Posted on 06/16/2008 2:58:58 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
With most Americans doing a lousy job saving for their Golden Years, Barack Obama says the government has to step in.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee proposes that companies that don't offer retirement plans be required to set up and automatically enroll employees in IRA-type_accounts. In addition, companies with plans would have to automatically enroll workers in them.
Employees, unless they opt out, would have 3% of their salary directly deposited into the retirement account, typically into a low-cost index mutual fund. And the government would match part of the money certain employees contribute.
"These steps will put a secure retirement within the reach of millions of Americans," Obama said Friday at a campaign stop in Ohio.
The plan, which has received relatively little attention on the campaign trail, is likely to be controversial in some quarters. It would help some of the 78 million people without retirement plans at work save. But the proposal also would impose new mandates on businesses, while costing the federal government $18.8 billion a year, according to the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan policy group in Washington D.C.
Government-funded match
To encourage low- and moderate-income people to stay in the plan, Obama would provide a federally-funded match for families earning less than $75,000 who set aside money in a retirement account at work or on their own. The government match - 50% of up to $1,000 in savings - would be a refundable tax credit directly deposited into an IRA.
Obama, like an increasing number of companies and policy experts, is jumping on the auto-enrollment bandwagon. As 401(k)s increasingly become workers' sole source of retirement savings, employers are under more pressure to ensure employees contribute to the plans. More than one in three companies now automatically enroll workers in 401(k)s, according to Hewitt Associates.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Deciding who to vote for in this election is like trying to decide which urinal to lick.
Not to fear; He will put all the money into that BIG LOCKBOX!
I explained what wasn’t voluntary — the money was social security money, so they took it from you whether you signed up or not. The only voluntary part was whether you put the money into the SS trust fund or into a private account.
Of course, as I also said, it wasn’t NEW tax, it was the existing tax you already were losing. But another way to privatize would have been to let you keep your own money and do what you want with it, and Bush didn’t do that.
And as I said, Obama’s plan isn’t mandatory either, because you can opt out.
"Wait a tic...blimey, this redistribution of wealth is trickier than I thought."
Gubmint, gubmint, gubmint! The man is a loon.
And he says the payments will go to ‘certain’ people. This on top of the billions he wants us to spend to end world poverty all of which will go to the pockets of dictators and UN.
Geez...every time McCain pisses me off with some retarded statement, Hussein will do something that reminds me how fully inept HE would be as President.
What the HELL is Social Security then?
Oh, I forgot, it's just the bank account Uncle Sugar uses to keep the country afloat.
Okay, now, what was the reason for opposing President Bush's suggestion that 4% of the 12.4% of your income already paid to Social Security be deposited into a retirement account?
Dubya's just a dummy from Texas that just wants to enrich all his oil buddies. Obamination is a caring, loving soul from the tough streets of Chicago who wants to help "the little people".
No problem, right?
Just stick it to the American taxpayers.
They don't need their money as much as your voters do, now do they?
Let's take some more of peoples' earnings and mandate that they be put under government control. This will definitely improve everything, since we all know that the problem with "Social Security I" was that people didn't put in enough money, people weren't required to do it, and the system was lacking government control over the funds.
Screw the Black Muslin Socialist. I have a corner post smarter than he is.
Buying votes from the lazy @ssed masses.
Don’t we already have this kind of thing? I think the concept is called Social Security.
Is your corner post black? The other three post should be a brown, a yellow and a white. You had better be politically correct, you know.
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