continues. host: senator bill cassidy's with this is morning, republican of louisiana to talk about his proposal for social security. before we get there senator, if nothing is done about social security, what does the program look like? guest: if no one does anything for social security, there will be guaranteed 24% cut in eight or nine years. in a radio host in shreveport, louisiana said that's ok because i will already be on it and be grandfathered in. that's not true. those receiving money at that time and all future beneficiaries will buy look at what amounts to a 24% cut. host: that's a lot. guest: if we choose to do nothing, president biden and president trump plan are to

choose nothing, there would be a 24% cut in what people are receiving. by the way, that will double poverty among the elderly. it's just a choice we shouldn't make. host: if you are 55 years old and listening to what you just said or you are hearing from folks who are 55 and around that age, what kind of concern are they expressing? >> it's interesting. you get president biden and president trump effectively saying that anyone wants to do anything about social is making the wrong choice. they are being kind of, don't worry about it. we are not hearing that much except for other people, i have a video clip on my twitter account and my facebook page and scald bill on the hill and he went around and spoke to people visiting washington, d.c.

a guy from pennsylvania goes, you know, i've had a lot of jobs that didn't involve retirement. i'm going to need social. a 24% cut? that's going to be terrible. and a doctor from louisiana was one of my former residence and now he's getting gray hair and he goes -- i am a doctor so used to teach -- he goes my family and my friends will have to choose between medicine and food. there are going to be terrible consequences but we have two leading presidential candidates telling the american people that if anybody wants to address it, they are wrong, we are choosing to do nothing and that means they are choosing people will have to choose between medicine and food. host: we were just listening to callers who are already making those decisions. a couple of callers talked about they paid off their homes, they retired and paid off their homes

but they are seeing property taxes on top of these other costs go up so unexpectedly, that is cutting into their social security check now. guest: i'm told that if you are currently in good health, you of the 50% chance of living to be 90. that's important. some folks are going to live beyond their ability to work. even if you choose to work after retiring, you get to 80 come you can't work any longer. when trump and biden choose to do nothing, people will be living beyond their ability to work. we want to get elected so we will say there's nothing that needs to be done and you will going to poverty and they don't care. host: let's talk about what you want to do. you are proposing 1.5 trillion dollars over five years in an investmentund separate from

the social security trust fund, full investment in escrow for 70 years and aim for it average of about 3.5% equity premium over the 70 year escrow and that would cover us for 70 of 5% of the projected shortfall is what you are saying. some might get concerned that you are putting social security and putting it at the whim of the market. guest: i'm glad you asked that. you answered it in the way you put it. this fund is separate from social security. it doesn't take social security dollars at all. it keeps money separate and you can use it however you wish. there is $20 billion worth of federal billings -- buildings

that are not being used and you could find that. you fund it and it grows separately. we would repeal the law that says the current beneficiaries get a 24% cut. we actually guarantee the promised benefit that right now will be cut by almost 1/4. we are betting on the strength of the american economy. we don't place any risk on the beneficiary and if the market goes up and it goes down, that risk is in the fund itself area we know over 70 years with the history of the market that it will do ok. that's how we take care of this. host: why not do the other proposals that have been on the table? capping social security, etc., raising the age. take each of those proposals and tell us why you wouldn't do that. guest: you should not raise

taxes on sink -- on seniors or decrease benefits for seniors. the only retirement fan -- plan for baby boomers is social security. if you say you raise your taxes or reduce your benefits it's a nonstarter. you just can't go there. politically come you camp it also morally. you can raise the age of eligibility for someone who's 30 years old. that's on the table but there's other benefits we have to address and that's why we need presidential leadership. we need a president who's actually honest to the american people and not giving them happy talk. we need a leader that says we still have 25% we had to address, how do we do it without affecting those who are retired or approaching retirement? there is a way that we can do

it. if all they want to do is raise your taxes, that's incredibly regressive. it falls heavily on those who make the least in our society, that's wrong. if all you want to do is raise the age of eligibility, you have to raise it pretty far. you got to have a proposal which is rooted in reality. host: let's hear what our viewers have to say. then in clarksburg, west virginia, democratic caller. caller: i find this guy totally obnoxious because he's trying to privatize social security. there already is $2 trillion in social security. to fix the problem, lift the cap if you want to cut benefits, let's talk about cutting congressman after they leave office. thank you. guest: sounds great, we are taking the funds separate from social security.

don't cut social security funds at all and i'm glad you phrased it that way because that's the way people knock us without understanding the problem. we are making it separate. if all you want to do is raise the cap, president biden's proposal which he proposed in his last campaign which he never submitted to congress's instead of the top something $160,000 to which you apply the cap, then we're going to raise it. he didn't figure in inflation which means over 15 years, every single american will get basically a 13% tax increase. my friend, if you want to have a 13% tax increase or if you want your children to have it, then vote for that proposal. choose their proposal even though he never submitted it to congress. if you want to bet on the

strength of the economy as opposed to some president or congress raising your taxes by 13%, then think about hours. by the way, there is something on the internet that somehow we in congress don't pay social security, we do. host: $2 trillion is already owed to social security. what about that? guest: that's the excess that people are paid in overtime. i'm glad he mentioned that. the american worker has paid in some years more than what's paid out. that's the trust fund. that extra money is invested in treasuries. it can only be invested in treasuries by law. treasuries have a return since they bought them 15 years ago have a return of 1% or 3% or 4%. under biden, our inflation rate

has gone up to six or 7%. we are losing money on those investments. it's the worst investment strategy could possibly have. the money we have in real dollars is shrinking as inflation continues to be high. what we are doing is we are saying you can do that on social but in our fund, you would put it in the economy, the stock market and allow that to grow in overtime, that is average since 1929, i think 8.5% return per year. you either go to 3% return in treasuries and the current model or you can bet on what's happened over time of roughly 8.5%. we just and some -- estimate a little more but that's how you build up the system. host: west chester, ohio, republican. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call.

i have a very detailed question. programs are safety nets in the 80's for the income tax, earned income tax credit which i agreed with in the 80's. my family owned a daycare and we have added some money wonderful safety nets like chip, and you know what they are but we really added a lot. i think many to start reducing the earned income tax credit. the other thing we have to do is address health. for whatever reason, in 2008, we added added to our food program. we have 330 million people in the united states with diabetes at a cost of about $1000 per person. my approach is two-pronged -- we want to promote health. there isn't any reason why it's

demented at daycare but it's only offered an elementary through high school. it should be both. we can say to the snack industry when you're snacks are compliant, you can be on the food program but until you make your snacks cacfp compliant, we will not allow those to negatively impact the health of the american people because there are so many other healthy things that taste great out there. host: senator? guest: deborah, you think so seriously about public policy. i am so impressed. i've never thought about these kind of things in terms of the nutritional aspect of it. clearly, nutrition is a major contributor to heart disease, all kinds of problems. let me talk to my staff. i think you got some great ideas. host: thank you, senator.

oak hill, ohio, independent. caller: good morning. i read an article from tampa bay times from october, 2015 and they were talking about the cuban refugees and those people that come over here that are 65 or retired already in cuba, they are given social security and now i see that biden has expanded that to anybody. there is no way we can sustain social security on the united states taxpayers paying it and whoever wants to can come here can -- and can get it. guest: my understanding is that you have to get your 40 quarters in. that means there is four quarters per year of three months and you got to work 40 of those in order to be eligible. without those 40 quarters, you

are not eligible but i will look into the refugee status. you said something else that triggered a thought. by the way, that will be significant. we have to address it and i can see that point. but what's really driving insolvency of social security is that 10,000 boomers per day become eligible for social security. when social security was put into place like 1948, there is like 5.6 children per beneficiary. the average age of death was probably about 65. if you got to 60, you would live longer but the point being that people did not stay on social very long and there is lots of folks paying in to support them. now, with smaller families, there's only like 2.1 people paying and for every beneficiary and the average age of death is 82. i'm told if you live to age 60

and you are in good health, you have a 50% chance of living to be 890. a lot of boomers are retiring. they are becoming eligible every day. we have longer lifespans and fewer people are paying in. that's why we need a different system, a system which guarantees the benefits you will receive unlike president trump and biden, they are choosing to do nothing and we should choose to do something. host: lizzie in indiana, democratic caller. caller: hello, hi. i'm calling to talk to you about how the government owes the social security money right now. host: the senator addressed that. i will have you hang on the line and have them repeat what he said. guest: when there has been

excess dollars contributed relative to the money going out, the social security trust fund invested in treasuries. yes, the government kind of owes it but what i pointed out earlier is by law, you have to put it into treasuries and treasuries are only paying one point -- 1-3% interest. when we have in inflation at six or 7%, the value of that dollar is diminishing relative to inflation. that's why a separate fund, separate from social security, we have put in the strength of the american economy that way you compensate for inflation of the growth. it's there is no social security dollars in here. we need a different investment strategy to what we have now because we are losing money with inflation. host: you want to put $1.5 trillion into this investment over five years. you talk about where that would come from but can people learn more details of how you would

raise one point $5 trillion? guest: we need political leadership from the present because we need both houses of congress to support it. we have a bipartisan group of senators supporting a bipartisan group of represented that would have supported it. but when biden made his state of the union speech, it fell apart. i would like my preferred example. there is $20 trillion -- $20 billion worth of buildings the federal government owns that we don't use. we spend i'm told billion dollars every year maintaining this $20 billion worth of real estate that we don't use. let's sell a little bit of that, 1.5 trillion of that. let's sell it and put it to this account in order to have growth. we've got a lot of unused assets. there might be another way to do it but that's why you need the president to come in and say

i'll sign it into law if you do this. host: so speaker kevin mccarthy announced he's assembling a commission to look at potential cuts in the entire federal budget. do you think that's where leadership could come from? what your prediction for that? guest: i can promise you what that whatever he proposes, president biden is going to use it to attack on the campaign trail. what is happening is biden, whenever there is a serious proposal, he attacks it is a cuts. president trump, if some he says we have to fix social, he wants to attack it. so the leading presidential candidates are choosing to do nothing. they are making a conscious decision to deceive the american people that we don't need to do anything on social. trump will say we should -- we will cut fraud and abuse. that's about 1% of the problem at best. that will not fix it. when biden says i've got a plan

and he talked about his last campaign but it was never submit it to congress. the way he will pay for, he is use that same mechanism for medicare and everything else. he is kind of double counting to pay for it. we need serious proposals by the men or women who wish to be leaders of our country and if they don't come up with a serious proposal, they should not be the leader of our country. host: richfield, wisconsin, republican. caller: good morning, senator cassidy and thank you for being on. i find it curious, you are talking about fraud and abuse being 1% or less. when we look at the billions and billions of dollars that this administration wasted or allowed to be fraudulently used for the covid money. i also find it curious that you are lumping president trump and president biden in the same boat when there is obviously huge differences in the party.

you sound like a rhino, my friend. guest: thank you, brother. i'm here to tell you the truth, not to peddle the party line. you are right, there is billions spent on covid but that's not in the social security trust fund. we are talking social security, not other things. when i speak of trump and biden, and being objective. look at their plans and their rhetoric on social security. if you want me to say the republicans are perfect no matter what the republican says, and your future is on the line? if we adopt one of these choosing to do nothing programs, you get a 24% cut in your social security benefits. what do you want me to do? be honest with the american people come up with a plan of not having a 24% cut were just speak a party line. my obligation to my state and my country and my fellow americans is to be honest.

if you wish me to be something else, i'm not sure why -- i don't usually hear people say i want my politicians to not be honest. i'm being honest. host: we talked yesterday about college costs. real quickly because we only have less than a minute with you before you have to go. can you tell us what you're proposing there? guest: president biden's plan does nothing for the underlying problems. he forgives debt and transfers it to other taxpayers, making us pay the obligation that someone willingly took on. according to the committee for responsible federal budget, in five years, we will be back in the same situation. what we are proposing, me and a bipartisan collection would be to create an accountability and transparency so young person going to go to college. they will be able to log on and

see that i will enroll at this college in this curriculum and what's my likelihood of graduating, how much will i have to borrow, then what will i turn when i get out? with that information, she can make a decision. she chooses to go and spend $200,000 for for your education in which she will get out and make $40,000 per year, at least her eyes are wide open. host: it sounds like a good app. guest: it would be. host: senator, thank you. our viewers can learn more if they go to cassid