Dems' Poll Numbers PLUMMET, plus How to Save $1TRILL in Fed Spending & Why We Need to Fix the Tax Laws to Treat Poker Pros Fairly

Summary

Verdict with Ted Cruz – Episode Summary

Title: Dems' Poll Numbers PLUMMET, plus How to Save $1TRILL in Fed Spending & Why We Need to Fix the Tax Laws to Treat Poker Pros Fairly
Release Date: July 28, 2025
Hosts: Senator Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson
Sponsor: Jobs, Freedom, and Security PAC

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1. Democrats' Declining Approval Ratings

Senator Ted Cruz opens the discussion with a concerning analysis of the Democratic Party's current standing among voters. Citing a recent Wall Street Journal poll, Cruz and co-host Ben Ferguson delve into the factors contributing to the party's plummeting approval ratings.

• Poll Results: The Wall Street Journal reports that Democrats' approval rating has fallen to a 35-year low, with 63% of voters holding an unfavorable view compared to 33% who view them favorably. In stark contrast, Republicans enjoy a +11 rating, and President Trump stands at +7.

  Ben Ferguson [07:00]: "The Wall Street Journal reported that the Democratic Party's image has eroded to its lowest point in more than three decades, with voters seeing Republicans as better at handling most issues that decide elections."

• Reasons for the Decline: Cruz attributes the decline to the Democratic Party's failure to moderate extreme members, leading to a platform that emphasizes anger and opposition to Donald Trump. He highlights the influence of figures like AOCs and other radical members who skew the party's image.

  Ben Ferguson [07:00]: "I think the reason why Democrats are the lowest rating from voters in 35 years is because they didn't police their own party and get rid of the most extreme members who've now taken over the microphone."

• Impact on Elections: The hosts express concern about the forthcoming elections, emphasizing that Democrats' internal issues and negative public perception could significantly affect their performance in midterms and beyond.

  Ryan Seacrest [09:16]: "So my concern is twofold. My concern is political and my concern is policy."

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2. Proposal to Save $1 Trillion in Federal Spending

The conversation shifts to a bold proposal aimed at curbing federal spending by addressing how the Federal Reserve manages interest payments on bank reserves.

• The Proposal: Ben Ferguson outlines his plan to stop the Federal Reserve from paying interest on bank reserves, a move he claims could save over $1 trillion over the next decade. He details his efforts to present this idea to President Trump and his introduction of related legislation.

  Ben Ferguson [16:13]: "This could save over $1 trillion over the next 10 years. That is a big, big number."

• How It Works: Historically, banks were required to keep a portion of their deposits with the Federal Reserve without earning interest. Since 2008, the Fed has been paying interest on these reserves, and due to interest rate hikes in recent years, payments have surged to $168 billion annually, with a significant portion benefiting foreign banks.

  Ryan Seacrest [19:30]: "The Fed paid $168 billion in interest on reserves last year. That's taxpayer money going straight to giant Wall Street banks."

• Challenges and Opposition: Ferguson discusses the resistance from major banks and Federal Reserve officials who argue that eliminating interest on reserves would hamper the Fed's ability to control interest rates. He counters these arguments by referencing historical practices and emphasizing the potential economic benefits.

  Ben Ferguson [21:05]: "If the Fed stops paying interest on reserves, it's very simple, we'll just buy Treasuries instead. So you'll have to pay interest regardless now."

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3. Tax Law Changes Impacting Poker Professionals

Senator Cruz and Ben Ferguson address an unintended tax law change buried within a larger legislative bill, which adversely affects professional poker players.

• The Issue: A provision in the "One Big Beautiful Bill" altered how gambling losses are deducted from winnings. Previously, individuals could deduct 100% of their losses from their gambling income. The new law restricts this to 90%, resulting in poker pros paying taxes on income they did not actually earn.

  Ted Cruz [37:28]: "Under the new law, you would pay taxes on more than you made. That’s wildly unfair."

• Real-World Impact: Cruz shares personal anecdotes from his experiences playing poker, illustrating how the new tax law penalizes professionals unfairly. He emphasizes that even breaking even would result in unexpected tax liabilities.

  Ben Ferguson [37:32]: "If you had a really lousy year and broke even, you’d still owe taxes on $10,000. That is wildly unfair."

• Bipartisan Effort to Fix the Law: Recognizing the unfairness, Cruz has collaborated with Democratic senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jackie Rosen, as well as Republican Bill Haggerty, to introduce legislation aimed at rectifying the issue.

  Ted Cruz [38:54]: "I’ve joined with the two Nevada senators, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jackie Rosen, and Bill Haggerty to fix this. We need a fair tax system."

• Consequences of Inaction: Without intervention, the current tax provisions could drive poker professionals out of the United States, harming a vibrant industry centered in places like Las Vegas.

  Ben Ferguson [37:32]: "We need to fix it because we need to be fair. This could drive poker pros out of the US, which would be tragic."

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4. Policy Concerns and Future Outlook

In wrapping up, the hosts touch upon broader policy implications and the potential future trajectory of the Republican Party and the nation.

• Internal Party Unity: While Republicans currently enjoy favorable polling, Cruz warns against complacency. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining party unity and continuing to support the President’s agenda to avoid losing momentum.

  Ted Cruz [12:22]: "We have a real opportunity here to solidify our base and get even more done with the president."

• Economic Stability: Discussing economic policies, Sen. Cruz expresses concerns about the Federal Reserve’s role and the potential for recession if tariff disputes escalate without strategic management.

  Ben Ferguson [15:35]: "If we have really high tariffs and retaliatory tariffs, we could end up going into a recession, which could lead to a really rough election."

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Ben Ferguson [07:00]: "The Wall Street Journal reported that the Democratic Party's image has eroded to its lowest point in more than three decades."

• Ryan Seacrest [09:16]: "My concern is twofold. My concern is political and my concern is policy."

• Ben Ferguson [16:13]: "This could save over $1 trillion over the next 10 years."

• Ben Ferguson [37:32]: "If you had a really lousy year and broke even, you’d still owe taxes on $10,000. That is wildly unfair."

• Ted Cruz [38:54]: "We need to fix it because we need to be fair. This could drive poker pros out of the US, which would be tragic."

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Conclusion

In this episode of "Verdict with Ted Cruz," the hosts provide a critical analysis of the Democratic Party's declining popularity, present a significant proposal to reduce federal spending, and address an unfair tax law affecting professional poker players. Through insightful discussions and bipartisan collaboration, Cruz and Ferguson highlight the importance of policy reform and political strategy in shaping the nation's future.

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Note: This summary intentionally omits advertisements and non-content segments to focus solely on the substantive discussions of the episode.

Transcript

[iHeart Podcast]

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[Ryan Seacrest]

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[Ted Cruz]

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[Christiane Amanpour]

I'm Christiane Amanpour and I've been on the front lines and interviewing world leaders for more than 30 years.

[Ryan Seacrest]

And I'm Jamie Rubin, a former advisor to both Presidents Clinton and Biden.

[Christiane Amanpour]

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[Ted Cruz]

Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz. Ben Ferguson with you as always. And Senator, it's nice to be with you as we've got a couple of big things to chat about today, including the Democrats getting the lowest rating from voters in 35 years.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Well, that's right. The Wall Street Journal just did a poll and found that the Democrats approval rating has plummeted. It is at the lowest level in 35 years. It turns out being angry, filled with rage and being a party that stands for nothing but hating Donald Trump is not actually a popular platform. We're gonna break that down and talk about what that means for elections coming up in 26 and going forward. Secondly, we're gonna talk about a proposal that I've been championing to cut spending and to cut spending dramatically and that is for the Federal Reserve to stop paying interest on bank reserves. This is a proposal that could save over a trillion dollars over 10 years. I've made this case directly to the president in the Oval Office. I've introduced legislation to and we're going to talk about exactly what it would mean and why it makes a difference. And finally, we're going to talk about an element of the one big beautiful bill that was an unintended mistake, which is the one big beautiful bill changed how gambling losses are counted in taxes. And what it did for people like professional poker players is it ended up putting in place a rule that is wildly unfair that punishes them, that taxes them on income they didn't earn. And, and so I've joined with some Democrats in terms of trying to fix this. I hope we can fix it because we ought to have a tax system that's fair. We're gonna explain that issue to you also.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah, it's also really interesting because it goes back to part of what the president did with no tax on tips. And he's like looking out for little guys and their jobs, it matters. We're gonna break that down. It'll be very interesting. Wanna tell you real quick about our friends over at Patriot Mobile. If you're like me and you've made a commitment that, hey, you're going to spend money with companies that are aligned with your values, then you're going to love Patriot Mobile. There are a lot of choices when it comes to cell phone service, but there's one that I have been with for years and they've been doing it now for more than 12 years. They've been on the front lines, the company fighting for our God given rights and freedoms. And it's really awesome how this works. You switch to Patriot mobile and about 5% of your bill every month goes back to support conservative causes and organizations that are fighting for first Amendment rights. Our second amendment rights, the rights of unborn children. And they also stand with our military, our veterans and our wounded warriors. So when you make a phone call, when you send a text, when you pay that bill you're going to have every month, you're actually standing up for what you believe in and it doesn't cost you an extra dime. They the other great thing about this is they've got exceptional nationwide self service with access to all three of the main networks. So what does that mean? You don't have to worry. And literally there are hundreds of thousands of Americans who made the switch. I'm one of them and I travel all the time and I love the coverage I get. Switching's never been easier either you can activate minutes from the comfort of your home or your office. You can keep your same number, keep your same phone or upgrade to a new one. Now let me give you a month of service for free. Go to patriotmobile.com verdict that's patriotmobile.com verdict or call them 972 Patriot. If you use the promo code verdict, you'll get a free month of service. That's patriotmobile.com verdict or 972-patriot make the switch today and make a difference with every call you make. All right, so let's go to the Democrats in disarray. I have a theory, Senator, and I want to run it by you. I think the reason why Democrats are the lowest rating from voters in 35 years is because they didn't police their own party and get rid of the most extreme members who've now taken over the microphone. The AOCs, the law Mars. The list goes on and on. The guy running for mayor in New York City, the radical Marxist socialists and communists have taken over the microphone. And that's why I think the American people are terrified of them right now.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Yeah, it's not just they've taken over the microphone, they've taken over the party. There is nobody in the party. Name one prominent Democrat who has stood up to Comrade Mondami. You literally have a communist who is the Democrat Party nominee to be mayor of New York other than John Fetterman. And I think John Fetterman is the exception that proves the rule. Other than John Fetterman. I do not know a single one of my colleagues in the Senate who has said a word of criticism that Goss maybe a guy calling for the abolition of private property, maybe a guy that is openly calling for a communist government is not the best face of the Democrat Party. And yet nobody disagrees. You look at when Chris Van Hollen flies down to El Salvador and has margaritas with an MS.13 gang member, illegal immigrant who's right now being prosecuted for human trafficking. Not one single Democrat again, except for John Fetterman, spoke out against it. And so it's not just that the crazies have been given the microphone, the crazies have been given the agenda. And here's what the Wall Street Journal reported. The Democrat Party's image has eroded to its lowest point in more than three decades, according to a new Wall Street Journal poll, with voters seeing Republicans as better at handling most issues that decide elections. The new survey finds that 63% of voters hold an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party, the highest share in Journal polls dating to 1990, and 30 percentage points higher than the 33% who hold a favorable view. So the Democrats polling is 33% favorable, 63% unfavorable. And it Journal goes on to say that is a far weaker assessment than voters give to either President Trump or the Republican Party who are viewed more favorably than favorably by 7 points and 11 points respectively. So the Democrats are minus 30, President Trump is plus 7 and the Republican Party is plus 11. That is a huge difference. And what percent of voters do you think view the Democrats very favorably?

[Ted Cruz]

I'm gonna guess it's probably not a very high number based on the Overall polling data.

[Ryan Seacrest]

8%.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah, that's not, that's not good. Just so everybody knows in politics that's bad.

[Ryan Seacrest]

And by the way, by comparison, 19% of Americans view Republicans very favorably. So there's more intensity. People are very happy. And the Democrats, nobody except the communists are excited about the Democrats. That is a problem going into an election.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah, it's a huge problem for them. And then you go forward with Democrats, they've got everybody on their team. I'm referring to the media. I also think some of this comes down the fact that there's so many Americans are just going around the mainstream media now and will never go back. You look at the canceling, for example, of one of the late night shows. We talked about that last week, Stephen Colbert. Why? I think a lot of people are just like, we're done with you. When you alienate half the country and mock us. And there's so many lies that have happened over the last five, six, seven years that were egregious. The Russian hoax, a great example. I think that this is part of the reason why the Democratic Party's failing right now is because they don't have people covering for their propaganda.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Well, and they're embracing. You know, it's amazing when a party decides, let's pick five issues and let's take the wrong side of 80, 20 issues or 90, 10 issues, it turns out that's really bad politics. When you say as a party, hey, let's be for open borders and Venezuelan gang members and releasing criminals and rapists and child molesters, that is a really, really unpopular position. It turns out when you say, hey, let's be for abolishing the police and attacking ICE and fighting against law enforcement, that is a really, really unpopular position. It turns out when you cheer on pro Hamas protesters who, who, who are cheering on we love Hamas, that is a really, really unpopular position. It turns out when you advocate for boys competing in girls sports and, and, and for doing surgeries that sterilize and mutilate, mutilate little boys and girls, that is a really, really unpopular position. And the Democrat Party as a whole has said, let's look at all those issues. Let's take the wrong side of 80, 20 or even 90, 10 issues, and let's see how that works out. And the way it works out, as you get the most unpopular Democrat party in the last 35 years, what is your biggest concern?

[Ted Cruz]

And I always say there's, there's a, there's a reaction to every action. Right. So it's low right now. What is the worry that do we get overconfident? Do we not continue to stay together the party? Because look, we are notorious, I'm talking about conservatives of screwing it up. When we have these types of leads, we have the House, we have the Senate, we actually have a chance, I think, to even have some gains in the midterms. And this is a midterm, I want to be clear, that actually is more favorable towards Democrats in the districts and the Senate seats that are open. You look at it, we have a real opportunity here to solidify our base and get even more done with the president. What is your worry about that, though?

[Ryan Seacrest]

So my concern is twofold. My concern is political and my concern is policy on the political side. When one party is out of power, that can be a dangerous dynamic because even though the Democrat Party is very unpopular Generally speaking, their hardcore partisans are pissed. They are filled with rage. They hate Donald Trump. That means their hardcore partisans will crawl over broken glass. These are the nuts that are having riots in the streets of LA saying we want more criminal illegal aliens in our country. That energy is dangerous. Look, right now the Democrats are outraising Republicans because their side is really energized. They hate Trump. And if you send out an email on the Democrat side, Donald Trump is the devil. Turns out people give a lot of money because if you're a crazy left winger, that energizes you. I worry about the enthusiasm gap that on the right. Look, Republicans, by and large are feeling pretty good. We're winning massive victories. We talked about last week's podcast. We went through all of the major victories in the first six months of President Trump's term. That's fantastic. But the danger from a political perspective is that our guys get complacent. Okay, we're winning. Everything's taken care of, it's not urgent anymore. And that plays out both in terms of fundraising, that people just give less money to candidates this cycle around. But it also can manifest in turnout. If the crazies on the left are much more likely to show up in a midterm and our guys are complacent and feel like everything's fine, that can yield a really bad election. Secondly, the policy piece that I worry about, we've talked a lot on this podcast about the battle within the Trump administration on tariffs, how there is one camp within the Trump administration that wants to use tariffs as leverage to lower the tariffs of our trading partners. And Scott Besant, the Treasury Secretary, is in that camp. Elon Musk, when he was part of the White House, he was very much in that camp and I'm enthusiastically in that camp. I very much agree with what the President has been doing, using tariffs, but using them as a means to an end, to lower the tariffs and remove non tariff barriers so that we can trade more and export more with our trading partners. The problem, and we've talked about this a lot in the pod as well, there is a contingent in this administration that doesn't view tariffs as a means to an end, that rather views tariffs as an objective, as a good economic outcome, that we have high tariffs forever. And if that contingent prevails, I worry next year that if we have really high tariffs that the US has put in place and if our trading partners have really high tariffs, retaliatory tariffs, that we could end up going into a recession, the economy could turn downhill. And if that happens, that could lead to a really rough election. And so I'm going to continue to engage closely and regularly with the President to say, keep using them as leverage, keep lowering the tariffs of our trading partners. That will produce good economic results. But it's not clear which side of that battle is going to prevail day by day on the policy battle.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah, great point there. One of the policies that got this president elected was the issue of fiscal responsibility. Doge was a huge part of that. And there is something that is happening in D.C. and it deals with eliminating Federal Reserve interest payments on reserves. This could sound certainly wonky and like, wait, what? Or, hey, it's over my head. This is actually something that is about reform. It is within the Federal Reserve, and it's something that I think is very clear, long overdue, and can have a major impact for all Americans. Dive into how this could work.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Yeah. So this is an idea that I went to the White House, went to the Oval Office, and I pitched to President Trump in the middle of the one big, beautiful bill. And in terms of spending cuts, I gave the President a total of $3 trillion of spending cuts that we could have included in the bill and that I think we should have included in the bill. Ultimately, my views did not prevail, and we didn't do it on this first reconciliation bill. I hope we come back and do it on a later reconciliation bill and we can have two more reconciliation bills. This idea is one of the biggest ticket items, because if we do what I'm suggesting, we could save over $1 trillion over the next 10 years. That is a big, big number. You know, when we were doing reconciliation, we were pulling our hair out to save 50 billion or $100 billion. One trillion is a lot of money. Now, what does this issue mean? So banks, big banks, they store reserves and they deposit reserves with the Federal Reserve. Now, the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, and from 1913 until 2007, how did it work? Banks would keep reserves with the Fed and they would get paid zero, nothing for the reserves. There was a requirement. It was typically about 10%. So if you're a big bank, let's say you've got $100 billion in deposits. You were required to keep $10 billion with the Fed. You didn't get paid any interest on it. You just had to keep that there. Because it's what's called fractional banking, which is you had $100 billion of deposits, 90 billion of it. You'd loan out, you'd Loan out to individuals, you'd loan it out for home mortgages, you'd loan it out for car loans, you'd loan it out to small businesses. So of the hundred billion in deposits, you didn't have 90 billion of it, but you were required to keep, typically about 10%. Just keep it with the Fed so that if Ben Ferguson comes in and says, hey, I want to withdraw $1,000 because, you know, I want to go buy a nice present for my wife, they had to have the thousand dollars to give you. So that's the way the system worked for almost 100 years. Then starting in 2008, when you had the great financial crisis, Congress changed the law and the Fed began paying interest on reserves. So the reserves that the banks kept with the Fed, they began paying interest. Now, at the time, the interest rate was incredibly low. And so 2008, you had financial chaos everywhere. Do you know how much the Fed paid in interest on reserves in the entirety of 2008?

[Ted Cruz]

How much?

[Ryan Seacrest]

About $1 billion. So in big picture budgetary terms, a very small amount. It was, it was almost nominal, but it was the first year they began paying interest on reserves. Since 2008, they've been paying interest on reserves going forward. And it was small. It was small most of the time until the last two years of Joe Biden and the last two years of Joe Biden, the interest rate went up and up and up. And for both 2023 and 2024, the Fed paid over $100 billion in interest on reserves.

[Ted Cruz]

Wow. Last year, that's just pure tax hours. You're paying your taxes and that money is just going to interest, period interest to giant banks.

[Ryan Seacrest]

So it is literally, the Fed is transferring your tax dollars to the biggest banks. In the world. Now it gets worse. So they no longer have a requirement, a reserve requirement of say, 10%. There's actually no requirement at all. You know why? Because they're paying such a big interest rate that the banks are happy to park their money there. And in fact, they're not just doing the 10% reserves, they're putting a bunch more capital there. Right now, today, the Fed is paying 4.4% to the banks to just park their capital with the fed. So in 2024, last year, the last year, the Biden administration, The Fed paid $168 billion in interest on reserves. That's taxpayer money that went straight to giant Wall street banks. I think that makes no sense. I think we need to end that.

[Ted Cruz]

So what is it going to be? The obviously hold up Here it seems like it's a sane policy. Is it going to be the lobbyists and how many people are being lobbied by the big banks to not change this? Is this going to be fighting also the Federal Reserve? I mean, where are the roadblocks here? Yes, and dive in. I mean, because this seems like a very simplistic, fiscal responsible thing to do. You would certainly do this in the private sector, in your own life. So why wouldn't the government do the same thing?

[Ryan Seacrest]

So I'll tell you, while we were in the middle of the one big beautiful bill, I went on tv. I went on Squawk Box on cnbc. I love doing Squawk Box. It's one of my favorite shows because they're really smart. You can get into substance, you can get into details. In fact, several times I've done what they call guest hosting, Squawk Box, where you spend an hour on tv. And so instead of a little six minute interview where you have to do a sound bite, if you guest host Squawk Box for an hour, you can really get into substance and economic issues and issues dealing with finances. So I was doing Squawk Box during reconciliation and I raised this issue. And I gotta say, Becky Quick, who's one of the hosts, she's like, my goodness. Well, this would be terrible. I mean, how could this possibly work? The Fed couldn't do its job. So there's several arguments that are made against this. One is, well, the Fed uses this to control interest rates. And that's right. She's like, well, if you took this away, the Fed wouldn't be able to control interest rates. How would they do it? And my response was, Becky, the same way they did it from 1913 to 2007. Like the Fed existed for a hundred years and didn't pay a penny in interest on reserves. And somehow the Fed managed to operate until it began. Ben Bernanke was the head of the Fed at the time. And it was interesting. Ben Bernanke said, when this idea was being debated, he said, well, if we pay interest on reserves, that's going to be terrible. That's going to be corporate welfare. People are going to get pissed that we're giving taxpayer money to giant Wall street banks. And that's what Bernanke said when it was just a billion, now it is 168 billion. But their argument, and listen, it is true, the Fed's job has become much easier. They have a very direct way to control interest rates. Now they're paying 4.4% if they want interest rates to go up, they just raise the interest rate. They say, okay, we'll pay you 4.6%. And all the other interest rates go up automatically. So it makes the Fed's job easier. If they don't do that, they have to do open market transactions to impact the interest rate. It's much more complicated. But again, they did it for 100 years. Ben, let me give you another fact that's gonna blow your mind. Of the $168 billion that the Fed paid last year in interest on reserves.

[Ted Cruz]

Say that number again, you said 168 billion.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Billion, golly. Roughly half of that, nearly 50% went to foreign banks. So not even American banks. Foreign banks getting tens of billions of dollars of US Taxpayer money every year. Every year. And so I'll tell you, when I got off squawk box, I literally walked back to my office and the CEO of one of the biggest banks in the United States, a very, very well known CEO who I'm not gonna, not gonna name, but he's someone very well known, he called me very dismayed and saying this is a terrible idea. And I was sort of chuckling, saying, so you're saying you like getting billions of dollars of taxpayer funds every year. And his argument was, well, look, if the Fed stops paying interest on reserves, it's very simple, we'll just buy Treasuries instead. So you'll have to pay interest regardless now. And he said, and if you don't let us, if you just make us keep reserves, that's confiscation and you can't do that. And I'll tell you my reaction. Let me take each of those arguments that he made. On the first one, the Fed would be forced to buy Treasuries. Well, or no, I'm sorry, not the Fed. The banks would be forced to buy Treasuries instead of just parking their money at the Fed. That in and of itself would be a good outcome. Look, there's a lot of concern about a failed Fed auction. If the banks were buying Treasuries, that would create demand for Treasuries. And you know, one of the things it would do, it would drive down the interest rate by creating more demand for Treasuries, which means, listen, one of the things Donald Trump is trying very hard to do is to get the Fed to lower the interest rate. And Jay Powell doesn't want to do it. This change would create a market dynamic that would lower interest rates. That's a good thing. Secondly, you got a ton of money that are what are called excess reserves. They're beyond what a reasonable reserve requirement is.

[Navy Federal Credit Union Representative]

Yeah.

[Ryan Seacrest]

And it. And it's just sitting at the Fed. You know what that means? It means those billions of dollars or even those trillions of dollars are not being loaned to small businesses. They're not being loaned to open a new store, to buy new equipment, to hire new workers, to expand a. They're not creating jobs. It's just sitting there. The Fed is paying them. Just park your capital and do nothing. I'd much rather banks, if they want to earn a return, have to make loans and loan that out. And as for the second argument that this CEO said of, well, if you don't let them buy Treasuries, you just force them to keep reserves. And he said, that's confiscation. I would point out for the entire history of our country, that has been the law. There has been a reserve requirement. That's called fractional banking. You know, if you have a bank, again use the example. You got a bank with a hundred billion dollars. It has not been legal for most of the history of our country for someone to take $100 billion in deposits and loan out a hundred billion dollars. Why is that not legal? Because if your depositors come in and say, hey, can I have my money back? If they've loaned all the money out, they don't have money to give it back to you. And so we have long had a regulatory system that says you have to keep a reasonable reserve so that if your depositors want their money back, you can pay them. That has never been confiscation. And so the banks have loved it because they have made massive amounts of money. Just ending this one, one provision over 10 years would save more than $1 trillion. It's a powerful, powerful idea. But I gotta say, they're really powerful forces that do not want to see this happen.

[Ted Cruz]

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[Ted Cruz]

Hey, everybody. It's Ben Ferguson here. And let's talk real for a second. If you're feeling uneasy about the economy, inflation, or what's happening in Washington, you're not alone. And that's why I decided to bring on a good friend of mine, Dr. Kurt Elliott from Kurt Elliott Precious Metals. Kurt, welcome.

[Dr. Kurt Elliott]

Thanks, Ben. Always a pleasure to talk with you.

[Ted Cruz]

So, look, people are watching their retirement accounts shrink. The dollar's losing value. What are you telling folks right now?

[Dr. Kurt Elliott]

You know, Ben, what I share with people is pretty straightforward. When uncertainty rises, it's smart to invest in something tangible, something real. Gold and silver have weathered storms for generations. They're not just a hedge, they're a foundation. When everything else feels shaky. That's why more people are reaching out to us now. Not for hype, just for steady answers.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah, I've seen it for myself. You guys make it incredibly easy. You walk people through everything step by step. And that's important? Absolutely.

[Dr. Kurt Elliott]

Whether you're just getting started or have years of experience, we make it simple. We focus on the relationship with our client. Clear and transparent pricing. And you'll always know exactly what you're getting. No surprises, no pressure. And if it's right for you, we can help you roll over part of your IRA or 401k into physical metals.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah, that's really a big deal. And the question is, how do people get started?

[Dr. Kurt Elliott]

Just go to kepm.com ben or call us at 720-605390. Ask any question on your mind. Our team is here to help you protect what you've worked so hard to build with zero pressure. Just real guidance. And this is just the beginning. You're never going to be alone on the journey moving forward. The journey is about the relationship to us, not just the transaction.

[Ted Cruz]

So if you've been thinking about securing your future, now's the time to do it. I trust Kirk, and you can, too. Visit kepm.comben that's kepm.com ben or 720-605-3900 today.

[Dr. Kurt Elliott]

Thanks, Ben. I appreciate your trust. We're here to help people move forward with confidence, no matter what the headlines say or the world throws at us.

[Travis Holloway]

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[Christiane Amanpour]

I'm Christiana Manpour and I've been on the front lines and interviewing world leaders for more than 30 years.

[Ryan Seacrest]

And I'm Jamie Rubin, a former advisor to both Presidents Clinton and Biden.

[Christiane Amanpour]

We were married for 20 years and divorced for seven. Now we've joined forces on the X Files to make sense of how we ended up with no world Order. Listen to Christiane Amanpour presents the X files on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Navy Federal Credit Union Representative]

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[Ted Cruz]

I want to finally move to that fix that you mentioned coming for the one big beautiful bill. There's a push, it's actually bipartisan, to undo a gambling tax hike that they passed in the mega bill and there was an outcry because it's, as you mentioned, it's unfair how it was written specifically to one group of people and the job that they do.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Yeah. So there was a little provision that was written in the one big beautiful bill. And nobody saw this. This was a tiny little provision. The bill is a massive bill. It's thousands of pages. And what this provision said is it deals with how you pay taxes on gambling winnings and losses. And the way the law used to work was very common sense, which is that you deduct your losses from your wins and you pay taxes on your net, what you actually made your profit. That's actually a sensible way to do a tax law. The change now anyone gambling can only deduct 90% of their losses rather than 100% of their losses. Now what does that mean? Let's take for example, as you know, I like to play poker. I play poker with a lot of buddies. I always play really low stakes poker, but I enjoy the game. And I've got several friends who are poker pros. So, you know, I do every year I do a fundraiser in Vegas that raises money for my campaign and we get people who come and hang out and several poker players come and hang out with us and play poker. So let's say you're. And look, I like. I think poker is a fascinating game. It is strategic game. It involves math, but it involves reading people. I love watching like the World Series of Poker, watching the strategy. There's a whole vibrant world of people who earn their livings playing professional poker. And it's, you know, as you know, I, several years ago, I got a chance. I played on Poker After Dark and I played with, with Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth and Doyle Brunson who was known as Texas Dolly, one of the greatest poker players to ever live. It was truly a bucket list experience to play with him. I also played with Mr. Beast, which was really fun. I got to tell you, sitting down, I was really, really excited to be playing with, with Doyle and playing with Phil Hellmuth Doyle. So my goal going in, look, both of them are much, much better players than I am. Obviously my goal was just to take chips off them. I wanted to win at least one hand and be like, all right, I want a hand and took chips. I ended up being, being lucky and doing better than that. And so with, with Doyle, I went all in and ended up busting him out, which is, and you can watch it. If you want to Google, you can watch online. Me busting Doyle Brunson out. That was astonishing. And I gotta say, he was so gracious. I mean, he, Doyle has since passed but, but he won the very first World Series of Poker and is just a legendary poker player. That, that was incredibly meaningful. And then towards the end of the game on Poker After Dark, I was playing with Phil Hellmuth. Phil Hellmuth. Phil will tell you he's the greatest poker player alive by any measure. He's certainly one of the greatest poker players alive, and he's got a good argument that he may be the greatest. Between Doyle and Phil, they had at the time 25 bracelets, which means together, they had won 25 different World Series events. To give you a sense of just how accomplished these two players are, Phil and I end up, we're playing Texas hold', Em, and I went all in, and I had ace, king, and he had ace, queen. So I had him dominated. I was a massive favorite. I was about a 3 to 1 favorite. And then what ends up happening is Phil got lucky and he sucked out a queen. And it was funny, Phil. And so he crippled me. He didn't knock me out, but he basically crippled me. And then I went out a couple hands later. It was funny. Phil was embarrassed because. Because I got. Got my chips in and as the dominant favorite, and he just got lucky and he was like, oh, I feel terrible to win like that. I'm like, phil, I am thrilled. If I played that hand 100 times, I'd want to play it exactly the same way and get my chips in every time. And look, that's why they call it gambling, because some chunk of it, you lose. Anyway, let's talk about what this, this provision does. Let's say you're, you're a poker pro, and let's say in a given year, you lose $100,000 playing poker and you win $130,000. Okay, so you're, you know, you're not a super rich player, but you're out playing and you know, you made united 30 grand. 30 grand is what, what you made that year. Ordinarily, you would deduct the hundred grand from the 130 grand, and you would pay taxes on the 30,000 profit you.

[Ted Cruz]

Had, which, by the way, is exactly what everyone else does right now.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Under the new law, you lose 100 grand that year, you make 130. You could only deduct 90% of the hundred grand you lost, which means instead of paying taxes on the 30 grand you made, you would pay taxes on 40 grand. You would end up paying taxes on more than you made. That. That's wildly unfair, by the way. Even worse than that, let's Assume you had a really lousy year. Let's assume you won a hundred thousand dollars and lost $100,000. So you. You, like you just netted nothing. You broke even under this law, you'd have to pay taxes on 10 grand. Cause you could only deduct 90% of your losses. So even though you made not a penny, you would owe taxes on the 10 grand. That is wildly unfair. And I gotta tell you, I don't know of a senator who knew this was in there. It was a tiny little provision buried in there. We were moving incredibly fast at three in the morning, and so nobody saw it there. When I heard about it, I said, that makes no sense at all. But it was already passed. It was signed into law at the time. I heard about it. And so what I've done, I've joined with the two Nevada senators, with Catherine Cortez Masto and Jackie Rosen. They're both Democrats. And also Bill Haggerty, who's a Republican. And all four of us have joined in legislation to fix this. I think we need to fix it. We should not be treating people unfairly. The income tax should tax people on real income, not imaginary income. That is unfair. I don't know that we'll get it fixed because, look, changing anything in the law is complicated, but I hope we will, because I can tell you, I don't know of a senator, Republican or Democrat, who's arguing this is a good idea. I've sat and talked with a number of my colleagues, and it's not like someone is taking the other side and saying, no, let's be wildly unfair. I hope we can get this fixed. And I think we need to because we need to be fair. And look, there's a whole industry, particularly around Vegas, of people who are poker pros and make their livings and generate a lot of revenue. And if we don't change this, the effect will be to drive those poker pros out of the US we will force them to go elsewhere. That would be really a tragic outcome. And so I don't want to see that happen.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah, no doubt about it. Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Hit that subscribe or auto download button. Wherever you get this podcast, please write us that review and share this. It makes a huge difference in who sees and hears the show. And we will see you back here on Wednesday morning.

[Ryan Seacrest]

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[Rodney Williams]

I'm Rodney Williams. And I'm Travis Holloway. Welcome to the Wealth Break podcast, a real conversation about finance. Let's be honest, building wealth doesn't look the same for everyone.

[iHeart Podcast]

I feel like sometimes being broke is a cycle and that we might have.

[Rodney Williams]

To revisit that and we're not stopping at success stories.

[Travis Holloway]

What happens when it doesn't go right?

[Ryan Seacrest]

How do you cope with it?

[Rodney Williams]

Because wealth isn't just about money. It's about creating a life where you thrive and help others do the same. Listen to the Wealth Break podcast on the iHeartRadio app.

[Christiane Amanpour]

I'm Christiana Manpour and I've been on the front lines and interviewing world leaders for more than 30 years.

[Ryan Seacrest]

And I'm Jamie Rubin, a former advisor to both Presidents Clinton and Biden.

[Christiane Amanpour]

We were married for 20 years and divorced for seven. Now we've joined forces on the X Files to make sense of how we ended up with no world order. Listen to Christiane Amanpour Presents the X files on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts, check.

[iHeart Podcast]

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[Navy Federal Credit Union Representative]

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[iHeart Podcast]

This is an iHeart podcast.