Washington D.C., DC -- (ReleaseWire) -- 10/22/2014 --Nationally Syndicated Financial Myth Busting Radio Show with Host Dawn Bennett, CEO of Bennett Group Financial Services, LLC, on October 12, 2014 interviewed Wayne Allyn Root, author of the book, "The Murder of the Middle Class: How to Save Yourself and Your Family From the Criminal Conspiracy of the Century.”
It's really quite ad what's going on in America to our middle class. We're actually losing it. We're getting a higher class. We're getting much more people in the lower class, and we're losing the middle class, says Ms. Bennett.
The quaint notion of a middle class in the U.S. is nothing more than a myth. It seems to be a rapidly-fading fantasy from a bygone era.
This book exposes the crime of losing the middle class, and it also indicts the conspirators from the Obama administration and their willing accomplices in the media, as well as big business. In his book, Root names names and points out their dirty deeds.
So, you say the U.S. economy has had six full years to bounce back since the financial collapse of 2008, and it just hasn't happened yet. Median household income has declined substantially since then and total household wealth for the middle class families is way down, which means that middle class families have significantly less purchasing power than they did just prior to the last major financial crisis, asserts Ms. Bennett.
Here is the interview with Mr. Root:
Q: Is this going to be as good as it gets for America's middle class?
A: I'm not a pessimistic guy, so this may not be as good as it gets. We may have a major comeback. It was as bad as it got under Jimmy Carter, and then, Ronald Reagan came into office, and it got fantastic. So just because we're in terrible shape right now and have been for six years, despite what the media says.
They're lying to people. Despite the fact that the middle class right now is getting hit from all sides, that doesn't mean we're not going to make a comeback. There's a caveat to what I'm saying; we’ve got to seal the border so tha t Ebola doesn't destroy the American economy, not to mention kill a lot of people.
We must seal the border so terrorism on our soil doesn't destroy the American economy and kill a lot of people. We’ve got to seal the border so that millions of poor people don't come across the border who all demand welfare, cradle to grave, for the rest of their lives, which would destroy the American economy.
Everything bad, I believe, that could ever destroy, push us over the edge, and ruin America, completely, forever, starts at that border. It's amazing that we have a President that could care less. As a matter of fact, what's happened to business in Dallas, what's going to happen, moving forward, to business in Dallas, at this moment, an Ebola victim is a healthcare worker at the Dallas Hospital, where the first, victim, Thomas Duncan, died.
In full hazmat suit, this person managed to get Ebola. So you tell me whether people are going to be rushing to go to businesses in Dallas, whether they're going to be rushing to fly to visit friends in Dallas, whether they're going to go to conventions in Dallas, w hether they're going to go to business meetings in Dallas.
If three days after that, it happens in Las Vegas, where I live, what's going to happen to the Vegas economy? What would happen to the New York economy? If it happens to Orlando, what happens to Disney World? The entire tourism industry of America is at risk as we speak right now, 'cause the border won't be shut, and flights in the Ebola zone will not be banned by a President who obviously is either ignorant, delusional, crazy or wants to take out America. I don't know which one it is. But something's wrong with this reaction.
Q: So, when people look at the terrible decisions President Obama has made, in particular to the borders and even Ebola, and their predictable fallout, I wonder whether he's intentionally creating this turmoil, do you think? Or, is it just simply ideological for him? He's just wants to go that route, like you said, that he wants to destroy America? Do you have any theories on what explanation might make more sense to the American people if they were listening to this?
A: Yeah, I do. I'll tell you my theory. It's from my book, "Murder of the Middle Class." But I'm always careful to say, "I don't know what it is, 'cause I can't get inside a man's mind or heart." I just know that it could be total, complete incompetence. I may be wrong about everything. This guy may be the most incompetent man to ever step foot in The White House. His bad incompetency and bad decisions, and bad decision making are putting all of us at risk, our businesses, our children, our lives, all of it. Or this may be a purposeful doing. I don't know which one it is. I just know that when I went to Columbia University, from 1979 to 1983, almost everyone I met was radical or called themselves communist and socialist and Marxist.
Q: Obama was in your class. Is that correct?
A: Yes, he graduated same day as me, class of 1983. If you go back and look at the graduation list of all the students at graduation day, you'll see about, I think it was four names away from each other, 'cause his ends in an O. Mine ends in R, so it was Barack Hussein Obama, Wayne Allyn Root just a couple names away from each other. So he was my classmate.
What we learned while at Columbia from radical professors and radical students, in the whole class of about 708, I think it was, I was the one Reagan conservative there. I was the only one I ever met in my entire four years of Columbia who loved Ronald Reagan. All the other students who called themselves communists and Marxists talked about taking down America, that you have to rip it up, knock it down, burn it down and start over again, because of the incredible inequality and the incredible racism and the incredible hatred for poor people. We've got to start over again and create a perfect, utopian, socialist society. They said the way to do it was with a plan from two Columbia professors I believe, Frances Cloward and Richard Piven, husband and wife professor team.
They said you've got to overwhelm the system with crisis. That could either be spending or debt or entitlement. Or that could be a crisis like Ebola or a terrorist attack. But either way, if you overwhelm the system with a ton of crises and distractions and bring the system down, then the people will be begging for government to save them.
Then you've stuck a knife right in the gut of America, and you've made even successful small-business people, who are usually Republican conservatives, get on their knees and say, "Save us government." The next thing you know, you've got socialism. Now, it seems to me Obama spent six years trying to overwhelm the system with spending, entitlements and debt. When it didn't work 100 percent, because the system isn't down yet, maybe now he wants the borders open to see what else he can do. I don't know.
It's a terrible charge to make at someone. So I just keep saying, "It's either that, or it's incompetence." But either way, America is under full-scale attack. I won't say we're done, because I think we've always come back before, and we may come back again. But it all depends. Who are we electing this November? Who are we electing in November of 2015? It has to be turned around. I don't know. We'll find out.
Q: Can the middle class in America wake up? Can they do something? Can they put together some t ype of an effective political movement that's actually going to protect them, protect us?
A: Well, the question is whether political movement even works anymore? We're so far gone. Does it work? I mean, when you see that in the same weekend two separate federal judges literally threw voter ID laws in two separate states, including Texas, obviously there are radical activists in the judicial system whose goal in life is to upend America.
There's nothing that makes me laugh more than the issue of voter ID. When I go to the airport and I buy a $3 bottle of water, the girl behind the counter always says, "Can I see your ID, please?" Now, of course, I'm paying with a credit card. So she's saying, "Can I see your ID, please?" When I'm in a Vegas casino and I order a $6 lunch at a quick fast-food place and I hand them my Visa card, the person always says, "Can I see your ID, please?" You can't survive in America without ID.
You can't get welfare without ID. You can't get food stamps without photo ID issued from the government. And here's the important part. Every Democratic voter in America that claims ID is racist, you can't get Obamacare, you can't be seen in a doctor office and get free medical care from Obamacare without photo ID issued by the government. So explain to me how asking for it at a voting booth is racism.
So any judge looking to throw the election, due to fraud, to Democratic candidates, that's the only thing that could possibly be on their mind. There is no disenfranchisement. There is no racism by asking for voter ID when every voter in America who votes Democrat already has photo ID, because they can't get Obamacare, welfare or food stamps without it.
Q: So Wayne, in your book, "The Murder of the Middle Class," you name names. Beside the President, who else do you fault for murdering the middle class?
A: There's plenty of blame to go around with the Republican part. There's plenty of establishment Republicans who have helped Obama every step of the way. The Federal Reserve is probably ahead of Barack Obama. The United Nations is on my list. Unions, lawyers, these are all bad, bad people. The judicial system, these people aren't help to America. Lobbyists and lawyers in Washington, DC, are the death of America. But the surprise to most people, I think, in my big corporations.
You know, it's one thing to charge big government is out to create a socialist society that rewards the super rich, but big corporations, they're supposed to be for capitalism. They're not for capitalism anymore. They're for any system that asks government to force people to spend money with them.
They're happy about Obamacare, big pharmaceutical companies. Big insurance companies may have protested a little bit in the beginning, but in the end, government is forcing 30 to 40 million clients to buy insurance from them and to buy drugs from the pharmaceutical company.
So all of those big corporations were helped by Obamacare. As a matter of fact, to gain the pharmaceutical company's cooperation and support of Obamacare, Obama bribed them by putting into the Obamacare law that Americans could not buy cheap drugs from Canada or other countries outside the United States. He banned that practice, whereas all of us could go get the same drug that cost $1,000 a pill for $1 outside the borders of the United States. That would have been the easiest way to solve the health care crisis. Instead, we put government in charge. We ripped off the middle class. We've raised their rates dramatically. We killed the middle class and the rest of our health care system equality of care. And then, we're essentially banned from buying cheap drugs elsewhere. You're trapped and a prisoner of the big ph armaceutical companies charging you $1,000 a pill. You tell me whose benefit that was? Big government and big corporations are always the ones that benefit from Obama's socialist rulings.
Q: I'm in Washington, D.C. where the power brokers are. Has anybody called you about all the good ideas you lay out in your book? Do you see the worst-case scenario coming to us if they don't start implementing some of your ideas?
A: I do see the worst-case scenario coming which is the open border and Ebola. I used to think it was terrorism in the old days, three weeks ago. Now, I believe it's Ebola. The medical professional testing positive just this morning in Dallas who treated Thomas Duncan, is, I think, the lynch pin of what disaster we are facing. As we speak, that person obviously since the week went by didn't know they had Ebola. They went home. They have kids. Those kids went to school.
Those kids infected other kids. They went into stores. Who knows how many people are in their circle, and that's why it happens so fast, exponentially. You can go from one person or two people to 10,000 in a matter of days. And 10,000 becomes 1 million and 1 million becomes the whole America at risk.
So this is a disaster. We got major, major problems here that I feel were the economy and too many people on welfare or 108 million people on entitlements and ISIS and a terrorist attack on American soil, Obamacare, all horrible problems. Suddenly, they all pale next to Ebola.
Well let me tell you, that was the process I learned at Columbia University, how the communists wanted to destroy America. You keep hitting people with so many distractions that their head turns in a circle like a poltergeist.
Pretty soon, they don't know how to deal with it all. They just go into a shell and put their hands and body in the fetal position. They just go, "Mommy, mommy, help me." People can't keep up with all this.
That sure seems like Obama's Presidency, and isn't it funny that days ago, Obama's quote was, "Boy, the world seems to be spinning out of control, and none of us know what to do about it." He sounds like he's a lost puppy.
Q: We've been talking about China eating our lunch and I know you spoke about it in your book that China's actually going to be No. 1. This last week, you were right. The I MF said that China overtook the U.S. as the world's largest economy. This was mostly based on consumer purchasing power. They have 1.3 billion people. We have 300 million people. I'm just wondering does this mean life is going to continue to get more expensive as China grows out of its role of China's cheap good's supplier?
A: Most people don't even know it because most people are dumbed down by the society, by the media, by the education system. They don't even know what's going on. It happened only based on the IMF's specific criteria. One of my best friends is a brilliant economist by the name of Mark Skousen. Mark will tell you, "You know, Wayne, it's not even close. We're still three times bigger than China. They're basing it on certain specific criteria."
But when you divide their billion people by how much their GDP is and you divide ours by our 300 million people, it's not even close. We live a much higher quality of life. So China still is nowhere near passing us on pure GDP, pure economy. On certain measures defined by the IMF, yes, they passed us, and it's certainly something to worry about.
Let's not assume that they really are a bigger economy than us. They're not. The reality is that going by the old measurements, they're not. What is more worrisome than China passing us is just the fact that when you go to China and do business, it's easier to do business there. They're more capitalistic than we are. See, that's more worrisome that opening a business in America is that difficult.
Who said that? Steve Wynn, one of my heroes a nd the founder of all the greatest casinos in the history of Las Vegas and the world. Steve Wynn said, "I'm not worried about China. I'm worried about America's economy." He said that just days ago. I have much more concern about America than China, and it's much freer there to open a business than it is in America. That's one of the most worrisome things I've ever heard. So let's not worry about metrics and who's really bigger right now. Let's worry about what the future holds, because small-business men and women opening a business is the whole key to America or any other country becoming great and enjoying economic freedom and enjoying mobility and opportunity. It's all about the ability to freely open a business and free-market trading. We don't have it anymore.
As a matter of fact, in Obama's first five years I point out in my new book, "Murder of the Middle Class," by every metric and every measure, Obama is the greatest regulator in the history of the world. He created more regulations per word, per sentence, per page or just pure regulation than any President in American history combined. He has a four of the first five highest regulation years in history, and if you're wondering, "Well, four of the five? Who actually had one of the years that was worse than one of Obama’s?" The last year of the Bush Presidency.
So you have the two worst presidents regulation-wise back-to-back in the history of America, and you wonder why our economy is in a standstill, is in quicksand. Bush did plenty of damage, too. Bush was a guy who loved capitalism. Maybe it wasn't his fault. It was the Democratic Congress in the last year under Bush. But he could have vetoed a lot of that. He didn't.
Q: Do you have any ideas for reclaiming capitalism for America?
A: I have a lot of ideas. When I was at The MoneyShow, I gave the closing keynote address. I decided instead of going negative and ripping Obama to shreds, I would go positive and give my economic ideas for how you save America. I swear you've never seen such excitement in your entire life. I call it a middle-class contract with America. I always start with, "Pray for America." I always get a giant ovation for that, because, you know God blessed America and made it the greatest nation in world history.
And now, all the sudden, we've taken God out of everything, out of the military, out of schools, out of the city hall. Suddenly, America is this country that's in decline. I wonder if there's a coincidence there. I don't think it's a coincidence. So, No. 1, pray. That won't hurt. No. 2, impeach Obama, 'cause he's got to be stopped. No. 3 is kind of a humorous one. Adopt the Jerry Seinfeld strategy. You know, did you watch Jerry Seinfeld's show?
Q: I did, of course.
A: Well you had Costanza, right, the laughable loser, right? He's the biggest loser that ever lived, and I point out in my new book, "Murder of the Middle Class," you know, one day he became a winner.
He became this executive at the New York Yankees, and that's every boy's dream when you're growing up, to be an executive of a sports team.
I was talking about one funny one, which is the Seinfeld Principle. On Seinfield, George Costanza was the lovable loser and suddenly became this big shot executive at the Yankees. He was dating model girlfriends, and his life was incredible. He's making big money, and this big loser turns it all around. So Seinfeld, his best friend, says to him, "How'd you do it?" He said, "Well, I realized I was a loser my whole life, and every decision I ever made was bad. So now, I think about every decision, and I do the opposite."
Think if we just did the opposite through our last six years, the opposite of everything Obama ever did, either he’s a communist out to destroy America or he's just a loser whose every instinct is wrong. If you did the opposite, you'd have the most incredible, thriving economy in the world.
Name the issue, and if you do the opposite, like Obamacare, how about health freedom? Instead of more government, let's have less government. How about if you just allowed people to buy health care policy across state lines anywhere they wanted to. Wouldn't that be better? How about if you just made it completely, 100 percent all health care expenses tax deductible. Wouldn't that help everybody instantly? If you really wanted to help me, wouldn't I be able to live a better life if every time I saw a doctor and there was a $20 co-pay, I could take it off my taxes. If I could take my health insurance off my taxes, and if the deductible is 5,000 a year, if I can take the 5,000 this year tha t I spend at doctors off my taxes, wouldn't that be helpful to me?
Instead, Obama said, "No, no, no. Let's not do that. Let's, instead, force people to buy health care. Let's jack up their expenses dramatically. Let's add billions of dollars that eventually will be trillions of dollars in new taxes. Let's not let anything that squeaks through, that isn't covered, let's not let any of that be tax deductible. Let's trap people in their own state, make 'em buy in their own state.
“That will really work well, won't it?" Hasn't worked anywhere in the world. Why would it work here? So, just do the opposite of everything he wants to do. If we didn't give money to green energy companies and subsidized them and instead had a free market, electricity rates would be the lowest in history, not the highest in history.
If we actually fought ISIS instead of talking about it and calling them the JV team, they wouldn't even be there now. We would have stopped them dead in their tracks a year ago. Everything he does is either the wrong instinct or he's purposely trying to destroy the United States of America. It's not that hard to figure out what to do, Dawn.
Q: You have ideas in your book about how the middle class can take some steps to protect themselves. Could you give some practical tips?
A: No. 1 would be a gold standard. I think the country needs a gold standard because of the Feds. Throw the Fed out and back money with something real, gold. Each person needs a personal gold standard. The fact that gold is down lately, I think is a great thing. You always want to buy something when it's on sale.
I love when people tell me, "Oh, gold's no good. It's been down, and the stock market's great. It's been up." You never want to buy something when it's at its all-time high. You always want to buy something when it's at a relative low. So, now is the time to get out of stocks, in my opinion. Or at least, be careful with stocks and buy a wealth insurance policy called gold, which by the way, if you had $1 million in 1913, and you held it 'til today, it's got the buying worth $20,000 today because of inflation. If you had the same million in gold in 1913, and you used it today, it's worth of $60 million. You tell me which one you'd rather have, even if you're not good at math: $20,000 or $60 million?
So I think somehow, some way, people might be smart to buy a little bit of gold as wealth insurance. I think if you want to save your children's lives, you might be smart to homeschool or send them to private school or charter school or Catholic school, because here's my experience, take control of your children's life.
In Las Vegas, we have the worst public schools in America, but really not much worse than any other city. Most of the kids graduate only due to grade inflation. Forty percent drop out. Those who graduate need remedial math and reading just to go to a community college, whereas in the same c ity, we educated my daughter. We homeschooled her, and she just graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University as a homeschooler.
Obviously it works, but when you mention homeschooling, the society as a whole denigrates you. "Oh, I wouldn't homeschool. Oh, your kids aren't socialized. Oh, that's terrible." Really? My daughter graduated magna cum laude from Harvard. That's terrible. But the fact that 40 percent of kids drop out of public school, w e should give them more money. Wow. There's something wrong with the thinking of our society.
Q: Do you think, just from a philosophical perspective, that the American middle class can actually claw their way out of desperate, hand-to-mouth existence with some of the tips that you told today?
A: I think they can. I think I have. You've got to own your own business. You can't work for someone else. You're dead if you work for someone else. That's really my advice.
The homeschooling or private school is owning your kids' education, owning gold is owning your financial future, protecting against disaster. Owning your business means you can never be fired, 'cause unless you're mentally ill, you're not going to fire yourself, right?
If you work for someone else, your job's at risk 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Everything I do is about owning and taking personal responsibility.
Q: Wayne Allyn Root, I want to thank you so much. Get his book, "The Murder of the Middle Class."
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About Dawn Bennett
Dawn Bennett is CEO and Founder of Bennett Group Financial Services. She hosts a national radio program called Financial Myth Busting http://www.financialmythbusting.com
She discusses educational topics and events in the financial news, along with her thoughts on the economy, financial markets, investments, and more with her live guests, who have included Rock Legend Ted Nugent, as well as Steve Forbes and Grover Norquist. The show is a great complement to Dawn’s monthly investing seminars that take place at Tysons Corner in McLean, VA, where she discusses investing.
She can be reached on Twitter @DawnBennettFMB or on Facebook Financial Myth Busting with Dawn Bennett or dbennett@bennettgroupfinancial.com
