More On the Plan to Seize Retirement Accounts

In a previous post I talked about the hearing held on October 7, of this year about seizing retirement accounts, 401(k), IRA and other pension plans.

The details of the plan being contemplated are from a position paper written by Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor of economic policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York. Some of the most interesting parts of her testimony was this needed to be done in the interest of fairness.

Sound familiar?

Ghilarducci’s plan first appeared in a paper for the Economic Policy Institute: Agenda for Shared Prosperity on Nov. 20, 2007, in which she said GRAs will rescue the flawed American retirement income system. You can read the position paper by clicking here.

According to Ghilarducci the current voluntary retirement system, “exacerbates income and wealth inequalities” and the tax breaks for voluntary contributions are “skewed to the wealthy because it is easier for them to save, and because they receive bigger tax breaks when they do.”

Sound familiar?

Under her plan which the democrats favor, all existing 401(k), IRA and pension plans would be seized and rolled into a government controlled redistribution system euphemistically called a Guaranteed Retirement Account. The return on this guaranteed account would be a fixed 3%, it would not even keep pace with inflation. In addition to the seizure, all workers would have 5% of their wages seized and deposited into this account. This is in addition to the current 13% being seized for social security.

In a radio interview in Seattle on October 27, she was very clear in the purpose of this plan, "I’m just rearranging the tax breaks that are available now for 401(k)s and spreading — spreading the wealth."

Sound familiar?

These are the people the voters have given the reins of power to and they are not wasting any time in their efforts to promote and realize their agenda. We can't claim we didn't see this coming. We did and with President Obama in the White House continual redistribution of wealth is what we have to look forward to for as long as we allow it to continue.

So, when you receive your government mandated 5% reduction in pay, will you be happy?

Oh yeah, and when you die? You can only bequeath one half of the balance of your GRA to your heirs. The rest gets redistributed for you.