Government Sets Its Sights on Private Retirement Accounts: Redistribute the Wealth of

Government Sets Its Sights on Private Retirement Accounts: “Giant Effort to Redistribute the Wealth of America’s Older Citizens”

Mac Slavo
November 20th, 2012
SHTFplan.com
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Read by 13,737 people

A new effort by the Obama administration, Congress, the Treasury Department and labor unions aims to fundamentally alter how Americans plan and save for retirement.

Warnings have been popping up over the last several years about the possibility of re-appropriating the $3.5 Trillion sitting in private retirement and spreading those funds around to Americans who are deemed less fortunate.

This couldn’t possibly happen in America, right? At one time, most Americans also believed heath care mandates that force Americans at the barrel of a gun to surrender portions of their earnings into a universal system for all would never happen. Well, it did.

And now, those who would control and regulate every aspect of our lives are making a new push; one whose efforts will ultimately end in the seizure and redistribution the personal retirement savings of every American who has ever put money into a 401(k) or IRA.

This is no longer in the realm of conspiracy, but rather, public record.

A recent hearing sponsored by the Treasury and Labor Departments marked the beginning of the Obama Administration’s effort to nationalize the nation’s pension system and to eliminate private retirement accounts including IRA’s and 401k plans, NSC is warning.

The hearing, held in the Labor Department’s main auditorium, was monitored by NSC staff and featured a line up of left-wing activists including one representative of the AFL-CIO who advocated for more government regulation over private retirement accounts and even the establishment of government-sponsored annuities that would take the place of 401k plans.

“This hearing was set up to explore why Americans are not saving as much for their retirement as they could,” explains National Seniors Council National Director Robert Crone, “However, it is clear that this is the first step towards a government takeover. It feels just like the beginning of the debate over health care and we all know how that ended up.”
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A representative of the liberal Pension Rights Center, Rebecca Davis, testified that the government needs to get involved because 401k plans and IRAs are unfair to poor people. She demanded the Obama administration set up a “government-sponsored program administered by the PBGC (the governments’ Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation).”
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Such “reforms” would effectively end private retirement accounts in America, Crone warns.

“These people want the government to require that ultimately all Americans buy these government annuities instead of saving or investing on their own. The Government could then take these trillions of dollars and redistribute it through this new national retirement system.”
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“This effort ultimately is designed to grab the retirement nest eggs of America’s senior citizens. This new government annuity scheme, even if it is at first optional, will turn into a giant effort to redistribute the wealth of America’s older citizens,” explains Crone. “This scheme mirrors what I expect the President will try to do with Social Security. He wants to turn that program into a welfare program, too.”

Via: National Seniors Council

With the re-election of President Obama, a majority Democrat Senate and powerful organization and lobbying from labor unions, we can fully expect legislation that will shift private accounts into the public coffers to become reality in the not too distant future.
In fact, the push to mold the perceptions surrounding this issue is already on, as highlighted in a recent Market Watch article which claims to explain the 10 Things 401(k) Plans Won’t Tell You.

Did you know, for example, that 401(k) plans aren’t supposed to provide you with full retirement benefits, and that they were originally intended to be “mere supplements” to other plans, and that they only “benefit the rich?” Not only that, but according to the article, no one can really tell you how much money you’re going to need; all of those math formulas and expert calculations were all wrong. Additionally, there are so many hidden fees that you’re losing hundreds of thousands of dollars to Wall Street (most of us knew that one).

And all this time, the millions of Americans who contributed their money to these accounts over the last three decades were under the impression that their accounts would one day grow into a retirement nest egg from which retirees could spend their days in comfort and relaxation.

Nope. We had it all wrong. Private retirement accounts were never actually designed to ensure that you could retire! Only a government managed retirement plan can ensure that you will have the money you need when you turn 59 1/2. Only they will be able to ensure you don’t pay excessive, hidden fees (even though they could have created legislation to require firms to overtly disclose this information int he first place). And, only the government can provide 100% full retirement coverage, not just supplemental funds. Oh, and they also know WHEN you should retire, currently 65 years of age.

It’s on folks. They are going to hit Americans from all angles on this one.

First, the political hearings that will claim only the rich are benefiting from private retirement accounts.

Then they’ll point out how stock market crashes and volatility put your money at risk. In fact, if we do have another market crash, look for this to be a key reverberation.

Then they put the spin machine into action, so that you think you’re getting unbiased analysis and truth.

Then they open the guilt spigot and make those who have personal retirement savings wonder if they are being greedy, and those who don’t have savings will direct their anger not just at the rich, but anyone who has put any money away.

Finally, they will pass a bill, which we have to pass first in order to know what’s in it, and it’ll be a done deal.

The government of this country is coming for everything they can get their hands on.

Government Sets Its Sights on Private Retirement Accounts:

Keep Both Eyes On Your Retirement Funds As Fiscal Cliff Nears

November 21, 2012 by Bob Livingston

http://personallibertycom.files.word...1119_image.jpg Americans hold about $17.9 trillion in retirement assets. These are found in the form of 401(k)s, individual retirement accounts and pension funds.

That money is not your own. If it were, you would be able to access it without penalty. But that is not the case. Taxes and onerous fees are tacked on if you take the money when you need it as opposed to when your “benevolent” government masters believe you should have it.

Congress established retirement programs like IRAs and 401(k)s in order to prop up the stock markets for the big banksters and make themselves look good. Americans have been fooled into equating a rising stock market with improving economic conditions. But when it’s propped up under false pretenses (by driving money into the market that would ordinarily be used elsewhere or through massive infusions of fiat currency via bailouts), it is like fool’s gold.

And now some are eyeing those funds as a big piggy bank to rob in order to pay off the “national debt.” Never mind that U.S. debt is a world-class delusion, as I have told you many times.

This actually began long ago. I first wrote about it here in 2009. That’s when Congressional Democrats were holding hearings to discuss the possibility that those funds could be confiscated and placed into universal guaranteed retirement accounts managed by the Social Security Administration. Their belief is that if the money is put into Treasuries, it would undo much of the money-printing damage done by the Alan Greenspan/Ben Bernanke Feds.

More hearings on this subject were held in 2010. They were presided over by J. Mark Iwry, senior adviser to the Secretary of the Treasury and deputy assistant secretary for retirement and health policy. Irwy believes 401(k)s and IRAs are unfair because they benefit the rich. But the plan to “nationalize” retirement plans was put on hold following the 2010 election. Unions are big advocates of a nationalized retirement system.

Now the topic is back on the table. As Congress searches for creative ways to feed the ever-growing Federal leviathan, that $17.9 trillion becomes an enticing option. America’s national debt stands at $16.3 trillion. The fiscal cliff, comprised of a huge year-end tax increase and $110 billion in cuts to Federal spending, is dead ahead; and the 1 percent (the sociopaths in government) is looking for ways to avoid the cliff that don’t involve making significant cuts to Federal spending.

There is precedence for government confiscating the retirement funds of its citizens, so keep your eye on upcoming Congressional negotiations. A $17.9 trillion piggy bank plus $16.3 trillion debt equals a marriage that could be consummated in hell — or Congress, which is almost the same thing.

Keep Both Eyes On Your Retirement Funds As Fiscal Cliff Nears : Personal Liberty Digest™

NOW OBAMA WANTS YOUR 401(K)

Treasury, Labor on path to nationalize retirement

byJEROME R. CORSI

NEW YORK – Two years ago, as WND reported, the Obama administration was proceeding with a novel way to finance trillion-dollar budget deficits by forcing IRA and 401(k) holders to buy Treasury bonds by mandating the placement of government-structured annuities in their retirement accounts.

Remarkably, those financial professionals specializing in private retirement savings and the U.S. citizens investing in private retirement plans now face the possibility the Obama administration and its allies on the political left will impose rules and regulations that effectively abolish the private retirement savings and investment markets.

Recent evidence suggests government officials continue to eye the multi-trillion dollar private retirement savings market, including IRAs and 401(k) plans, eyeing the opportunity to redistribute private retirement savings to less affluent Americans and to force the retirement savings out of the private market and into government-controlled programs investing in government-issued debt.

Government takeover?

An Investment Company Institute study published this month found that U.S. retirement assets totaled $18.5 trillion at the end of the second quarter 2012, of which 3.5 trillion was in IRAs and $5.1 trillion was in 401(k) plans.

Since 2010, the U.S. Treasury Department and the Department of Labor have been holding combined hearings on various plans designed to introduce government-mandated retirement plans and investment options, including government annuities invested primarily in U.S. Treasury debt, into the private retirement savings market.

“This hearing was set up to explore why Americans are not saving as much for their retirement as they could,” explained National Seniors Council National Director Robert Crone, describing a recent Treasury-Labor hearing held in the Labor Department’s main auditorium.

“However it is clear that his is just the first step toward a government takeover. It feels like the beginning of the debate over health care and we all know how that ended up.”

‘Automatic IRA’

With the issuance of the White House 256-page Budget Proposal for Fiscal Year 2013, the Obama administration endorsed “Automatic IRAs,” a plan introduced into Congress in 2010 by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass, and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., in which private companies would be automatically enrolled into government-mandated IRAs, forcing those businesses to contribute on behalf of their employees a “default amount” equal to 3 percent of an employees pay, unless an employee specifically opts out of the plan.

The FY 2013 Budget proposal notes that currently 78 million working Americans, roughly half of the work force, lack employer-based retirement plans.

According to testimony given by David C. John of the Heritage Foundation to the House Committee on Ways and Means on April 17, most of the 78 million working Americans not participating in employer-based retirement plans are part-time employees of smaller businesses, women, members of minority groups or all three.

The remedy proposed on page 147 of the FY 2012 Budget Proposal is “a system of automatic work-place pensions that will expand access to tens of millions of workers who currently lack plans” by providing their employees with a government-mandated “direct deposit IRA account,” exempting only businesses with 10 or fewer employees and providing participating businesses with tax credits to compensate for the businesses implementing and administering the plans.

While the Automatic IRA would serve the purpose of extending private retirement plans to disadvantaged and generally poorer workers, the innovation would place additional costs upon employers. It would require employer contributions to the plans, even if tax credits fully complemented the businesses for implementing and administering them.

Retirement USA

The Service Employee International Union, or SEIU, a key labor union ally of the Obama administration, has mounted an effort to create government-mandated worker retirement accounts as an entitlement program, with the possibility that a portion of all private retirement funds could be forced into U.S. Treasury debt.

Branding the program “Retirement USA,” the SEIU has joined with the AFL-CIO, the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based economic left-leaning think tank that receives substantial labor funding, and two other left-leaning interest groups, the Pension Rights Center and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security.

The Retirement USA idea is promote the concept that all workers in the U.S. have a right to a government retirement account that would fund a secure retirement with adequate dollars, in addition to Social Security and private ERISA-retirement workplace retirement programs such as 401(k) programs.

“Our goal is to involve all workers and all employees in a government-mandated retirement program, with the government putting up the difference for lower paid employees,” Nancy Hwa, a spokeswoman for the participating Pension Rights Center, told WND in 2010.

Put simply, the Retirement USA government-mandated workplace retirement account would require by law employers and employees to contribute to a retirement account for every employee and demand that a portion of that contribution go into a federal-government created annuity that would be funded by purchasing Treasury debt.

“Retirement USA is basically an effort that amounts to nationalizing 401(k)s and IRAs,” David John, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told WND when the Retirement USA idea was proposed two years ago.

Under the guise of making workplace retirement savings accounts available to all Americans and insuring that existing retirement savings accounts pay lifetime income, the SEIU-led Retirement USA effort is quietly exploring strategies that would create “Universal IRAs” or “Guaranteed Retirement Accounts” for all workers.

Following lead of Argentina

Writing in the London Telegraph in October 2008, business and economics editor Ambrose Evans-Pritchard warned that G7 nations, including the United States, may begin following the path of Argentina in forcing privately managed pension funds to be invested in government-issued debt.

In 2008, Argentine sovereign debt was trading at 29 cents on the dollar, reflecting the devalued state of the Argentine peso, with the result that private pensioners holding government debt in their retirement accounts could not be assured those bonds would have any meaningful value at maturity.

“Here is a warning to us all,” Evans-Pritchard wrote. “The Argentine state is taking control of the country’s privately managed pension funds in a dramatic move to raise cash.”

He warned the same could happen in the United States and Europe.

“The G7 states are already acquiring an unhealthy taste for the arbitrary seizure of private property, I notice,” Evans-Prichard warned. “It is a foretaste of what might happen across the world as governments discover that tax revenue and the bond markets are unwilling to plug the gap.”

Currently, as reported Friday by the Financial Times, Argentina is facing yet another bond default after U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Griesa ruled that an upcoming payment to holders of the debt-swap bonds Argentina issued in 2005 and 2010 must be accompanied by a payment in full of $1.3 billion. The payment is to be made to two U.S. hedge fund creditors that did not accept the 2005 and 2010 debt swaps proposed for the bonds Argentina defaulted on in 2001.
http://www.wnd.com/2012/11/now-obama-wants-your-401k/