I agree, good article. But does anyone REALLY THINK that the 529 plan proposal was thrown in there haphazardly. They have millions and millions of dollars to spend on focus groups and the data necessary to actually call up and talk to the people benefiting.
I’m thinking it was test case, to gauge overall reaction. The question being “Could the Masses be used to turn on the rich, and defeat them in a wealth grab?” With the BIG PRIZE being 401k plans and figuring out a way to get their hands on that huge pot of money. Figuring out the relative political power of the masses versus some well-connected rich (and near-rich) is much tougher to gauge. And it looks like they got the answer they didn’t want - the Masses will not get behind the Dems as they try to pit the country against each other based on wealth. In this case, the Masses stayed quiet, and all the Dems heard was very high-decibel anger from the people that would have been directly affected.
So, so much for a direct approach - I suspect that the Dems will soon turn to the courts to do their dirty work here (in some way) as they’ve always done.
Agreed. The proposal was testing the removal of tax benefits from 529s, where they trumpet only 3% use them (but if less than half of families have kids under 18, it is more like 10% of families with kids, 20% of the middle class). If that flew, then they could suggest it for things like Roth IRAs, HSAs, 401Ks.