Government that is too stupid to spell 401k wants to steal your 401k

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Tom Harkin, who LIED about being a combat pilot in Vietnam, and who appears in a pic with fellow Vietnam war liar John Kerry (D - Dead man's wife's money) with commie dictator Daniel Ortega negotiating an agreement by Ortega--in violation of the Constitution and federal law--not to buy weapons from the USSR the day before Ortega bought $700 million in Soviet military equipment, led the staged hearings:

Democrats in the Senate on Thursday held a recess hearing covering a taxpayer bailout of union pensions and a plan to seize private 401(k) plans to more "fairly" distribute taxpayer-funded pensions to everyone.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee heard from hand-picked witnesses advocating the infamous "Guaranteed Retirement Account" (GRA) authored by Theresa Guilarducci.

(You can find the blistering interview with Guilarducci by radio talk show host Mark Levin in 2007 at the link).

In a nutshell, under the GRA system government would seize private 401(k) accounts, setting up an additional 5% mandatory payroll tax to dole out a "fair" pension to everyone using that confiscated money coupled with the mandated contributions.  This would, of course, be a sister government ponzi scheme working in tandem with Social Security, the primary purpose being to give big government politicians additional taxpayer funds to raid to pay for their out-of-control spending.

From written hearing testimony submitted by Economic Policy Institute (EPI) Vice President Ross Eisenbrey:

“We need a comprehensive solution that addresses interrelated problems. For example, a system that places most of the burden for retirement saving on individuals will always have to wrestle with the problem of pre-retirement loans and withdrawals (simply plugging these leaks will not work, because many workers would stop contributing to the system). A system that relies on tax incentives to promote individual retirement savings will necessarily tend to favor high-income workers who can afford to save more and who benefit the most from these tax breaks. Conversely, a truly universal system would need to shield low-income workers from out-of-pocket costs or wage cuts. EPI has published and advocated what we feel would be an excellent national supplemental retirement plan, the Guaranteed Retirement Account which was authored by Prof. Teresa Ghilarducci, Director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at the New School for Social Research. "

The EPI is housed on the third floor of the building occupied by the George Soros-funded Center for American Progress, a hard-core leftist group whose flavor of socialist policy has brought you the current blend of elitist socialism and crony capitalism bankrupting the American economy.  Which speaks volumes about EPI and the Democrat leadership's choice of witness.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=39336

Testimony transcript:

http://help.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Eisenbrey.pdf

[Ralph Wiggum]

 

[Wretched Excess]

I observed in another thread that there is something on the order of $2.5 trillion in 401(k) accounts.  that would fund another groovy flaccid stimulus and would pay for obamacare for a couple of months.

they wouldn't be able to restrain themselves.

this is another issue that needs to be screamed from thr rooftops between now and november 2.

[JohnnyReb]

Lets see here....frighten a bunch of people into pulling their funds out of 401K's...drives the stock market down...removes cash from the lending institutions...sends the economy into a tail spin...furthers individual reliance on the government...sounds like an excellent socialist 5 year plan to me.

Everybody broke, barefoot and hungry, sounds like socialist equality to me.

[true_blood]

Lets see here....frighten a bunch of people into pulling their funds out of 401K's...drives the stock market down...removes cash from the lending institutions...sends the economy into a tail spin...furthers individual reliance on the government...sounds like an excellent socialist 5 year plan to me.

Everybody broke, barefoot and hungry, sounds like socialist equality to me.

Sounds just like the imposters wet dream of a socialist nation. Worse president EVER! I use that word, president, very loosely with that clown.

[DumbAss Tanker]

I can't believe enough Congressmen would actually be suicidal enough to sign on for that one.

[rich_t]

I can't believe enough Congressmen would actually be suicidal enough to sign on for that one.

Congress got away with passing an estate tax didn't they?

This is merely a version that takes your estate wealth before you actually die.

[thundley4]

Congress got away with passing an estate tax didn't they?

This is merely a version that takes your estate wealth before you actually die retire.

FIFY

[Freeper]

They are not only going to steal the money people have put into their 401k's for years they are also going to take an extra 5% from everyone's paycheck.
 

[rich_t]

Time to start buying gold coins?

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Time to start buying gold coins?

For this particular scenario...

...copper and lead are good too.

[Carl]

Time to start buying gold coins?

Just remember to file the 1099 on whoever you buy them from.

[Thor]

Time to start buying gold coins?

They actually have gold coin/bullion vending (ATM) machines in Europe and the Middle East. It seems to be a hot item over there. They are planning on rolling them out over here soon.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/27/news/companies/gold_atm/index.htm

[DumbAss Tanker]

Congress got away with passing an estate tax didn't they?

This is merely a version that takes your estate wealth before you actually die.

I won't go into the legal weeds explaining why, but that's not even apples and oranges, it's more like apples and squids.

[true_blood]

For this particular scenario...

...copper and lead are good too.

I've noticed all the commodities are up. While the dollar continues to sink.

[rich_t]

I won't go into the legal weeds explaining why, but that's not even apples and oranges, it's more like apples and squids.

My point was that they are both a form of accumulated wealth.

Your estate that you worked a lifetime to build up and a 401k that you spent a lifetime putting money into for your retirement.

And the gubmint wants as big a bite as they can get.