Government itching to get our savings
The federal and some state governments are desperate for money. They’ve gotten us deep into debt with overspending and are determined to find money everywhere. They are drooling to confiscate your personal savings and tax-deferred money in 401Ks, IRAs and pensions.
2008: House Committee, Education and Labor. Professor Teresa Ghilarducci, New School for Social Research, New York, proposed mandatory participation in government-run savings plans with each citizen contributing 5 percent of salary, administered by Social Security.
October 2010: Senate Health, Education, Labor Pensions Committee. Ghilarducci proposed the same plan advanced at 2008 House hearing.
January 2013: Richard Cordray, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offered the government’s “help in managing savings” and Rev. Jesse Jackson suggested using your savings for loans to low-income groups.
April 2013: President Obama released his $3.77 trillion budget with a proposal that would limit the balance in individual tax-deferred accounts to provide an annuity of $205,000 maximum annually.
July 2013: California’s legislature passes a bill called “Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program,” requiring private employers to extract 3 percent of every paycheck and send it to state coffers, even though employees choose not to participate. Money would be put in accounts with guarantees that all funds would be invested and returned at retirement age. Penalties of $250 per employee would be assessed for noncompliance by employers.
California’s program forces savings for workers with no access to retirement programs or who have chosen not to take their employers’ plans.
There are multiple efforts to confiscate the $20 trillion in American savings: Social Security savings accounts, government help in managing your money, using savings for low-income group loans, a presidential limit on how much you can have for retirement, California’s punitive forced savings.
They are coming from many directions to find any opening into the savings doorway. Is Illinois next?
Nancy J. Thorner
Lake Bluff