It’s not new news that the Feds are coming after your life savings. Laugh if you must (or if it makes you feel better). Most of you know it’s a distinct possibility. Is that really something you want to gamble with?
BusinessWeek reports that the Treasury and Labor departments are asking for public comment on “the conversion of 401(k) savings and Individual Retirement Accounts into annuities or other steady payment streams.”
In plain English, the idea is for the government to take your retirement savings in return for a promise to pay you some monthly benefit in your retirement years.
They will tell you that you are “investing” your money in U.S. Treasury bonds. But they will use your money immediately to pay for their unprecedented trillion-dollar budget deficits, leaving nothing to back up their political promises, just as they have raided the Social Security trust funds.
Laugh again. Feisty laughed at me when we were chatting about it. That only happens in third-world hell-holes, she scoffed.
That the state
(Argentina) could seize retirement savings no doubt seems outrageous to Americans. But it is a predictable development in a country where government intervention in the financial system is the norm. With Washington now expanding its role as guarantor in American banking, that’s something to think about.
Mrs. Kirchner won’t have trouble making the case for expropriation to Congress, which is controlled by her fellow Peronists. When the Argentine government ran out of money in 2001, it blamed the market and increased its own role in the economy. Since then it has imposed price controls, defaulted on its debt, seized dollar bank accounts, devalued the currency, nationalized businesses and tried to set confiscatory tax rates with the aim of making society more “fair.” (sound familiar? – ed) Mrs. Kirchner and her predecessor (and husband) Nestór Kirchner have also preserved the Peronist tradition of big spending.
All of this has been deemed acceptable because of the “crisis.” (Rahm, anyone? -ed) But it has come at a cost: Among emerging market investors Argentina is now considered one of the worst places on the planet to put your money. Now that commodity prices are cooling and the global economy is slowing, Mrs. Kirchner is facing a $10 billion shortfall in what is due on government debt by the end of 2009. Where else to turn but to the resources of the private sector? Argentina, if little else, serves as a cautionary tale on how to ruin an economy.
Insufferable prick Neal Boortz has been predicting that this would happen once the Dim-O-Cracks had total control of the Federal gubmint.
I hate (love) to say this, but I’ve been telling you for over 10 years that if the Democrats are ever returned to full control of our government our pension plans are going to be in jeopardy. A plan to seize a portion of your 401K and pension plans was being discussed during the early years of the Clinton administration .. then abandoned when the Republicans moved into the Capitol. Just a few weeks ago the President of Argentina announced a plan to seize all private pension plans there. This one’s a no-brainer, my friends. All the Democrats have to do is wave the wealth-envy flag; talk about all the advantages the rich had in setting up these plans – advantages that cost the middle and lower class their opportunities to do the same. So, “it’s only fair,” that these pension plans be seized and rolled into some type of government plan that benefits everyone, not just the evil rich. We’re talking about somewhere around $4 trillion dollars here, and that’s big change to Obamacons – change you can believe in.
The Clintonistas were looking at snatching up private pensions back in ’94 as well. Fortunately for all, there were a few Republicans with balls (now an extinct breed) willing to take them on back then. None of this is new. However, what IS new, is that Marxists have complete control of government and finally have the ability to ram such a thing through.
During the painful early days of the Clinton Reign of Error, this confiscation/redistribution effort was spearheaded by Alicia Munnell, now (surprise!) a professor at Boston College. Munnell was the Economic Policy Czar in 1993 and was pushing a scheme to literally TAKE 15% from private retirement accounts and redistribute it to the “downtrodden”.
With the arrival of our first openly Marxist President in the “historic” 2008 election, the Dim-O-Cracks started ramping things up again in earnest.
RALEIGH — Democrats in the U.S. House have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers’ personal retirement accounts — including 401(k)s and IRAs — and convert them to accounts managed by the Social Security Administration.
Triggered by the financial crisis the past two months, the hearings reportedly were meant to stem losses incurred by many workers and retirees whose 401(k) and IRA balances have been shrinking rapidly.
The testimony of Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, in hearings Oct. 7 drew the most attention and criticism. Testifying for the House Committee on Education and Labor, Ghilarducci proposed that the government eliminate tax breaks for 401(k) and similar retirement accounts, such as IRAs, and confiscate workers’ retirement plan accounts and convert them to universal Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs) managed by the Social Security Administration.
Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, in prepared remarks for the hearing on “The Impact of the Financial Crisis on Workers’ Retirement Security,” blamed Wall Street for the financial crisis and said his committee will “strengthen and protect Americans’ 401(k)s, pensions, and other retirement plans” and the “Democratic Congress will continue to conduct this much-needed oversight on behalf of the American people.”
Redistributionists (like Ghilarducci) will continue to push terminology like “guaranteed retirement accounts” as if government benefits are ever guaranteed (see: Social Security).
This paper proposes a rescue plan for the American retirement income security system, based on a mixed system composed of Social Security, employer defined-benefit pension plans, and a new type of personal retirement savings account called a Guaranteed Retirement Account (GRA). This rescue plan will not work without a strong defined-benefit pension system and a strong Social Security system. Tax breaks for 401(k)-style plans and IRAs will be converted into flat tax credits to offset the cost of these new accounts, so the plan will improve the retirement security of most Americans without costing taxpayers more than the current system.
The plan calls for all workers not enrolled in an equivalent or better defined-benefit pension to enroll in a GRA, a plan that borrows the best features of defined-benefit and defined-contribution plans, including guaranteed retirement benefits that last a lifetime, low administrative costs, and steady contributions. With GRAs, workers will accumulate savings in investment funds that earn a rate of return guaranteed by the federal government. These funds will be converted to life annuities upon retirement. Along with Social Security benefits, these will replace approximately 70% of pre-retirement earnings for the typical retiree.
“GRA”: Another cute acronym for more confiscation in exchange for promises that the government has no intention of EVER fulfilling.
Predictably, it’s not just the Donks who are after your savings, the country-club Republicans are right there with their hands out as well. However, they call it “mandatory savings accounts”. Thus, we are reminded again of the two-party shell game, both meeting the same eventual goal, the enslavement of the middle class.
7 in 10 Americans oppose having their 401k accounts stolen (you have to wonder what kind of brain damage the other 3 must have), but just as the majority of Americans oppose(d) the government takeover of healthcare, as long as the Marxists in the Federal government have the power, they’ll do as they please.
With government workers rolling in dough and private pay plummeting (as the socialists in power gut the private sector to line their pockets and intentionally kill Capitalism), why wouldn’t the Feds go ahead and confiscate at will?
Without a Republican takeover of CONgress this fall, this and many other wealth confiscation plans can continue unabated. Do I say this because the GOP is wicked awesome? Absolutely not. The GOP must take back over congress to bring back sweet, sweet gridlock. If we can get the big-government Republicans out of the GOP with a conservative surge this Fall, all hope may not be lost. We shall see.
You had your chance.
