these many points and then ongoing you get 4% for this kind of charge and 6% for that one, and 1% for this and two for that and all that. And it's all this lore. It's like you ever been to the dog track and they're chasing the rabbit around the track. The rabbit is for you. Oh man, I got those points. I'm going to go to fill in the blank. Whatever the fantasy is. The funniest thing of all is that United and Delta in particular are flying routes that historically they wouldn't have flown. That are money losers for them. But just because they help so much getting people to sign up for their credit cards and charge to them. So when does it make sense? When does it not? Okay, cold hard fact. Most people who have particularly because most of the reward action is not where most of us would benefit from it, which is no annual fee straight cash back cards. But if you are a mega charger and a mega traveler, you are the target that these people are after. And that's how you end up with this headline of people who have 50 active credit cards or more right now. Because they're playing this game. And there's all these websites and newsletters that that all they do all day long is write about the bonuses that are available and the redemptions that are available and all that for mileage junkies. So you got to fit the profile though if you're going to pay a huge annual fee for a card. And what we're talking about is 900 for American Express, 800 for the Chase Sapphire Reserve, 600 for the City Strata and 400 for the Capital One Venture X. I'm not even mentioning the monolines. The ones that are for American or United or Delta or Alaska or used to be an airline. People were interested in having their card. It was a directional airline. What's it called? Southwest. That was the one. Anyway, that airline's lost in space right now under its private equity owners. It's funny how many people call them the. There's some really pejorative term people are using for Elliot right now who Ms. Southwest. I'm not going to use it here because I don't use language like that. But anyway, with any of these cards you've got to have beyond having them the first year to get the sign up bonus and have the discipline to dump it after a year. If you're not going to be be honest with yourself. You're not going to charge big volume on a card with big annual fees. It doesn't belong in your life. What's big volume? Do you know there are people charging on these cards tens of thousands of dollars a month. Usually business owners who are running their business expenses through them. But a lot of people charge relatively small amounts of money per month on credit cards. Having a high annual fee reward card when you're having tiny charge volume makes no sense at all. And you really have to devote yourself to gamifying all this if you're going to be one of these people with dozens of cards. It's got to be like a part time, not job, but I call it a hobby. And then you can be somebody who brags. Yeah, I flew business class to Fiji for 40, 000 points or whatever. I mean you know there. Because there are these wonderful things if I think I've mentioned points. Arrow. Yeah. So what is it? Points.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

Somebody wrote in about it one time. A E R O.

[Clark Howard]

And they were writing positively. Right? Yeah. So you use these tools when you get all these points to figure out how best to do the redemptions and the devaluation and points is a real thing. So you don't want to just let the points build up like they're Mount Everest. You want to harvest your points before each new devaluation occurs or just do cash back.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

Right?

[Clark Howard]

That's right. Well that's the point. Oh, oh, that was bad pun. That's the reality is that probably 90% of people that are paying these annual fees on these points or mileage based cards would actually more efficiently in their lives have a no annual fee 2% cash back card. We've got a list of those on clark.com use that all the time. And then you're going to have the cash back to pay for the travel you do when you travel. Period.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

All right, Nan in Texas says I have a Southwest Airlines credit card.

[Clark Howard]

Oh, that directional airline I was talking about.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

The annual fee recently increased. I don't need the additional benefits this increase provides. How do I cancel my credit credit card? Or do you advise keeping it due to its over 20 year credit history and replace it with a no annual fee cashback credit card? My only other credit cards are Amex and Capital One. I pay off all charges in full each month. My current credit score is 824. Thank you for all you do for me and my fellow listeners.

[Clark Howard]

So, Nan, I mean, abandoned ship like you're doing is Southwest. There's going to be like the show Me state. It's going to be the show me airline because they botched up Southwest so much. I can't believe it.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

Anyway, I mean, this is the biggest swing in Clark Howard history. You loved Southwest. You had the card. You loved it. And what did you just tell me you did with your card?

[Clark Howard]

Done. Done. I mean, I mean, they just, it's like, okay, so what the Elliott people do. So they wake up every day and they say, what can we do to alienate more people today? Because we didn't alienate everybody yet. It's just unbelievable. And maybe, maybe they'll find their way to making the airline successful again eventually. But, wow, I feel so bad for the employees, feel so badly for all those people at Southwest.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

So you'd encourage Nan to follow what you've done?

[Clark Howard]

Yeah. Oh, so. But I didn't answer the question. Can you tell him a little?

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

I know you're so. Oh, you're like hurt by this whole thing. I mean, it's really been a journey for you. As they say on the Bachelor, Herb.

[Clark Howard]

Kelleher is just, he's just poor man. Anyway, what you want to do is you want to hopscotch, you want to go ahead and first of all, your, your 20 year plus history that's there, you're fine. You dump the Southwest card after you've replaced it with one of the 2% cash back, no annual fee cards. And you know, who knows, when you call Chase to dump the Southwest card, they may make some kind of offer to you. Be all ears. Maybe they'll offer you something for another Chase card. Or that one that you're like, okay, I'll do that. So go ahead and get the bird in the hand. Your replacement Credit, and then you call Chase and see what kind of make a deal they're offering.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

Laurie in Texas says, do you have any tips on how to avoid data sharing without living under a rock? We've had the Wells Fargo Active Cash credit card for several years. In order to get the 2% cash back, which annually is substantial for us, they just released their new online access agreement. Per usual, the big companies and their lawyers are collecting, or will be collecting, browsing history information and. And sharing it with third parties. I don't like this at all, but I don't feel I have a lot of better options since this is the trend for all of the companies to take what they want. And my only recourse is to try and find another credit card, which I'm confident will eventually do the same thing and take my information.

[Clark Howard]

Oh, so you put this here for me. That's in the Wells Fargo thing. We capture web browsing history and similar information, and then we may share that information with our third parties. Why? I mean, I get capturing information to make sure that your information hadn't been hacked into and a crook's not doing it, but to share with third parties, if it's for marketing purposes, that would be really uncool because of the unhappy history that Wells Fargo has had. Can we check with them and see if there's specific purposes? They're using this because we've recommended that card. Yeah, this card. And so I want to make sure they're using this information specifically, as they later say, to authenticate you, prevent fraud, enhance the security of your accounts. That's okay because of all the hacking and fraud goes on. But if they're using it, just using you as cannon fodder for data that they're selling off to third parties, that would not be okay.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

We'll reach out. Helene. And Maryland says, I read your tips on making sure one gets the full value of points for the City double cash card. Your article advised to redeem as a direct deposit to one's bank account or a statement credit. However, if one redeems as a statement credit and that amount pays for the entire next statement total, or potentially putting me in a credit balance, which wouldn't I lose the extra 1% because I wouldn't have anything to pay?

[Clark Howard]

Yes, you would, and that would be terrible, and I hope we've never advised that. In fact, years ago, I hadn't paid enough attention to the details and I used it as a statement credit. And did we hear from people in our audience who said, clark, I can't believe you did that and one person after another was like remember 1% when you charge 1% when you pay. If you use a credit to pay your bill, you lose the second 1%. Yes. So that is absolutely right. I'll go scan our article to make sure we don't have a hiccup in there giving bad advice coming up ahead. I mentioned at the start of the podcast the new tax brackets are in. The new tax brackets are in. And I'm the one person who would actually pay attention to that and be excited about it because I have screws loose. But I want to tell you how it affects you and decisions you make with your money for 26.

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[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

Yikes.

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[Clark Howard]

Ouch.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

Coulda done better.

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[Clark Howard]

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[Clark Howard]

Source of frustration for me over the years since the Roth version of a 401k became so common, somewhere around 90% of employers offer you the option. If one of the half of Americans have access to an employer provide a retirement plan, roughly 90% now offer you. You can sign up for the traditional 401K or the Roth version of the 401K. And then of course you have the option of the Roth IRA. I never mentioned traditional IRAs. Do I always talk Roth? Roth, Roth. Why is that? Because tax rates in the United States are historically extremely low and there's overwhelming advantage for all but the highest income earners in the United States if you have a workplace retirement plan to go all in the Roth version of the 401k or its equivalent. So there are rare, rare, rare circumstances that people will pose to me as questions I'm not even going to get into now. There would be an exception to the rules I'm about to state with the new tax brackets. It's pretty clear. In fact, it's not pretty clear. It's crystal clear that you got to be earning big bucks before you ever tilt from Roth back to traditional 401k. And overwhelmingly, almost everybody's putting all their money into traditional 401ks. They're not doing the Roth version. Don't know why, but if you're earning as a single individual, you're earning under 200,000 a year, which is most people or a married couple, you have income below 400,000 a year, except in the rarest of circumstances. You need to without any gray mixed in. This is completely a yes or no. You want your money all in the Roth version of the retirement plan offered at work, period. No money in the traditional 401k period. Again, income limits. You're a single individual. You make less than 200,000 a year. You are all Roth. Married couples under 400,000 a year, all Roth. Why? Because the tax brackets are crazy low and likely lower than what they're going to be in retirement. But there's more. For people who are big time savers, you live on substantially less than what you make. Doing the Roth version effectively gets you saving approximately 30% more of your pay in the retirement plan that will never be taxed again when you do the Roth version versus the traditional, even though the dollar amount limits are the same, effectively because you're paying in with after tax dollars, you're saving a much bigger chunk. You're living on much less of what you make and saving the rest to build financial security for yourself. And dare say if you do this all through your working lifetime, you're able to retire when you want to. Way ahead of the clock of when most people end up being able to retire. So what if you are making mega bucks? In most cases, once you're hitting big, big money, which would be individual earning more than 500,000 a year, married couple, 700,000 a year. In your case, doing the traditional still makes sense because you're in such a high tax bracket at that point. So to the three people listening or watching who are earning that kind of money, you want to be in the traditional. Everybody else pretty much is going to be in the Roth version if you're doing what's best for your finances long term. And again, there can be microscopic individual situations that what I'm saying would not be right. But in most cases, barring some extremely particular individual circumstances, those numbers hold.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

Okay, Anthony in New Jersey, I have.

[Clark Howard]

A strong opinion about that.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

Just slightly.

[Clark Howard]

Just slightly.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

Okay. You do call yourself the man from Roth. Anthony in New Jersey, I'm a new dad to a seven month old. Congratulations.

[Clark Howard]

Get sleep soon.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

I've started researching 529 plans on clark.com. am I correct in my understanding that if my daughter does not need the funds in the 529 fingers crossed for a full scholarship, she will only be able to roll over 35k into the Roth IRA. I see college, especially in 18 years, costing significantly more than 35k. So if I save, let's say 150k in the 529 plan, my daughter gets a full scholarship. What would happen to the remaining 115k? Please help. As I was all set to go down the 529 route until I saw this rollover limit.

[Clark Howard]

Okay, so first, this is why Congress passed the $35,000 that can be morphed tax free from a child's 529 plan into their own Roth IRA. It's a fantastic thing. Became a great safety valve because a lot of people were afraid to put money into a 529 because they were worried their child may not go to college. But what we don't know yet, and you may not know yet, Anthony, is this the first of maybe plural children in your household, in that case money that you wish not to go into the tax free Roth, if your child scholarship out could be transferred to the benefit of another child tax free and used for their education. But there's another bonus here. What happens if 529 money is not used for college? Well, if it just builds up tax deferred over the years and then everything gets taxed. Plus unless you qualify for one of the exceptions, a 10% penalty. So it's ugly tax because in order to get the tax free benefit in a lot of states an upfront tax credit for the 529. It's a carrot to get people saving for a kid's college. But then with the big stick that hits you really hard in the wallet. If they don't use the money for that and cash out, then it's got the tax and the penalties and all that. Except an example. Your kid qualifies for scholarship and that's why they didn't use the money for college. Then there's still tax but no penalty. So there's escape valves from taxation and escape valves from the penalty Jeff in.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

Florida says hi Clark, I love the show and newsletter. I just finished listening to a prior podcast and Gail from Indiana left me with a giant question mark. She didn't say what type of insurance she has, but she said she paid the doctor's bill and received another one months later. When I see a doctor or specialist such as a dermatologist, I pay a set copayment and I'm off on my merry way. If it's just a normal skin check now if he has to do any slashing or burning, then of course that's an extra charge. In that case I'm expected to pay 20% of the billable charge. However, if the insurance company, due to agreed terms with the doctor pays less, that's not on me. I already paid my 20% of the billable rate. If said doctor comes back for the difference that insurance paid, that's balanced billing and if I'm not mistaken, also illegal. Gail's story is a very good example to remind everyone to always not pay medical bills until you receive your explanation of benefits from the insurance company, right?

[Clark Howard]

So Jeff, thank you for that post. And as with anything in medicine, there's some additional complications with balance billing. If you're seeing an in network provider and they get into a fight with the insurer, you still only pay what you're supposed to pay is your portion of it and if they short the doctor, that's where on your your bill it'll say contractual or something. They remove that amount of money they cannot balance bill you for it. On the other hand, the no Surprises act applies in a case where certain circumstances like an emergency room or a provider that you don't get to choose. Like you don't get to decide. You may use a doctor and network, but then the anesthesiologist is not in network. You are not to be balance billed in those situations. But if you choose to go to an out of network provider, you could end up with a balance bill. Except in a tiny handful of states that have additional layered protections on top of the federal law generally referred to as the no Surprises Act. Okay.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

And Steve in New York says you discussed cross collateralization of banks whereby amounts from all accounts can be aggregated to satisfy withdrawals, including fraudulent ones via payment apps like Venmo Cash app and PayPal, but never use Big Bad Sell. You recommended opening a bank account at another secondary bank not associated with the primary bank and tie the payment apps to that new account. My question is about the method of moving funds to and from the secondary account. If I create an external link from the primary bank to the secondary bank, does that introduce a potential vulnerability to the primary bank's accounts if the secondary bank account gets hacked? In other words, can a bad actor follow the external link from the secondary bank and attack the primary accounts?

[Clark Howard]

Not in any way I've ever heard of. And the only potential risk is if you set up automatic replenishment of your account at one institution when the balance reaches a certain low level that it goes across and takes money from the outside financial institution. Don't ever do that. You want to manually replenish the funds in the account you use for Venmo Cash app, PayPal, never use big Bad Sell. Or if you really want to use Big Bad Zell, you want to follow my rules of having a separate financial institution separate all the guardrails around it, but automatic replenishment of funds from your primary bank to the secondary bank, that's where the real danger comes. And you know, I might as well go be Don Quixote and tilt it windmills. But it's absolutely insane. It's ridiculous that we don't have legal protections with debit cards and payment apps of the type that we have to protect consumers with credit cards. And it's just because these have come along in a different era and we have a different culture in Congress now that they may say they care about regular people like you and me, but everything's done by campaign contributions and their only loyalty, your individual member of Congress, your two senators, their loyalty is to one direction only, and that's to who gives the money. And that's why we don't have the kind of legal protections on things that came along in more modern times, like the piece of trash fake Visa and MasterCard, the debit card and the payment apps and we'll get some.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

Clark stinks about that blanket statement.

[Clark Howard]

I mean, it's just a fact. I mean, what's going on here is that the political culture of the country changed over time and the access to the politicians only goes to the moneyed interests. And that's something that I think you can see in polling Americans widely agree with.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

So there may be a few who don't think that.

[Clark Howard]

So I'm looking forward to the Clark.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

I mean, a few senators or whoever that may not think that way.

[Clark Howard]

Which would be great.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

That would be great.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, that would be great. Okay, Krista, here's what I want you to do.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

Oh God, no.

[Clark Howard]

Okay, I want you to call up the offices of your two senators or your congressman and ask for a meeting with your congressman or either your two senators. When they finish laughing and then hang up the phone, you'll have the answer. On the other hand, if I'm some giant mega monster bank or I'm, you know, the cable monster or something like that, and I want a meeting with a congressman or either my senators, bam, you want to meet in 10 minutes or you want to meet tomorrow? I mean really that's what's wrong is the access is purchased in the political world now. And that's just my opinion. Right? I value yours. And it can be heard on Friday.

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

It is not a partisan opinion at all.

[Clark Howard]

It's not part of people think that this is, this is non partisan. This is how Washington works now. It's just the way it is. And that said by somebody who is not naturally ascenic, I am a forever optimistic person. I am normally Pollyanna about most things and so it's hard to say that, but it's how I feel. So anyway, enough negative energy. I just put negative energy into the universe? Is that what you say that is?

[Clark Howard Show Host/Co-host]

It's fine.

[Clark Howard]

Apologize for that. Hope you have a great, great day. It's all about you knowing how to deal with life's landmines. And that's what we do here. We provide you the knowledge so you can empower yourself to make better decisions, so that you can save more, spend less and don't ever let anybody rip you off. And I'll see you next time.