Posted on 10/13/2010 1:38:09 PM PDT by roses of sharon
Democrats in the Senate on Thursday held a recess hearing covering a taxpayer bailout of union pensions and a plan to seize private 401(k) plans to more "fairly" distribute taxpayer-funded pensions to everyone.
Sen. Harkin (D-Iowa), Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee heard from hand-picked witnesses advocating the infamous "Guaranteed Retirement Account" (GRA) authored by Theresa Guilarducci.
In a nutshell, under the GRA system government would seize private 401(k) accounts, setting up an additional 5% mandatory payroll tax to dole out a "fair" pension to everyone using that confiscated money coupled with the mandated contributions.
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“We need a comprehensive solution that addresses interrelated problems. For example, a system that places most of the burden for retirement saving on individuals will always have to wrestle with the problem of pre-retirement loans and withdrawals (simply plugging these leaks will not work, because many workers would stop contributing to the system). A system that relies on tax incentives to promote individual retirement savings will necessarily tend to favor high-income workers who can afford to save more and who benefit the most from these tax breaks. Conversely, a truly universal system would need to shield low-income workers from out-of-pocket costs or wage cuts.
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Brett McMahon, spokesman for the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), a trade association, warns this hearing exposed part of a process that may come as early as the November lame duck push to bailout union pensions by attaching the bailout to an across-the-board extension of the current tax rates.
"I am deeply concerned that they will try to attach something like the Casey bill or the Casey bill in and of itself to tax cut extensions bill that is inevitably going to have to be dealt with at some point during the lame duck session,"
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
I respectfully disagree. It won't be like 1860, it'll be more like 2006 Baghdad. There won't be secession. There will be a couple million thoroughly PO'd sharpshooters sniping at the thieving politicians.
This county will experience a uprising like you have never seen. I have saved and invested for 30 years in my 401K. They will not steal it from me.
Get out of it now! The inflation they created will steal it.
Only in the fevered minds of totalitarians, career politicians, unproductive bureaucrats and the insane could 401(k) plans be redefined as "taxpayer funded."
For the progressives reading this, and other feebleminded, 401(k)s are funded entirely by the wage earner with employer matching modest percentages of the regular payday amount, only not so much lately.
I understand that politicians and other criminals believe that if they haven't collected taxes on these amounts they have helped to fund the account.
That is exactly the same as the burglar and the mugger claiming that by refraining from victimizing you, he is subsidizing your lifestyle, no matter how modest it may be. The only difference is the thin veneer of legality, passing a law first to make it "legal" in one instance, but not in the other. The definition of "public servant" has gone "1984"
Did i mention that these elected criminals at all level of government got their COLAs this year?
Tipping point.
The start of massive non-compliance at best, and all out war at worst.
Of course, it’s not constitutional but when has this administration allowed the Constitution to be an impediment?
It's all good and well to protest, rattle sabers and shout "from my cold dead hands", but the money's not in your hands, it's in the bank. No one from the gov't will show up at your door to steal your 401K. They'll get the banks to do it for them, and probably charge you a fee to do it as well. You may not even know about it until you try to draw some money out...
The only way to avoid confiscation is to take the substantial penalty and withdraw it now. That money has to go somewhere, and I figure a lot of it will go offshore.
Pull it out. Take the hit. Invest in precious metals
That is exactly the same as the burglar and the mugger claiming that by refraining from victimizing you, he is subsidizing your lifestyle, no matter how modest it may be.
Unfortunately, that's the way our system was set up. The Supreme Court can not initiate action without a petitioner with standing (think ALL Republican members of the House and the Senate) requests it, and then only if they can prove that delaying action will cause irreperable harm.
It never occured to the Founders that the integrity of elected officials would deteriorate to the point that they would decide what the Constitution means, and get away with it. The SC must stand by helplessly.
Why the Republicans did not do that twenty months ago will fill a large future volume on Constitutional Law.
Assuming our Constitution survives without further perversions.
The only way you can ensure this is if you liquidate it before they pull this. As long as your funds are parked in a 401k, you are powerless and there isn't a damn thing you can do to stop them from stealing it from you.
I'm so glad I liquidated my entire 401k last year. I sunk the entire amount into a huge downpayment on a reasonable, affordable house to give us a mortgage smaller than the car payments we had a few years ago. So if they want to steal my 401k, they'll have to physically come take me out of my house in a body bag.
Get out of it now! The inflation they created will steal it
Sounds like they will create and blame it on inflation bail out the system and all of our pensions will be controlled by them.
How long do we sit?
END ALL GOVERNMENT PENSIONS
The TSP is a defined contribution plan, meaning that the retirement income received from a TSP account will depend on how much a federal employee (and the agency through matching contributions) put into an employee’s account during your working years and the earnings accumulated over that time.
For federal employees covereded by the current Federal Employees’ Retirement System (FERS), the TSP is one part of a three-part retirement package that also includes a FERS basic annuity and Social Security.
Tapping private 401k’s without also tapping the federal employee equivalent of 401k’s would seem to raise serious constitutional and/or political issues for the Democrats.
Absolutely no need for an all out war - the number of enemy to be harshly dealt with would be the number of those legislators approving such a theft. I am guessing the number would be less than 300.
How long do we sit?
You know what? I took out as big a loan as I could a week ago on my 401. Gold, silver, copper, lead, guns. food, Bought some uranium stock.
They’ve done this before when they started including FICA tax revenues in the general budget.
Ditto that! From my cold dead hands.
Ditto that! From my cold dead hands.
I am guessing you are wrong. At a minimum it's a couple of thousand, to include Commissions, Czars and their staff, etc. The criminals can't exercise their power without triggermen.
Ever looked into the way vermin extermination works?
It's never bothered them before, but the bottom of the bureaucratic food chain of enforcers is NOT a job I would want to have for the next few years.
Rats in the private sector have 401k’s too. This is a total winning issue for republicans.
Yep, if they are trying to start another civil war this would do the trick. I wonder what the government would do if everyone withdrew all their funds from their 401K? Would they send the IRS goons to all citizens front doors demanding the money. Only in a Democrats mind is this even considered.
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