Clinton Outlines Retirement Proposal

The Wall Street Journal ^ | 10/09/2007 | JACKIE CALMES

[jobnick]

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, continuing to hit on economic themes in her White House campaign, said the government should do more to help people save for retirement, and is proposing an annual tax credit of up to $1,000 to help do that. The Democratic presidential frontrunner's plan would allow households earning up to about $100,000 a year without employer-provided 401(k) plans to open new "American Retirement Accounts," and get a tax credit matching contributions up to a maximum $1,000. But the incentives would be available also to savers with 401(k)s or Individual Retirement Accounts. To offset the revenue lost, Ms. Clinton would not let the estate tax end in 2010 as scheduled under the Bush tax cuts. [Hillary Clinton] The proposal takes aim at related problems: The large number of Americans with little or no retirement savings, as well as America's overall low savings rate.

[jobnick]

I swear I thought from the headline that the old bat was proposing to retire. Oh well.

[MNJohnnie]

Yo Hilly. Instead of a tax credit gimmick, which we all know you have NO intention of doing, how about you simply double the personal tax exemption for the absurd 7500 a year to a still infuriating but more sane $15,000.

Instead of tax credits, where you take the money and make us ask for it back, JUST DON’T TAKE IT in the first place!

[theDentist]

Dammit! I thought she meant her own too.

[BenLurkin]

“JUST DON’T TAKE IT in the first place!”

Second that!

[Slapshot68]

Wow...a thousand WHOLE dollars per year?!?!

[BallyBill]

I can't believe she would retire, since she never had a real job.

Oohh, I see.

[cost_benefit]

Somehow I think those $1,000 would add up to more than what people think

[MNJohnnie]

$1000 x 300,000,000 million Americans = $300,000,000,000 a year.

[Ron in Acreage]

How about letting us put the 15% of my SS taxes in an actual account with my name on it and leave it to our beneficiaries instead of forfeiting it all back to the government.

[andyk]

Gasp! It’s a risky scheme!

[Vinnie]

Investing in a 401K is risky. What happens if there's a downturn in the stock market?
A soon to be retiree could be wiped out! That's what the dims said about the individual SS account proposal.
/s

Guess now that it's a dim idea all is well.

[vrwc1]

Why do we need another new type of retirement account for this? Why doesn’t she just propose giving tax breaks on IRA or 401K contributions? She’s just creating another money-sucking government program.

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

The estate tax is NOT scheduled to end....just for one year, 2010.

The estate tax should be eliminated. It’s taxing money twice, and it is nothing more than a means to punish the successful and/or middle class people whose assets have appreciated over the years. Communist redistribution of wealth, in other words.

[YankeeMagic]

She wants to be the new FDR..

[Condor51]

Wow!
There's no stopping Hillary's 'free' giveaways is there? A free $5,000 for a baby. Now a free $1,000 here, and 'FREE' unlimited health-care there.

Man-oh-man, if she promises me a 'free' Pony, she's got my vote!

Don't blame me, blame Santa. 49 years I've been waiting for that Pony.

[Vinnie]

How about letting us put the 15% of my SS taxes in an actual account with my name on it and leave it to our beneficiaries instead of forfeiting it all back to the government.

I've been b!tching about that since I started working in 1961.

[darkangel82]

No, she wants to be the new Stalin.

[Vinnie]

There's no stopping Hillary's 'free' giveaways is there?

Remember when her husband was running in '96? He had a freebie for a different group every day.
This is SSDD

[Spok]

Does she have any brilliant plans for the folks who have to pay for these schemes?

[norwaypinesavage]

Reminds me of the parable of the ant and the grass hopper. Except, now you have Hillary proposing that the federal government, at the point of a gun, taking from the ant, to give to the grass hopper.