This has been kicked around before, always by the left. I think Jesse Jackson wanted to do it when he ran for Prez as reparations.
As I recall, Robert Reich was promoting a “one time tax” of 15% on retirement plans while he was Clinton’s Secretary of Labor. My take on it was that only the 1994 election stopped that one.
Unfortunately, retirement funds are the last sizable reservoir of money in the country. The Demoncrats will never rest until they have it in their grubby little paws. Then they can issue IOU’s till that’s gone.
http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jul2010/pi20100715_763691.htm
This Economist wrote for Businessweek just a few months ago, she writes and testifies for many “mainstream” publications.
The left’s VAST propaganda machine are working on mainstreaming this idea right now, as we speak.