A Bipartisan Fix for Retirees (Jeff Sessions Op-Ed)

Washington Post ^ | December 26, 2006 | Senator Jeff Sessions

[RWR8189]

In the aftermath of their November election victory, Democratic leaders have pledged to work on a bipartisan basis to solve the problems facing our nation. In that spirit, I suggest that Democrats and Republicans can successfully work together to create personal savings accounts for all Americans outside the Social Security system, an idea that politicians from both political parties have supported for years and that The Post's editorial page recently endorsed ["Up From the Depths," editorial, Nov. 27].

For the first time since the Great Depression, our country's savings rate has fallen into negative territory, with more than half of all American workers having less than $25,000 in savings excluding their primary residence. More troubling, almost half of the 152.7 million Americans who worked in 2004 worked for an employer that did not sponsor any retirement plan, and an additional 17.3 million did not participate in the plans their employers did have. Furthermore, the average American worker has held nine jobs by age 35, meaning that he often leaves his job before his retirement benefits become vested and that he will probably cash out whatever limited employer-sponsored retirement savings he has when he changes jobs.

The solution for this problem is to create a national system of personal savings accounts modeled on the successful Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) for federal employees. Federal employees pay Social Security taxes and receive the same Social Security benefits as everyone else. But the TSP program allows them to invest a portion of each paycheck -- along with a government match for part of these contributions -- in one of six investment accounts (or some combination of these accounts), including a government securities fund and a common stock fund. Over the past two decades, this system has been an unqualified success, as

[hubbubhubbub]

"The solution for this problem is to create a national system of personal savings accounts modeled on the successful Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) for federal employees."

More b.s. from the b.s. capital. Just eliminate taxes on savings, you idiots.

[Pontiac]

Just eliminate taxes on savings, you idiots

Oh no couldn’t do that!

The Rich have more savings than the poor. So the Rich would benefit more than the poor.

So if doing something would benefit the Rich more than the poor we can’t do it even if doing it would be better for the poor than doing nothing.

[KarlInOhio]

One "problem" with any plan where you keep and invest your own Social Security money is that it is very difficult for politicians to provide disproportionate payments. If you make twice as much and are taxed/invest twice as much then you will get twice as much money in the end. The leftist social engineers don't like this. They want some people to get much more than they put in while others get much less than they put in.

[ClaireSolt]

The government does not need to grasp for more to do. They are already doing too much badly.