Let the vote-a-rama begin!
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And I'm Rima Grace. Thank you for joining us, everyone. It is Monday, June 30th. It is a news and smile kind of day. Let's start with the news. You want to go first, Kimberly? Yeah, of course. I know I've been obsessed with it, but it's important. I've been watching what's been going down with this reconciliation package all weekend. All day long today, the Senate has been doing what's called a vote-a-rama. So under the rules of reconciliation, they can actually...

people can introduce an unlimited number of amendments once debate has ended on the bill and so that's what's happening right now there are all these amendments being introduced most of them the vast majority will not pass but the Senate is really working to push through this piece of legislation so we're expecting a vote probably either later today or tomorrow but the

introduction of all these amendments is really just an opportunity for mostly Democrats to highlight components of the bill and sort of set their political narrative around it. But one interesting thing that happened over the weekend is something that progressives were complaining about and warning about, which is that the Senate adopted the current policy baseline for pricing out this bill. Now, folks who've been listening to the show will remember that this is a

Right.

And so that basically changes the cost of this bill, at least on paper, from something close to $4 trillion to almost $0. And it's a lot of money.

and analysts and think tankers from across the political spectrum have called this a gimmick, have said they're just playing with the numbers, but it allows the, the legislation to basically adhere to the rules of reconciliation and, and they can claim it doesn't add much to the deficit, but it's, it's funny numbers. Yeah. Also, Voterama makes it sound more fun than it actually is. Um,

But yeah, that's a good point. And, you know, there's been so much news around this bill. I've been following the news this morning of Senate Republican Tom Tillis from North Carolina. I'm sure you've seen all those. You've been following that too, Kimberly, and what's going on there. But he made a big fuss over the bill this weekend and was making the point that it's going to cause hundreds of thousands. I mean, he's from North Carolina, of North Carolinians to lose Medicaid coverage.

And he was accusing Republicans of rushing to pass what he considers to be a problematic bill. And there was so much back and forth with him and Trump. So basically, Trump threatened him with a primary challenge since he publicly posed the bill. And then Tom Tillis was like, OK, well, I'm not going to seek reelection next year.

And Tillis's decision to not run for a third term will be interesting. I was just reading news coverage about it because I'm from North Carolina. And so I remember even, you know, being at the state legislature and having conversations with Tom Tillis. And, you know, I know Democrats are happy about it. They're very happy about this because it'll make it easier for them to win a seat next year because Trump carried North Carolina by less than 10 points. So Democrats actually have a chance. And so on the political side of things, this has been also interesting to follow.

Yeah, Tillis was really just like, fine, go ahead. I don't care. He's like, I'm peacing out.

knocked out so many provisions of the bill that the Republicans were relying on to, you know, kind of offset the cost of extending the tax cuts. They had to come up with that money from somewhere and it looks like, you know, cuts to Medicaid, cuts to other programs. The New York Times has an extremely detailed and clear breakdown of just about everything that's in the Senate GOP bill and how much it would cost or save.

very clear sort of graphic at the top, a graph at the top of what extending the tax cuts cost, what other tax provisions cost, what temporary tax cuts will cost, as well as the spending on defense and homeland security and immigration, and then where the offsets come from, which are, again, not enough to offset the cost of extending the tax cuts, but they're playing with the numbers, so it looks like it on paper.

But the main cuts come from Medicaid, green energy and environment, student loans, food benefits, other health care and natural resources. But what's also interesting is the really detailed breakdown of all of these different provisions because as we've been saying this whole time, there's so much in this bill.

Really worth going through and looking at this. And I should say, you know, this legislation is not done. Even if the what the Senate has passes, the House and the Senate have to come together and figure out a version that can pass both chambers. And there are already a lot of House Republicans really alarmed and speaking out against the cost of this legislation. They don't like the budgetary gimmick. They are concerned about the Medicaid cuts as well. And so, you know, there's still more to this.

Yes. Let's hear news. My news is so I saw an article in The New York Times over the weekend that caught my eye and thought I'd talk about it. It confirms a lot of what I've been sensing from my own reporting. And it's about how Gen Z is apparently really great at saving for retirement, even with everything that the economy is throwing at them.

So they are contributing to their 401ks much earlier than when millennials did. There's a stat here. It says in 2022, almost 40% of 23 year olds, 40% of 23 year olds own stock versus about 30% of 23 year olds in 2007. And their stock balances are higher right now. About 20% of Gen Z's are Gen Z years are actively saving for retirement. And, uh,

There are a few reasons behind this shift. I think some are more obvious than others. Back in 2022, a provision of the Secure 2.0 Act kicked in and it required employers to automatically enroll eligible employees in retirement programs like 401ks. And it's simple, but like we are creatures of habit and we are very irrational when it comes to money. So something as simple as that automatically enrolling people does make a huge difference.

And you can imagine the other obvious answer is that there's just a lot more resources today than there were when we were their age. Like they've got budgeting apps, so many personal finance podcasts, YouTube videos, TikToks. They're exposed to a lot more information that's aimed at them specifically. And there was just a lot of interesting stats in this article on Robinhood, which is a stock trading app. 75% of the customers are Gen Z or millennial customers.

And it also noted how with so many AI bots now, you can just ask these tailored financial questions that maybe you're too embarrassed to ask the people in your life. And it all tracks, like I've said, with the reporting I've done on This is Uncomfortable. Like, yes, we have an affordability crisis. Student debt is a huge burden. But when you take a step back, I think, if anything, those challenges are pushing Gen Z to save more.

Yeah, I think one thing that was interesting to me in this piece was the gender dynamics, saying the Gen Z women have a leg up on retirement savings for now, which tracks with some of the other things you've discussed on your podcast about, you know, women getting more educated and typically.

and often out-earning men. But Gen Z men, according to this article, are investing more outside their retirement accounts, which, of course, circles back to, you know, the Bitcoin and the sort of high-frequency trading. Day trading. Things like that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

There's this person I interviewed once for This is Uncomfortable, who I still think about. He's Gen Z, one of the first in his family to go to college. And he came out saddled with student debt, like most people. And then he got laid off from his first job during the pandemic. And that experience completely reshaped how he thought about money and work. And it pushed him to get really serious about saving to the point where he treated learning about investing and retirement like it was his part-time job.

And he ended up secretly juggling multiple jobs. And I wish I could remember the exact number, but he ended up saving like an incredible amount of money in a short amount of time. And when I asked him how he did it, he was like, I don't know, I just listened to a lot of finance podcasts. Like my life depends on it. And that's how he even discovered this is uncomfortable. And so I thought something about that anecdote always sticks with me. And it, you know, just like anecdotally, I was on the phone with my brother this morning, who's 11 years younger than me. He's 24.

And I was talking to him about this article. He's Gen Z, obviously. And I was like, does this, I don't know, does this resonate? And he's like, yeah. He's like, all my friends are saving. And he's been saving for the last several years. And I think part of that comes from, yeah, seeing older generations who... Who broke millennials. Right. Like, I don't know, seeing his older sister. But also just like folks, you know, saying that they wish they'd saved earlier. Yeah.

And there's, I think, more of a sense of urgency. And I think they're introduced to the ideas of like the magic of compound interest at an earlier age. I remember I was like... The magic of compound interest. Right. Like it took me a while to wrap my head around those things. No, I was gonna say, I feel like I didn't, those things didn't really click for me until maybe like closer to my late 20s, actually. So...

Good for them. That's good. Gen Z saving more and learning the lessons that older generations had to learn the hard way earlier. That is in itself a smile, but let's go to our other smiles. Let's actually do them.

Listeners of this podcast will know that I am not a fan of cruises from experiences. But I did see this quite astonishing story that came out over the weekend about a child who fell overboard on a Disney cruise. Oh, my God.

Which in itself, terrifying. They were like not going at like top speed in the sea or the ocean, but they were like on their way back to Fort Lauderdale from a Caribbean cruise. Her dad immediately jumps in afterwards and treaded water for like 20 minutes with this child and kept her afloat until the rescue boat could come and get her. And you know how massive these cruise ships are. That's horrifying.

They stopped the ship, turned it around, got it back closer to them and deployed the lifeboat and got them out of the water within like 20 to 30 minutes. And I just can't. And I've watched some of the videos of this because there are all these passengers looking out and seeing it. And you can just like see their little heads bobbing in the water as the rescue boat gets close to them. And then like them climbing up out of the water and the dad just like sitting there, you know.

You can tell he's probably just like sobbing, you know, with relief. But I mean, it's such an astonishing story. But I mean, you can't imagine the terror of watching your kid go overboard on like such a huge ship. But you have to imagine the instincts kicked right in. Oh, yeah, that adrenaline kicked in.

Yeah, and they were both okay. And I just think that's like a testament to like the dad reacting quickly and being attentive to his child and the crew of that ship being well trained and responding quickly. Right, they responded.

I mean, as bad of a situation as it is, this is like the best possible outcome. Now, who knows how that child ended up falling overboard because I've been on those ships and those guardrails are really, really high. Yeah.

But, you know, it was watching the video and just seeing like humanity coming through and people rescuing and saving the day, literally. Because it's hard to see people in the open water, especially because I don't think they were able to grab the life preservers that were thrown to them or whatever. And so the fact that they kept an eye on them, they found them and they got to them in enough time, like this is just an amazing story.

Yeah, add that to the list of reasons why I also am not a fan of cruises. I've only been on one and it's not for me. I mean, I was younger, but I just I think I naturally am someone who gets seasick, even though you don't feel the motion of the water. But it's just it's very claustrophobic for me.

Yeah, I've been on several of the big cruise lines, which just, again, it's not my thing, but my sister is trying to convince me to go on one of these river cruises. Oh, that seems nicer.

Yeah, I haven't decided if I'm going yet, but it seems like it's slightly different. So who knows? Maybe folks can let me know if they've been on one and if it's any different. You know, I actually have been on one. I went on one big cruise many years ago and didn't love that. But a couple of years ago, I was in Egypt and we did a cruise on the Nile. And that was very nice. I mean, that is just like a pretty unique experience. Very lucky that I was able to do that. But it was a smaller boat. And so it...

Yeah, you just like don't run into all the same problems you run into on a big cruise where it's just massive amounts of people and food and chaos. It was very, it was very quiet and chill. All right, so let me smile. Yeah, let's see. What am I talking about? I was scrambling to the last minute trying to find something. But there was this article in the National Geographic that I found really moving about

And it's about choirs that are designed for people with dementia. There's this nonprofit in Minnesota called Giving Voice that started several years ago, and now they have about 70 of these quote-unquote memory choirs that's popped up around the world. And from what I understand, even when memories fade, people can still remember songs, which is pretty remarkable. Yeah.

And there was this study that found that regions that store long-term musical memories, like deep parts of the brain with names I can't pronounce, stay intact much longer than the areas we usually associate with memory, like temporal lobes. And so that's why someone who like barely speaks anymore might like suddenly be able to belt out a whole chorus of Bridge Over Troubled Water or whatever.

And so I thought that was really interesting and beautiful. And so researchers now are trying to figure out, like, could choirs actually help people rewire their brains? And there's this team that's using, like, these mobile brain body imaging caps to measure brain activity in singers during rehearsals. And they want to see, I guess, if weeks of singing together can actually change the brain in a meaningful way. So I think it's really, really neat and really inspiring that research is being used in this way to help folks understand

in really what is the toughest time of their lives and their families. It's a really brutal experience. So I thought that was uplifting. It reminds me of that scene in The Notebook where they're always dancing to, you know, "I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places." And it brings her back and makes everybody cry. Anyway, yeah, memory is such a funny thing. I know. It doesn't make sense.

The other day I was like singing along to this song I hadn't heard in like a decade. And I was like, how, how does my brain still retain these lyrics? I don't under, I don't get it. And meanwhile, I can't remember what I read yesterday. Um,

Yeah, where I put my keys or something. Well, anyway, that's it for today. Tomorrow, join us for the deep dive that we wanted to do last week, but, you know, nuclear strikes on nuclear facilities. We are going to do a deep dive on the global economics of overtourism, the problem of too many tourists, what's behind it, how cities are managing it, and the growing tension between travelers and the places they are eager to explore.

Yes. And of course, as always, we love hearing from y'all. Seriously, it makes our day. So send us your questions, your thoughts, your hot takes, your ideas to makemesmartatmarketplace.org. You can also leave us a voicemail at 508-UBSMART. And we might just feature it on the show. Make Me Smart is produced by Courtney Bergseeker. Today's program was engineered by Drew Jostad.

Daisy Palacios is our supervising senior producer. Nancy Fergali is executive producer of Marketplace Shows. And Joanne Griffith is our chief content officer. Did it occur to you that he charmed you in any way? Yes, it did. But he was a charming man. It looks like the ingredients of a really grand spy story. Because this ties together the Cold War with the new one. I often ask myself now, did I...

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