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With a yearly deficit in the trillions, government looks to go after 401(k) accounts for new revenue
American Thinker ^ | 02/23/2024 | Jack Hellner

Posted on 02/23/2024 9:41:14 AM PST by SeekAndFind

A majority of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck. A majority don’t have enough money to pay for a thousand-dollar emergency. Home ownership is a rapidly dissipating aspect of the American dream. Americans’ credit card debt is at a record high because of high inflation and the cost-of-living, and they’re falling behind on debt payments. People don’t have enough money for retirement.

So what is the solution? Well for some economists, it’s time to take away the tax benefit for 401(k) plans because the government is short of revenue to pay for their exorbitant spending.

See here, from USA Today:

What if the government abolished your 401(k)? Economists say accounts aren’t worth it

The federal government should stop allowing pre-tax contributions to retirement savings, abolishing the 401(k) and Individual Retirement Account, two economists from opposing ideological camps argued in a research brief in January.

Allowing people to shelter their retirement money from taxes is a policy that largely favors the well-heeled, they said. Congress could use that money, nearly $200 billion a year in lost tax dollars….

Oh, Congress could use that money? Yeah, well so could we, and we’re the ones who earned it. And $200 billion a year? This is a pittance toward covering the $2 trillion yearly deficit the federal government is running in a supposedly great economy.

Here is a novel thought for economists, politicians, and bureaucrats. Why don’t you guys look at the spending side of the equation instead of always seeking to confiscate more money from the rest of us? Your modus operandi further destroys our purchasing power and ability to save, spend, or invest, and that inevitably slows the economy.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 401k; budget; debt; deficit
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To: econjack
I don’t understand why voters keep putting these clowns in office. Clearly, no one holds the politicians responsible or they just don’t care.

Because the people know that that clowns are not the ones making any decisions. Dubya Bush and Obama made that too obvious. The current senile fool makes it undeniable.

Until We The People have "No One On This Ballot" as a choice on every ballot, we will continue to have selections, not elections, between two candidates the UniParty submitted.

41 posted on 02/23/2024 11:13:01 AM PST by T.B. Yoits
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To: SeekAndFind

Cut spending? Impossible! /s


42 posted on 02/23/2024 11:22:57 AM PST by Sequoyah101 (Procrastination is just a form of defiance)
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To: SeekAndFind

Always sacrificed to contribute the maximum amount into my 401k. I’ve now been retired for over 10 years and am able to live on my income thanks mainly to my annual IRA (on retirement I converted the 401k account into an IRA) withdrawals. While the 401k plans help in wealth accumulation, workers must be disciplined enough to pay themselves before others and work towards goals.


43 posted on 02/23/2024 11:43:02 AM PST by Boomer One ( ToUsesn)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
And when they roll forward with those plans, my 401(k) will go POOF! and all they’ll get is the taxes owed plus the early withdrawal penalty. They’ll have to be satisfied with only that.

Scrubbed from the internet a day later, an incoming Biden financial advisor floated this idea in December of 2020 just after Biden was selected as president.

One hour after Biden was sworn in on January 20 2021, being over 65 and would not be incurring any penalties (except killed in taxes), I cashed out my 401K.

They said they were going to do this, people.

44 posted on 02/23/2024 12:03:27 PM PST by USCG SimTech
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To: Empire_of_Liberty

Read about the “’401(k) program.
Your post reveals that you do not understand the tax situation.
I pay taxes on my withdrawals at my present tax rate.


45 posted on 02/23/2024 12:38:56 PM PST by BatGuano (2020 = Stolen Election. Believe it! Molon Labe.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Guillarducci plan....many Republicans still in office endorsed this plan when it was first introduced. They are still working on a way to obtain the savings people have worked hard to attain.


46 posted on 02/23/2024 12:45:29 PM PST by vetvetdoug
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To: vetvetdoug

You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers. People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly sh____ier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you, sooner or later, ‘cause they own this f_____ place. It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.

-George Carlin


47 posted on 02/23/2024 12:48:15 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: SeekAndFind

The problem isn’t government “spending”. That implies they are buying goods and services. They are not for the most part. They are just taking money away from productive people and giving it to themselves and the welfare class to maintain and grow their power. It is just plundering wealth transfer, on a scale unprecedented in human history.


48 posted on 02/23/2024 12:56:52 PM PST by EnderWiggin1970
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To: butlerweave

Two more Dumb-a$$e$.


49 posted on 02/23/2024 12:57:01 PM PST by Agatsu77
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To: SeekAndFind

One thing the government cannot stand is strong and independent citizenry. They want a nation of serfs who are controllable. Getting rid of IRAs makes citizens more government dependent.


50 posted on 02/23/2024 1:03:06 PM PST by The_Media_never_lie ( )
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To: SeekAndFind
This article seems to be takling about $200 billion per year in "lost" tax revenue. That's not even a speed bump on the highway of federal spending.

The only effect on Congress would be to urge ever more spending. The effect for the people is to usher them more quickly into government servitude.

51 posted on 02/23/2024 1:09:44 PM PST by citizen (Put all LBQTwhatever programming on a new subscription service: PERV-TThose look good)
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To: SeekAndFind

They always think their job is to ‘maximize tax revenue’. Both parties argue how to accomplish this....without either realizing this shouldn’t even be the goal.

The spending is insane. It’s never enough. What they’re doing is immoral and unethical.

Also, 401k’s are for the ‘well heeled’??? MOST people put money into their 401k if they’re saving something. That said, they’ve already raided out 401k’s.....by devaluing the dollar and causing inflation. The cost of living when I retire looks very different than expected.


52 posted on 02/23/2024 1:19:58 PM PST by fuzzylogic (welfare state = sharing of poor moral choices among everybody)
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To: BatGuano

I wouldn’t mind knowing what it is that you think I do not understand.

Your deferred income is invested and taxed when you whithdraw from the result. Both you and the government are, therefore, partners in how well the investment performs.

That is my understanding.

None of this is covered by the 16th Amendment.


53 posted on 02/23/2024 3:01:13 PM PST by Empire_of_Liberty ( )
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To: SeekAndFind

The usual clickbait from the damn liars at American Thinker. No where in the article does it state that the government is going after 401s. It’s all about the musings from “two economists from opposing ideological camps (who) argued in a research brief in January.”


54 posted on 02/23/2024 4:23:24 PM PST by sergeantdave (AI is the next iteration of a copy and paste machine.)
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To: SeekAndFind

.


55 posted on 02/23/2024 4:46:26 PM PST by sauropod (Ne supra crepidam.)
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To: ridesthemiles

When I was working, I never made enough to get into a good 401K. It took all I could make just to get by, then I started drawing on S.S. & could save a little. Now, with just S.S. as my only income & living semi-destitute I can hang on to a little of it (on some months)but not enough to really keep up needed expenses. At least I don’t have a 401K that the government can rob at will.


56 posted on 02/24/2024 4:40:29 AM PST by oldtech
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To: USCG SimTech

The same for me, but at a younger age. There should still be a “Rule of 55” that allows those older than 55 to cash out without penalty.

I looked at the stolen election and decided that I didn’t want Hunter Biden as my retirement business partner.

I also saw all of the mandates appearing for the fake “vaccine” and realized that I wanted no part of this.


57 posted on 02/24/2024 5:40:30 AM PST by Empire_of_Liberty ( )
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To: SeekAndFind
A majority of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck.

Most citizens who live paycheck-to-paycheck do not handle their money responsibly. I see women at the grocery store with $2,000 purses and $800 shoes. I see guys with $2000 bicycles and other fancy sports equipment. Even the workers at the grocery stores have manicures, hairdos and jewelry that cost hundreds of dollars. If they really hated living paycheck-to-paycheck they would get a second job.

58 posted on 02/24/2024 6:03:59 AM PST by ladyjane
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