MORE HERE FROM FORBES:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2012/12/29/watch-out-your-401k-is-being-targeted/
Watch Out: Your 401(k) Is Being Targeted
EXCERPT:
While attending a terrific symposium recently on the retirement challenges women face, I came away with a stark realization: Washington has a bull’s-eye on every American’s 401(k).
The Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement (known as WISER), a nonprofit dedicated to improve the long-term financial security of women, had brought together administration officials, the savviest Capitol Hill insiders and retirement analysts working at financial services firms and think tanks.
Speaker after speaker described how so many Americans – women in particular – lack the financial resources needed to retire, what Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa, called “one of the most underreported crises” in America. We heard scary statistics, including that 48 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 in savings.
You might think this would be a moment when Washington would look for ways to encourage Americans to save. But “it’s not a good time to talk about incentives for savings when everyone is trying to cut spending,” Sen. Ben Cardin, a Democrat from Maryland, said at the retirement symposium.
The recurring underlying theme was this: Don’t be surprised if Congress and President Barack Obama make it harder to save for retirement starting in 2014.
Nutty, isn’t it?
Why would Congress and the president target retirement savings plans? Especially when they’re so highly valued by the American public. In a new Wells Fargo/Gallup Investor and Retirement Optimism Index survey of 1,024 adults with investable assets of $10,000 or more, 69 percent said it was extremely or very important that the president and Congress find ways to financially encourage every company to offer a 401(k) savings option and to financially encourage all Americans to participate in their employer’s 401(k) savings option. Similarly, 67 percent of those surveyed said it was important that leaders seek ways to enhance the role of the 401(k) as a retirement savings investment.
The answer, to paraphrase bank robber Willie Sutton, is because that’s where the money is.
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And even more here:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/obama_budget_clipping_rBTRDGwonfmWn4TvZ3eWZO
Obama’s budget clipping 401(k)s
Eyes $2.7M lifetime limit on contributions
EXCERPT:
President Obama’s new budget proposal aims to trim Americans’ nest eggs by setting a cap on lifetime contributions of 401(k)s at an average of $2.7 million and putting the policing of the limit on their employers.
The idea is supposed to simplify the tax code, but would actually make life much more complicated, says one expert.
“This required record-keeping will be very difficult for employers,” according to Jack VanDerhei, research director of the Washington-based Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).
This proposal, if it becomes law, would be the first time there has been a limit on the balances one could build up in a defined contribution plan, such as a 401(k) or an IRA.
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Today's stagnant economy is the product of three factors: a massive loss of jobs due to taxes and regulation, a massive loss of interest in working due to a generous social "safety net" that far too many people choose as a hammock, and a massive movement into the underground economy by both sides (deadbeats who work under the table so they can still collect handouts, and entrepreneurs who work under the table so they can keep what they produce). A government grab for our private retirement accounts will push what's left of our formal economy over the cliff.
I can think of no better way to start CW-II.