Powerful House Democrats are eyeing proposals to overhaul the nation’s $3 trillion 401(k) system, including the elimination of most of the $80 billion in annual tax breaks that 401(k) investors receive.
House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., and Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, are looking at redirecting those tax breaks to a new system of guaranteed retirement accounts to which all workers would be obliged to contribute.
A plan by Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic-policy analysis at The New School for Social Research in New York, contains elements that are being considered. She testified last week before Mr. Miller’s Education and Labor Committee on her proposal.
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“I want to stop the federal subsidy of 401(k)s,” Ms. Ghilarducci said in an interview. “401(k)s can continue to exist, but they won’t have the benefit of the subsidy of the tax break.”
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“I want to spend our nation’s dollar for retirement security better. Everybody would now be covered” if the plan were adopted, Ms. Ghilarducci said.
It’s no surprise that liberals in Congress want to take over control of a little more of your hard-earned wages, but it’s instructive to listen to why. This is what Chairman George Miller had to say during the recent commitee hearing that examined the idea:
With respect to the 401k, it appears to be a plan that is not really well-devised for the changes in the market. We load an awful lot onto the back of the individual – and I’ve been to more seminars and conferences where they ask for more and more education about savings and investing. We keep asking this person to get smarter and smarter about their savings and that’s sort of it and they’re on their own…
Barack Obama and the Democrats aren’t going after the rich, folks. They’re going after anyone who chooses to invest their own money and provide for themselves. They don’t think you can be trusted with your own money and they wantyou to suckle on the Government teat as much as humanly possible.Is this the “change” you’re signing up for? Socialism??







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