Hour 3: Economy

Morning people wake up for peace and quiet. McDonald's breakfast people? We wake up for the sweet rush of getting that warm, delicious breakfast right before it ends. Hotcakes, sausage patty, hash browns, scrambled eggs, biscuit, real butter and syrup. You know how our big breakfast got its name, and you know where your whole family can share one for just $6. McDonald's. Limited time only, price and participation may vary cannot be combined with any other offer or a combo meal. Strong values, strong opinions, the Mike Broomhead show, KTAR News 923, and the KTAR News app. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was in Arizona yesterday along with the Speaker of the House and Congressman Juan Siskemani at an event at a Frito-Lay plant in Maricopa, I'm sorry, Castle Grand, Arizona. They then made their way to our studios where I had to sit down with him and had about 15 minutes with him. We are going to play the interview now in two parts. Here's part one. In Arizona today, as you can see, it is... Secretary of Treasury, Scott Bessent is with us. First of all, Mr. Secretary, thank you so much for doing this. Mike, it's great to be out here in Arizona. I watched the press conference today at the event in Casagrand. Coming to Arizona for this event, why Arizona and what is it that we need to know? What happened today? Well, Look, I think it's great. One of the highlights for me is coming out and seeing the effects of the President Trump and this administration's policies. And that as we talked about at the press conference, it's policy. and how it makes its way to the people. And I have said that the tax bill, which was done last year, some call the work in families tax cuts, some call the one big beautiful bill, but it's really a barbell. So on one side, you have great corporate incentives. full expensing for factories and equipment for farm structures. And on the other side, you have the presence for signature policies, no tax in tips, no tax in overtime, reduced tax on social security and deductibility of auto American-made autos. So it's really that plant... itself was a microcosm because they were saying that because of the tax bill, they expanded, they renovated, and then many of the employees there were saying they loved the overtime deduction. And for the event today, talking about the paid family leave extension, I was a small business owner. I was a contractor for a long time before I got into the media business. And people don't understand how much you want to take care of your employees and do things for them so they can take care of their families. But sometimes it just wasn't affordable for a small business owner to provide things like that.

How does this help businesses provide for their employees? So people respond to incentives, and that's what we're trying to do. On one hand, we try to get out of the way, and then on the other hand, we try to have tax incentives deductions for good policies. So Treasury gave guidance this morning, so the big, large... small employers who want to have paid family leave benefits for their employees, whether it's for sick relatives or for children, can now deduct those expenses. So it's much more beneficial for them to do it, or they can buy insurance. And are they able to deduct with the insurance? Are they able to deduct some of those costs if they have the insurance? Surely. And see, that to me just seems like common sense helping businesses provide for their employees. I'm always listening to small business owners saying if I had more of my own money, I would expand my business. I would pay my employees more. I'd up the benefit package because it seemed like business owners are always reinvesting in their business. Well, it's also, it's that... Workers have choices. And as you said, especially small business owners want to do the right thing. And we wanted to provide incentives for them to be able to do that. Just like with the Trump accounts, we're seeing many employers now are... They're contributing to their employees' Trump accounts for their children. So anyone can open an account for children under age 18, and employers can put in up to $2,500. And since you brought that up, the genius of this, in my opinion, is I didn't learn as a kid. We didn't have any money, so I'd never learned about money. And I look back in my life and said, if I had started saving sooner, how much better off I would have been, is we're going to talk about housing and mortgage rates and a down payment for houses or college. Being able to jumpstart these kids' lives by doing it at such a young age has got to be, the benefits of this are going to be seen 20 years from now. Well, look, I think we're going to see it right out of the box, and then it's really going to crystallize 20 years from now. 38% of American households have no stake in our great equity markets. They don't participate in the growth. They don't participate in the innovation. And they don't participate in the markets. And President Trump wants to create an ownership society. And I think this is a way to do it. And, Mike, to your point, I think this is the ultimate real-time learning for financial literacy. And in contrast, it was never easy managing your finances. But in contrast to when you and I were kids, there are so many other alternatives now. They're digital assets. They're buy now, pay later, which is very complicated. All kinds of...

credit alternatives on mortgages, is it better to rent? Is it better to buy? You know, how should you finance an auto? And with these Trump accounts, kids are going to be able to, when they turn 18, they can either take the money out, use it for college, start a business, down payment on a car, a house, or they can roll it. and into an IRA that they can then keep tax free until they're 60, 65. And that financial security, when they get older, it gets people moving through the job market so the younger generation behind them can come into the market that we're not stuck top-heavy because people aren't prepared for retirement. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And, you know, is... Just having control of your finances. I see surveys that show that kind of people 40, 50, and up, one of the biggest sources of economic anxiety is their economic future. What is it going to look like? How do I retire? So I think this is a great start, and it's a great lesson in compounding over time. One of the conversations, obviously, is about inflation and what's happening in the country and the phrase bifurcated economy. How does the One Beautiful Bill Act address that when it comes to no tax on tips? When it comes to, I think, the service industry and how they're benefiting from that, is this addressing that issue? for those families? Well, it already has. So the, you know, it called the bifurcated economy, the case-shaped economy. And that has ended that 13 months on from the one big, beautiful bill, we are seeing that just like in President Trump's first term, the bottom 25% of wage earners have done better than the top 25%. Bottom 25% over the past 12 months. their incomes have increased 5.5%, almost three times the top 25%. So look, we're not happy with the inflation numbers. I think that core inflation remains low. Prices will come, energy prices will come down. We'll get to the other side of this Iran conflict. But in the meantime, the bottom 25% of workers, they've made... of 5.5%. Inflation has been 3.5. So that's 2% real wage increase. I'd like for it to be more. I think it will be more when energy prices go down. But this is the result of workers being able to keep more of their money. That is part one of the interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. We will air part two coming up here in a moment. The full interview, KTAR.com, the KTR YouTube channel. You can check it out there. Fascinating conversation. You'll hear part two coming up here in just a moment.

It's Gatos and the Cardinals are playing tonight, the Hall of Fame game. And my close personal friend Larry Fitzgerald goes into the Hall of Fame. We're going to discuss that. Outspoken with Bruce and Gatos, the greatest wide receiver ever in the history of the NFL. Outspoken, 2 o'clock on the KTAR YouTube channel. All right. We had a conversation last evening with Scott Bessent at right after the event they had in Castle Grand made their way to the KTR Studios. You heard part one. This is part two. This is the result of workers being able to keep more of their money. And it was fascinating on Tax Day, April 15th, everybody's favorite day. Yeah, everything. I also oversee the IRS as a Treasury Secretary. I went with the president of Las Vegas, and I thought Las Vegas would be the tip capital of America. And the president... did what he always does at rallies, and he wanted to hear kind of a decibel level vote. And he went through with the four policies. And I thought in Las Vegas, surely did tips, but by far it was overtime. Right. And that's what we saw today at the Frito-Lay factory in Casa Grande. Workers very excited about the overtime. And I did a small business roundtable out in Seamy Valley, California. And it's not only the workers who were excited about the overtime, it's employers because you have great employees. And... They voluntarily want to work more hours because they're keeping more of it. It's the American way. You want to work harder, keep more of it. And I'm glad you're saying this because that was my world. I grew up as an electrician. So I worked where I was an hourly worker. But I worked whenever I was asked, the potential to keep more of my money is just the incentive that I'm going to be able to keep more of this. I'm going to see the benefit of this longer. Plus, I'm going to put it right back into the economy. It just seems like a no-brainer. Yeah. And look, it's an immediate fill-up. And we saw last year workers did not take the deduction and did not change their withholding. So we saw very large income tax refunds this year. They were up about 10, 13%. And that doesn't track the people who... paid last year and got a refund this year. So as I travel across the country, I hear from people who said, I paid $3,000 last year and I got $3,000 refund this year. Is it about changing the narrative? Is it the messaging of what you're doing when you travel the country? Because when you say that the bottom 25% is doing better than the top 25%, I don't know that that's the narrative that we're hearing in a lot of the media or that people feel is actually going on. Well, look, I think I am happy to run on this this time because...

There's a lot going on out in the world, but you see these consumer numbers are very skewed. The Republicans say consumer confidence 80. The Democrats say eight, and you end up with this. off-kilter number, and I am not minimizing what working people are feeling, but what I am saying is that in the past year, we have seen an improvement, and we are going to continue seeing that improvement. And look, I also think, you've got to ask yourself, why is the bottom 25% doing better? Did it have something to do with closing the border? Whatever the number was. 10, 15, 25 million illegals come across and take Americans' jobs, then 2 million, 3 million go home, then... supply and demand still works in the labor market. So two more questions very quickly. One has to go back to the business side of this. I believe that if we're going to see people benefit in the working class benefit, we're going to have to see wage growth far outpacing inflation. So we want inflation to drop. But don't you think that the growth economy where people are competing for the employees, that that drives up wages and that? organically is what businesses will do to help grow the economy. Well, that's what we've seen this past year, and that's what we saw in President Trump's first term. And that's exactly right, because the president always said, I could create a million, two million government jobs, but those don't, those only keep up with inflation. You can't outpace inflation. I want to tell you the number of people who I spoke to it at the Freedola factory today who said, I started out. at the bottom rung. I started out the, as the, uh, You know, entry level. But very entry level. And they had moved up. So there's wage growth just for your existing job. But then there's also advancement. And there's growth. We're seeing in Arizona. I can tell you that this administration is laser focused on bringing the semiconductor industry to Arizona. And those are going to be high paying skilled jobs from. every, you know, from maintaining the, they're called fabs, the factories, maintaining the fabs all the way to like the precision jobs. And that is going to be very powerful for this state. Last question, I'd be remiss if I didn't ask about tariffs and the policy of tariffs and the effects of tariffs. Can you tell us from your perspective?

Is there a benefit? Is the average American paying the cost of most of these tariffs? And what do the American people need to know about the Trump policy and tariffs? Yeah. So look, we've been taken advantage of for years by other countries. We have put tariffs, whether it's 15% on the EU, 15% on Japan, higher on China. And that this past year. Goods inflation was zero. So we didn't see that pass through. It's a democratic talking point. The inflation that we're seeing outside of energy has been in services. And you don't import services. You don't the. So. And tariffs, a lot of the Democrats were doing cartwheels over the administration having to refund the tariffs. They said, well, the money should get paid back to the American people. Well, as the Treasury Secretary of the United States of America, the American people had it. We had... $170 billion in the U.S. Treasury, we had half a percent of GDP that was going down to paid on debt and was helping to anchor interest rates. Mr. Secretary, I appreciate the time. I know it's been a very long day for you, but I know the people of Arizona are glad you're here, and thanks for talking to my audience. Always good to be out here. That was part two of the interview. It was a fascinating about 15 minutes long and a fascinating look at the policies of the administration, which is probably what we need to talk a little bit more about. The discussion about the Trump accounts, are they a benefit? Are there something that's going to help shore up as people are worried about being able to retire someday or as they're younger people with being able to put a down payment on a home? Are there good outlooks for people or is it people still feeling pain because he recognized the inflation part of this? So we're going to have that conversation. I think it's a good one to have. We'll do that here coming up in a few moments. Stick around.

Happy Thursday, more and more hiring managers say kids today are showing up for job interviews with their parents. I'm no expert, but this feels like a surefire way not to get hired. We're talking about it today at two on outspoken with Bruce and Gatos on air online and on the KTAR YouTube channel. So I think this is the best time for the two of you to weigh in, if you guys don't mind. Paul's here on the board and, of course, Patricia, two different perspectives, which I think are terrific. I'm in a way different place in life than the two of you are. But hearing Mr. Scott Bessent speak about this yesterday, I was fascinated by a couple of different things. He called it a two-pronged approach or a dumbbell approach. He said, on one hand, it is giving tax relief to businesses and giving them incentives to grow and to reinvest and to give them the ability. to help hire people and grow their business. On the other side, it's for the employees being able to keep more of their money with no tax on tips, no tax on overtime. Do you, first of all, let's start with Paul. Do you see that as a benefit, the idea that if you have to work overtime, you get to keep more of your own money? Yeah, I think so. Would it incentivize you to say yes to overtime more often? Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. I know there's a lot of employers. I have a friend who, who doesn't get full overtime. He gets half of the pay or whatever. Okay. He works a lot of overtime. He busts his butt. And this gives people for, if you're motivated to work, it gives you that kind of an incentive. He's a hard worker. Right. I think he's going to be happy with this. What about the, for you, Patricia, the Trump accounts? Oh, I wish I can enroll. You can't? I mean, with the incentive of the $1,000 in it. Yeah, right. No, but yes, this is a great idea. I actually talk to Koi about it and getting, you know, the Trump accounts for Katie and James. And I don't know, it's just saving money. And the way that they do it and the way that businesses are getting involved, I think that it's very smart. And they said that employers can... put in up to $2,500. That's what I'm saying, the way businesses are getting involved. We work for a company that is really good about incentivizing investment. And not only that, they're very family-oriented. So I wonder if they're participating, because I wouldn't know the answer to that. I don't have kids, but this idea of investment and ownership, I like the idea because. For a long time, you know, I didn't save money. I didn't invest money. But once you do and you're watching the stock market, not every single day, but you're watching those investments, you're watching how the country is growing and progressing. If there's an investment, even on a smaller level, but especially for your children, imagine every couple of years or once a year when you're doing your taxes and stuff to look at that account and say, oh my gosh. You know, that now your daughter's 10 in five years as she's getting closer to that 18 years of age, what she could do with that money. Yeah, and I don't care who you are, no matter is whose name is on the account. If it's for your child and it's for the better, then I think it's a great idea. Why not? And it allows for people to feel like they are owning part of American growth. And I think the two of them together, when you talk about overtime work, as an employee.

Sometimes, at least for when I was an employee in the trades and I was working by the hour, if my boss made me feel like I was a part of the success of that business, I would do anything for that business. When my boss made, when we would have our Christmas party or the bonus times or whatever would come up, when the boss would say, hey, listen, we've had the best quarter we've ever had, and it's thanks to you guys. The check they handed you or whatever else was important, but it was feeling like I was an important part of this company. Being recognized, just in general. Right. But on the other hand, if you, I'm guessing, but knowing you, If somebody says to you, I want to do something nice for your kids, that's a no-brainer. Get the heck out of here. Who do you think you are? Who do you think you are? That's what I'm saying. Like, you know, so many people just hear the stigma and they hear the name Trump account. They're like, oh, I don't want that. Right. It's bad already. No, but it is, from the looks of it, you know, it's going to be helping out kids. And I'm really glad that you. You said that because I really hadn't thought of it that way, but you're right. If it's affiliated with him, it's got to be bad. And then everybody gets angry. And he does do this a lot. You know, his face is going to be on a coin and we're going to put him on a bill, but you can't do it while someone's a lot, all that stuff. But nobody complained on the other side of this conversation when the Affordable Care Act was called Obamacare. And you know, it's really funny that it actually deterred me from telling people about it. I wanted to tell, you know, some family members like, hey, you should look into this Trump account. But if I said the name Trump, blocked. Just kidding. But right away, like, it would just automatically be, I don't want to talk about that, you know, get it shut down. But I don't know. I hope people look at this with an open mind because when you're thinking about kids and in the long term in their future and investing. It's something different. It was interesting yesterday and a little kind of like peek behind the curtain was over the last couple of days we've been dealing with, you know, the Secret Service was here and had to do a walkthrough. And they were here. A couple of guys on the detail were from Phoenix PD when they got here with the secretary. But the day before we had to do a walkthrough and met with his advanced team. And so there was a bit of that. But the fact that they all were to a person. The Secret Service guy doesn't work for the administration, so to speak. He's a protector. But his name is Chris. And they were just phenomenal to work with. Oh, my God. Wasn't that an amazing experience? Sidebar. Because, yeah, they could have been, and I've been in situations, and there are times I'm sure they have to be all business where it's, you know, it's like we're here. It's funny. I could tell when they switched off. Yeah. When they were all business and when they were like, you know, personable. But then also the staff, his staff from Treasury, there was a guy named Ryan we dealt with who, again, couldn't have been more gracious. We had a guy named Spencer who kind of was the one we were talking through topics with. But they were to a person. You can see, I would say this about the Treasury Secretary. And this is just a personal thing, that you can tell good people when they surround themselves with good people. Right. I can see that.

Everybody that was representing him was gracious. As a matter of fact, the guy from Secret Service, Chris, not part of the staff, but when we were talking through things, he said, we're coming into your house. And I thought, wow, what a... What a way to put it. Because if you had kicked the door down and said, this is what we need you to do, we'd have done it. We'd have been happy to do it. Okay. No, yeah, it was very much so I could see that. We made them fill at home and got it done. So it was a very cool experience. And then the conversation itself. I felt comfortable coming at it from a perspective of someone that, you know, the old saying is I've signed both the front and the back of the check, that I remember being that hourly worker. And any of those benefits are helpful. And to think when he says the bigger return, tax returns, that does benefit people. And he did, I understand, inflation's not where we want it. And we're outpacing inflation, the bottom 25%. Yeah, he did address that. I did like the clarification, but the acknowledgement. And that's all we've ever looked for is the acknowledgement that things are not easy. And there it was right in front of you, Mike. Yeah. So it was a great experience. And I hope that people will go and watch the interview. The full interviews available at KTAR.com. I believe it's up on the YouTube channel as well for people to watch. It was a fascinating conversation and their perspective. And there were going to be a lot of people that don't agree with their perspective. But the fact that he walked came into our studio that late at night. They went from, they drove from Casa Grande in rush hour traffic to come here to our studio. I thought that was very gracious to them. You know what I thought was really cool at the end when he asked you, how did you become a radio host? Oh yeah, when I left. At the end, yeah, because we were done with the interview. Yeah, when we were done with the interview, he didn't just jump bolt out of the chair and leave. He started asking me questions. It was really cool. Yeah. It was a nice too. And I don't think he expected that perspective. No, not at all. I think he really appreciated from that perspective and not only that, but that you understood the topics that we were talking about through and through. Yeah, I keep, I tried to tell him, not as dumb as I look. I try to tell you all the time. Tell your mom that. Yeah, no, I'm not telling my mom that. Um, uh, want to mention one more time, the podcast is called Amazing Arizona's. It's brought to you by Resolution Copper. And the Amazing Arizona's podcast is a project I am so very, very, very proud of. We've been working on it for over three years. And it is just a bunch of really good stories from people that have made a huge difference in Arizona, from philanthropy to giving, St. Vincent DePaul, St. Mary's Food Bank, all of these organizations. And you can check it out at the KTR's YouTube channel, our news app or anywhere you download podcast. Coming up in just a moment.

What we're going to do is we've got to talk with Gatos. It's our Big Q poll question because we had to bump it from earlier this morning. We're going to get to that here in just a moment. The Gato's Big Q poll question. Brought to by your Valley Toyota dealers. Hey, good morning, Gatos. Dude, we have football tonight. Yes, we do. Oh, I know it's preseason, but I got to tell you, kind of excited. I am too. I'm very excited. It's the cue. What are you most looking forward to when the Arizona Cardinals play the Panthers in the Hall of Fame game? All right? All right. What are you most looking forward to? A, not seeing Kyler Murray. Some people are like, I'm kind of glad he's off the team. B, watching rookie Carson Beck started quarterback. That's your guy. That's my guy. C, it's the debut first time head coach, Mike Lawler. Or D, it could be the only time they win a game this season. I knew there had to be some snark in there somewhere. It's not my best snark, but it's possible that that could be the only win of the season. It's kind of, I'll tell you, it's interesting. This could be the best Cardinals week of football we see all year, which is not good. But the reason is. Well, it's the first NFL game. The Cardinals are in it. Everybody wants the NFL back. That's number one. Number two, Larry Fitzgerald, that's number one. Number two, Larry Fitzgerald, it's all down here downhill after this. Mike, I'm worried. You know, I just think for me, obviously for me, the answer to the question is watching Carson Beck play tonight. I am so anxious to see how he does. I'm such a... I think he's any good? Yeah, I do. Really? Yeah, I don't know if he is a franchise quarterback, but I watched him all season long play for Miami, and he made really good decisions. And my brother and I are pretty brutal fans, we're pretty honest, but he made some really good decisions in games, and he played in some really tough situations in the playoffs, and he did very well. And I think that I just want to see how it translates to the NFL. I'm just so anxious to see if he can translate to being a franchise quarterback in the NFL. or is he going to end up being a journeyman like we have, you know, with Jacoby Brissette? Yeah. Does he run? Oh, yeah, he's pretty, he's a tall guy. He's like six, four. Yeah, yeah, but he can still move a little bit. A little bit. All right. Well, it'll be interesting. I don't know. I think for Cardinals fans, they want a quarterback who's tough because Kyler Murray had all the talent in the world and he was really fun to watch, especially when he was running. I mean, he was a lot of fun to watch, but he wasn't tough. You know, and it's hard to say he's barely six feet tall. They're giants on the field. I get all that. But, you know, he did not play in games unless he was 100%. Do you think. Can't do that in the NFL. Do you think that because everybody's talking about him in Minnesota, Kyla Murray. He could be very good. Yeah. And as a Cardinal fan, that would be the ultimate insult that he couldn't get it done here, but he went and got it done somewhere else.

Other quarterbacks have done that. You know, the line against Kyler Murray is he really can't see over the offensive line. We're not joking about his height or anything, but it is an issue. Right. And so it depends on the scheme. It depends on the team. And he wasn't going to do it here. So. You know, we kind of paid him to go away, and he'll probably be pretty good in Minnesota. As much as it pains me to say great things about players that played for Notre Dame, I want to see Jeremiah Love in the backfield. I want to see that game translate to the NFL because by all accounts, he was just the dude, and he was such a great player in college. If he can translate that to the NFL and take some of the pressure off the quarterback position, they could be a much better team than we think they're going. be. I don't know how many games are going to win, but I just want them to be fun to watch again. Yeah, if you can get a fun team, that's really all you can expect this year. They just don't have the horses. And this is not going to be, you know, they're going to win two or three games at best this year, I think. But if you can be exciting and if they're down and they're throwing a lot and love is in the passing game, all that kind of stuff, it could be a, I don't know. It's hard to have a fun season when you're only expected to win a few games. But if you remember, if you look back, remember being a Diamondbacks fan, there was a time when the D-backs were tough. to watch. They had a pretty good team. They were okay. They weren't winning a lot. They weren't making the playoffs. And then they went out there and rebuilt from the ground up. And all these young players now that are playing well that went to the World Series, they were not a great team, but they were so much more fun to watch. Because we kind of saw that they were building to something much better. And I would love to see that tonight on the field that they may not be, you know, you know, our three division rivals are three of the top five teams picked to go to the Super Bowl. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's no question about it. If they're fun, I don't know. I don't know how they're going to be much fun. I think they're going to be down most of the season. But you have to give us hope. Right. If you can give us an ounce of hope, that turns into a little bit of fun and we can get through the season as Cardinals fans kind of saying, okay, we knew this year wasn't going to be good. But we got some hope for next year and hopefully a number one pick. Right. And that's going to be the issue. Not a great way to start the season, but that's what you're looking at with the Arizona Cardinals right now. So what are you hoping to, just for a moment, what are you hoping to see tonight? I want to see the quarterback. I don't know much about him. I only saw him in the championship game. And from everybody that I've talked to who's a training camp, they said he looks really good. And so, you know, if he has a terrible game, it's not a big deal. It's the first game. I'm just interested in watching them. I really haven't watched him very much. So, you know, did they get a steal in the third round? You know, some quarterbacks that go, you know, top five don't work out.

Some wide receivers that go top five don't work out. Marvin Harrison has not worked out yet. Hopefully that's probably the other one. This dude's got to get going. He's got to have a great year. He's a bust. And I think we'd already say he's a bust if it wasn't for his last name and his dad. I probably would already say he's a bust. I'm hoping that this new offensive scheme is going to be something really good for all those receivers. So, yeah. All right, man. I will talk with you at the regular time tomorrow. Hey, we'll see you tomorrow. Thanks. That's Gatos, the big Q poll question brought to you by your Valley Toyota dealers coming up. We're going to talk about contempt of Congress. Stick around.