Posted on 10/13/2008 12:07:33 PM PDT by reaganaut1
TOLEDO — Senator Barack Obama on Monday expanded his economic platform, including proposals to spur new jobs, to give Americans penalty-free access to retirement savings to help them through the downturn, to urge a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures and to lend money to strapped local and state governments.
Mr. Obama also is calling on Congress to double $25 billion the government loan guarantees for automakers and to temporarily eliminate taxes on unemployment benefits.
...
Senator John McCain, his Republican rival, also gave an economic speech in Virginia Beach, Va., but he had no new policy prescriptions, having rejected his advisers’ options over the weekend as too gimmicky, according to one Republican close to the campaign.
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The main new proposals would:
— for the next two years, give businesses a $3,000 income-tax credit for each new full-time employee they hire above the number in their current workforce;
— allow savers with tax-favored Individual Retirement Accounts and 401(k)’s to withdraw 15 percent of those retirement savings, up to a maximum of $10,000, without paying a tax penalty as the law currently requires for withdrawals before age 59 and a half;
— bar financial institutions that take advantage of the Treasury’s rescue plan from foreclosing on the mortgages of any homeowners who are making “good-faith efforts” to make payments;
— direct the Treasury and the Federal Reserve to create a temporary facility for loans to state and local governments, similar to the Fed’s new arrangement to loan corporations money by buying their commercial paper, which are the I.O.U.s that help businesses with daily operating expenses like payrolls.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
What you describe is basic business pracice and micro eco 101. Unfortunately Obama and the Dems don’t know anything about either. Just like they do not comprehend supply and demand. They are trying to use the 3K like a store uses a loss leader to bring in customers. But no business man, as you say, is going to hire someone to get a tax credit if that worker is unneeded. My local mechanic has two lifts and three full time mechanics. He’s not going to hire a fourth when he can’t use him to save 3K on taxes. The Dems are scary not just for their socialistic thuggery but for their ignorance of how the world of work actually works.
A no brainer? This will simply cause another big stock sell off. And the people taking the money out will be buying high and selling low.
To destroy the democratic state and turn it into a dictatorship is Obama’s plan from the beginning.
Bullpucky. It’s a saving vehicle for lter years when you can’t work. Tap it know and you lose that cash plus it’s earning potential. In a few years of “borrowing we’ll have a bunch of people whose big screen tv is paid off but no savings. You have to take the good with the bad. JMHO
I’m a small business owner. I know Obama’s plans means to destroy commerce. Nothing in any of his proposals creates jobs or encourages growth.
This will be the Carter II years.
Far from "no new policy prescriptions", McCain immediately called for a moratorium on requirements that seniors start dissolving their tax protected retirement assets after age 72. This would recognize that this is not the best time for them to be selling off securities just to meet statutory requirements.
On the other hand, Obama's plan suggests that people be able to get to their IRA and 401K funds without penalty at a time when people shouldn't be liquidating accounts unless they absolutely have to. Most retirement accounts are self-directed and allow the owner to shift monies into bonds and short term accounts which are more secure.
Obama's plan would help induce a "run" on retirement accounts which could worsen the market problems, but of course the Times doesn't bother to analyze the results. Obama is for CHANGE!
The Obams campaign is reminiscent of the old time medicine men who promised that their worthless snake oil was a sure cure for all ills.
Call me crazy but I think having people use their 401k to get out of mortgage trouble is a better alternative than having the government bail them out with your money.
You’re right. Rather than use their own money those in mortgage trouble should just wait for you & I to bail them out.
“to give Americans penalty-free access to retirement savings to help them through the downturn”
Let’s see, the liberals love-affair with an easy-money housing boom led people to think they could extract their home equity (one part of their base of savings) now, and spend it, and worry not about having a large enough equity base later on.
So, we can be sure that Obama has no good intentions in mind now, in encouraging people to extract cash from their retirement plans now, for their temporary needs.
We know what will happen - they will become more dependent on government retirement programs latter on - and rest assured THAT is what is in Obama’s intentions, not retirees’ welfare now or later.
Obama’s plan is simple. Give money to anyone who wants it unless they make enough money to support themselves.
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