Posted on 11/02/2008 7:20:59 PM PST by markedmannerf
Sway: Our next question is from Matt from Iowa: "If your desire is to spread the wealth around, what incentive is there for me to try to work hard? If I am only going to get more taken away from me, the more money I make, why wouldn't I just slide into a life of relaxation and let rich people take care of me? And a lot of people are asking similar questions, and I wanted you to specify. What does this mean exactly?"
Obama: What is amazing to me is this whole notion that somehow everybody is just looking out for themselves. I mean, the fact is, we just talked about student loans. When young people who have the drive and the skill to go to college can't afford to go to college, how do you think we pay for scholarships or loan programs? That money doesn't grow on trees. It's got to come from somewhere, and the attitude that I have is that, if we want to grow our economy, the way it grows is from the bottom up. You don't just give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires. What you do is make sure the tax code is fair.
{...}
Back in the 1990s, we created more millionaires, more billionaires, because the economy was growing, everything was strong, at every income bracket, people were doing well. So this idea, that somehow everybody is just on their own and shouldn't be concerned about other people who are coming up behind them, that's the kind of attitude that I want to end when I am president.
(Excerpt) Read more at mtv.com ...
Sort of related to this article...I sent this letter to my house of rep guy tonight...please, everyone, look into this topic and get writing to your reps!!
Congressman -
It is with great concern I write this short letter. Below is an article that is stunning not only in substance but in principle as well. I am startled to see that some members of the House of Representatives have the nerve to propose a repeal of 401k accounts. How can some of our elected officials be so far out of touch with good sound economic policy?
Please read the article carefully and as a leader of the people of this fine country I, along with the millions of people who utilize 401ks for our future retirement, implore you to do everything you can to squash this outrageous idea before it can come to any level of fruition. I greatly worry that if something such as this is passed it will only lead to further repeals of tax advantaged retirement accounts including the Roth IRA.
WE, THE PEOPLE, want our government to remove it’s hands from our pocketbooks, our life savings, and to stop getting in the way of our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness that ALL Americans cherish. Frankly Mr. Representative, enough is enough and the people demand to be heard!!
Respectfully,
Phatus Maximus
Here is the article published October 16, 2008 in Workforce Management
House Democrats Contemplate Abolishing 401(k) Tax Breaks
Powerful House Democrats are eyeing proposals to overhaul the nation’s $3 trillion 401(k) system, including the elimination of most of the $80 billion in annual tax breaks that 401(k) investors receive.
Recommend 0
October 16, 2008
House Democrats Contemplate Abolishing 401(k) Tax Breaks
Powerful House Democrats are eyeing proposals to overhaul the nation’s $3 trillion 401(k) system, including the elimination of most of the $80 billion in annual tax breaks that 401(k) investors receive.
House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-California, and Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Washington, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, are looking at redirecting those tax breaks to a new system of guaranteed retirement accounts to which all workers would be obliged to contribute.
A plan by Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic-policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, contains elements that are being considered. She testified last week before Miller’s Education and Labor Committee on her proposal.
At that hearing, the director of the Congressional Budget Office, Peter Orszag, testified that some $2 trillion in retirement savings has been lost over the past 15 months.
Under Ghilarducci’s plan, all workers would receive a $600 annual inflation-adjusted subsidy from the U.S. government but would be required to invest 5 percent of their pay into a guaranteed retirement account administered by the Social Security Administration. The money in turn would be invested in special government bonds that would pay 3 percent a year, adjusted for inflation.
The current system of providing tax breaks on 401(k) contributions and earnings would be eliminated.
“I want to stop the federal subsidy of 401(k)s,” Ghilarducci said in an interview. “401(k)s can continue to exist, but they won’t have the benefit of the subsidy of the tax break.”
Under the current 401(k) system, investors are charged relatively high retail fees, Ghilarducci said.
“I want to spend our nation’s dollar for retirement security better. Everybody would now be covered” if the plan were adopted, Ghilarducci said.
She has been in contact with Miller and McDermott about her plan, and they are interested in pursuing it, she said.
“This [plan] certainly is intriguing,” said Mike DeCesare, press secretary for McDermott.
“That is part of the discussion,” he said.
While Miller stopped short of calling for Ghilarducci’s plan at the hearing last week, he was clearly against continuing tax breaks as they currently exist.
Savings rate
“The savings rate isn’t going up for the investment of $80 billion,” he said. “We have to start to think about ... whether or not we want to continue to invest that $80 billion for a policy that’s not generating what we now say it should.”
“From where I sit that’s just crazy,” said John Belluardo, president of Stewardship Financial Services Inc. in Tarrytown, New York. “A lot of people contribute to their 401(k)s because of the match of the employer,” he said. Belluardo’s firm does not manage assets directly.
Higher-income employers provide matching funds to employee plans so that they can qualify for tax benefits for their own defined-contribution plans, he said.
“If the tax deferral goes away, the employers have no reason to do the matches, which primarily help people in the lower income brackets,” Belluardo said.
“This is a battle between liberalism and conservatism,” said Christopher Van Slyke, a partner in the La Jolla, California, advisory firm Trovena, which manages $400 million. “People are afraid because their accounts are seeing some volatility, so Democrats will seize on the opportunity to attack a program where investors control their own destiny,” he said.
The Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America in Chicago, which represents employers that sponsor defined-contribution plans, is “staunchly committed to keeping the employee benefit system in America voluntary,” said Ed Ferrigno, vice president in the Washington office.
“Some of the tenor [of the hearing last week] that the entire system should be based on the activities of the markets in the last 90 days is not the way to judge the system,” he said.
No legislative proposals have been introduced and Congress is out of session until next year.
However, most political observers believe that Democrats are poised to gain seats in both the House and the Senate, so comments made by the mostly Democratic members who attended the hearing could be a harbinger of things to come.
Advice at issue
In addition to tax breaks for 401(k)s, the issue of allowing investment advisors to provide advice for 401(k) plans was also addressed at the hearing. Rep. Robert Andrews, D-New Jersey, was critical of Department of Labor proposals made in August that would allow advisors to give individual advice if the advice was generated using a computer model.
Andrews characterized the proposals as “loopholes” and said that investment advice should not be given by advisors who have a direct interest in the sale of financial products.
The Pension Protection Act of 2006 contains provisions making it easier for investment advisors to give individualized counseling to 401(k) holders.
“In retrospect that doesn’t seem like such a good idea to me,” Andrews said. “This is an issue I think we have to revisit. I frankly think that the compromise we struck in 2006 is not terribly workable or wise,” he said.
On Thursday, October 9, the Department of Labor hastily scheduled a public hearing on the issue in Washington for Tuesday, October 21.
The agency does not frequently hold public hearings on its proposals.
Filed by Sara Hansard of Investment News, a sister publication of Workforce Management
DUMBA$$.
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You don’t give him enough credit.
The ruining of the economy by Socialists is deliberate. They want to kill private enterprise by increasing taxes and regulation, and expand the state BECAUSE PRIVATE ENTERPRISE IS “FAILING”.
It is insidious.
We had very dear friends who we parted with during the last election. They were absolutely positive Pres. Bush wwas going to reinstate the draft. Nothing wqould convince them he wasn’t going to do so. We parted after a friendship of many years because politics just became too much of a wedge.
Anyway passed their house the other day and guess what. As expected they have Obama signs in the yard. I almost called them up to say “you must have changed your mind and are ok with a draft, because Obama is really going to do it.”
But I decided to let sleeping dogs lie.
“So this idea, that somehow everybody is just on their own and shouldn’t be concerned about other people who are coming up behind them, that’s the kind of attitude that I want to end when I am president.”
The Soviets tried that.
The “bad attitudes” prevailed.
The Soviets didn’t.
- John
Wise.
More and more, I am reminded of the Biblical "separating the wheat from the chaff"
Every year, it's more and more evident who walks on the light side of the street and who on the dark. The division is becoming stark.
It's sad, but the better part of wisdom to let the 'dark ones' go from our lives, for if the dark side wins, these people will turn on friend and family alike, will 'turn you in' - for the kind of treatment they have given "Joe the Plumber". The only reason he hasn't been sent off to some salt mine for retraining is because they AREN'T in power yet. We ARE all "Joe" and we need to cut the would-be Jack Booters from our close circles. We can't help them but they can hurt us.
But in the 80 years they were in power, millions were slaughtered, millions were sent to camps, were tortured...and millions live in utter povery and fear.
I don't want to see my kids, my grandkids, and THEIR kids and grandkids, go through that.
I knew we were in trouble today when one of my employees told me that she was going to vote for Obama because she wants some of the wealth spread her way. She said “why should the wealthy have all the money”. I’m afraid we are at a tipping point in America
“I mean, the fact is, we just talked about student loans”
When my kids went to college 20 years ago, they didn’t get student aid because I made too much. I was probably making 60K. They got nothing...
As ludicrous as his "spread the wealth" ideas are, you have to understand that poor people are poor because they have no concept of saving and the only desire they have to get ahead is to buy more cheap consumer goods.
I own rental property, and the way I see it, redistributing money into the hands of the poor is just going to lead to them spending more, hopefully their full share, on rent. When the government starts giving away money, the demand for housing will jack rents up all over the country.
The way to deal with Obama is to outsmart him. The poor spend every nickel they get, so position yourself to take in some of this spending.
Finally, the real Obama is coming out.
Pelosi is 2 heartbeats from POTUS.
I have been terrified for the last 2 years.
Obama is a blithering idiot. What else can I say except that his economic policies should be called “Obamunism”.
I notice BO didn't answer the question.
Before Bambi answers that, shouldn’t he have to comment on how his own college and law school were financed, and the degree to which AA played a role?
Oh, sorry, that is SO RACIST!
I appreciate your posts; a family I’m very close to is in the dark (specifically, the extremely dark Crowley/astrology/theosophy/Steiner/Kali darkness; very committed and very proud) and it’s pretty impossible to talk about much of anything given the juxtaposition of our worldviews. I miss them and pray for them every day!
Obama isn’t just a Marxist. He’s an idiot.
How about making college CHEAPER. Most of those teaching at our universities are proponents of Socialism. I’m sure they’d accept a pay cut to help those less fortunate—it’s patriotic! I think Obama should start there.
My sons both worked, went to state schools. One graduated and the other became so fed up after two years with a curriculum that seemed to come right out of Rev. Wright’s church, that he enlisted in the Marines!
Funny how the libs aren’t being patriotic and sending in more tax money or begging for pay cuts.
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