Dems Target Private Retirement Accounts

carolina Journal ^ | November 04, 2008 | Karen McMahan

[AmericanMade1776]

RALEIGH — Democrats in the U.S. House have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers’ personal retirement accounts — including 401(k)s and IRAs — and convert them to accounts managed by the Social Security Administration.

Triggered by the financial crisis the past two months, the hearings reportedly were meant to stem losses incurred by many workers and retirees whose 401(k) and IRA balances have been shrinking rapidly.

The testimony of Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, in hearings Oct. 7 drew the most attention and criticism. Testifying for the House Committee on Education and Labor, Ghilarducci proposed that the government eliminate tax breaks for 401(k) and similar retirement accounts, such as IRAs, and confiscate workers’ retirement plan accounts and convert them to universal Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs) managed by the Social Security Administration.

[mabelkitty]

Wrong!
That was privatized accounts under the Bush plan.
This is a wholly different animal.
Why the hell are you even DEFENDING it?

[mabelkitty]

You can’t do that any more.
Justice and IRS are going through all of the bank accounts with a fine tooth comb now. I read about it a few days ago. Apparently, a clerk ratted a bunch of Americans out.

[OneWingedShark]

>This will spark an armed revolt.

Are you trying to cheer me up?

>If they do this, this country and this congress will cease to exist in this lifetime.

Things like this make it seem so.

>There will be nothing left of the Capitol.

And, how is that a bad thing?

>Hundreds of millions of Americans will burn it to the ground, with the democrats in it.

Ah! I love a happy ending.

[ladyvet]

Like sheep to the slaughter, the guilt riddin' whites that voted for this traitor in this county are in for a big surprise soon. OBaaaaaaama....OBaaaaaama...

[Myrddin]

would contribute to an economy with less glaring and sharply widening inequality

The communist mantra that all labor is of equal value. I'm going to have that idiot wheeled into the operating room for some neurosurgery. That is generally performed with the patient fully awake. When the surgeon arrives, I would call the janitor into the room and tell him to take over. All labor is of equal value. Cut away. You won't hurt anything.

[mabelkitty]

What would happened if I cashed it out and was “robbed” on my way home? Just didn’t have it any more?

Could I find an insurance claim and get assistance? I always like to be prepared. You never know where danger lurks.

[ladyvet]

I'm freakin'one of them!!!!

[Publius]

I'd think that confiscating 401(k)'s goes against the Fourth Amendment protections of "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated..." Seizing one's 401(k) sounds a lot like seizing one's papers (stocks, funds, money funds, etc.).

Yep. That there Constitution sure stopped FDR when he seized the people's gold in 1933.

[ladyvet]

YESSSS!

[Myrddin]

My great grandfather beat up the foreman on the family sheep ranch and ran off the Liverpool when he was 16. At age 18, he signed onto ship's company and sailed to Canada. He then emigrated into the U.S. He joined the Union army in 1863 to win permission to marry a young lady from Aberystwyth (living in Pittsburgh). His unit trained on a flat car on the way to the battle front. Two weeks later, they were captured and spent the balance of the war as POWs. He married my great grandmother in 1865 and raised 19 children. My grandfather was the youngest in 1887 (with a twin brother). The family generated many farmers and engineers. A few millionaires as well. It was so much better than life under the evil English landlords.

I'm not certain a similar escape option exists today. Such an adventure might have been attractive when I was 20 and had little in the way of accumulated wealth. It sucks to be approaching retirement years with thieves prepared to strip away your life savings.

[OneWingedShark]

>>There are people in this country that will view this as an act of war.
>
>I would. This is theft. With the threat of a law enforcement it could be considered armed robbery.

I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re right. And the USSC DID just rule that the police have no obligation to [protect] the individual, but rather society. {Oddly though, any sane person would realize that an individual is a subset of ‘society’, and therefore if an individual cannot be guaranteed protection, then neither can society. It is therefore necessary to warp the definition of ‘society’ to mean ‘government’ to make the ruling make any sort of sense... and when it does, it gets scary.}

[jim-x]

ping for later

[Eye of Unk]

[jim-x]

Lets force the government retirement system do the same thing. Or do the PC redistribution of government pensions. Hell, I don’t care how much it inconveniences them. We can move thrir retirement age to 300 years old and solve any problems!!!

Government employees moved to a 401K type plan for anyone hired after 1983 or 1984, called the Thrift Savings Plan. They still have a small defined benefit but the majority of their retirement now is supposed to be from TSP and Social Security.

[Centurion2000]

bttt

[3catsanadog]

Here they go - under the guise of "saving" retirees and their retirement, they will gently rip everyone's savings out of their hands, dump it in a lockbox with no lock somewhere and gleefully reach their sticky fingers into our money to fund their pet projects and get $400 haircuts.

And, like our money that we can't touch or manage ourselves in Social Security, they will manage it and eventually decree that when we die, all our funds will go to Uncle Sam.

[Political Junkie Too]

Thanks for your reply. I wasn't aware of that until you made me go research it.

From what I read, FDR did this under the "Trading with the enemy" act, and ended up devaluing the dollar by fixing the price paid for the gold to an amount lower than he then sold the gold a few months later.

However, wasn't the intent of this to keep people from black-market trading with enemies? Didn't he pay people for the gold, and the people were still entitled to own the government-set value in a way that they could still pass it onto heirs? FDR didn't just confiscate their wealth and leave them with nothing but a promise of a few dollars more when they turn 65, unless they should die early in which case their heirs get nothing.

-PJ

[SatinDoll]

Gold jewelry.

Why do you think in centuries past women wore lots of gold jewelry? Because they were not allowed to possess anything else of worth. Even in this country women would buy and wear gold charm bracelets. During had times they could sell a gold charm and receive enough money to feed their families for a month.

[PLMerite]

“Take from the savers and give to the aggrieved minorities.”

Yeah, it’s not enough that they spent all their own money on bling, now they want to spend mine.

[bergmeid]

Allrightie Team - here’s another tip in “How to Survive Socialism” from your West European blogger who’s gone through this shit for longer than she cares to remember.

Socialist societies have lots of money to give away in the form of subsidies. You can get subsidy for everything. All you have to do is apply and submit the paperwork. Subsidies for poor minorities, housing subsidies, art subsidies, they will subsidize your hinie from here to your Mama’s house. Apply for subsidies. Hussein’s administration may take a few months to get the proper agency in place with accompanying paperwork procedures, but after that - go get your subsidy. And don’t forget to stop donating your hard earned cash to charities. The gummint will take care of them. Dang, I ought to start publicizing daily emails on this crap.