Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com October 12, 2010
The government is preparing to seize the private 401(k) pensions of millions of Americans while enforcing an additional 5 per cent payroll tax as part of a new bailout program that will empower the Social Security Administration to redistribute pension funds in a frightening example of big government gone wild.
Public pension plans have been so aggressively looted already by the government that cities and counties face a $574 billion funding gap, according to a CNBC report.
That black hole is set to be filled by a new proposal that will “fairly” distribute taxpayer-funded pensions to everyone, by confiscating the private wealth of millions of Americans. Its proponents express staggering arrogance in thinking that they can just steal money people have worked for decades to accrue as if it’s their own.
Not only would the government confiscate 401(k) pensions, it would also impose a mandatory 5 per cent payroll tax payable by everyone, according to a hearing chaired last week by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.
“This would, of course, be a sister government ponzi scheme working in tandem with Social Security, the primary purpose being to give big government politicians additional taxpayer funds to raid to pay for their out-of-control spending,” writes Connie Hair.
The hearing was a platform for advocates of Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs), a program authored by Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York. Back in November 2008, Ghilarducci testified to Congress that 401(k)s and IRAs should be confiscated and converted into universal Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs) managed by the Social Security Administration.
“You don’t hold hearings on something you don’t intend to do,” points out the Market Ticker blog. “I hate it when I’m right. I hate it even more when tens of millions of Americans are going to get reamed to pay for the crimes of the handful on Wall Street, and their crony enablers in Washington DC.”
The GRAs would be enforced by means of a mandatory savings tax equating to 5 per cent of an individual’s annual paycheck deposited to the GRA. Social Security and Medicare taxes would still be payable, employers would no longer would be able to write off their contributions and capital gains would be taxable year-on-year. In addition, workers could bequeath only half of their account balances to their heirs, unlike full balances from existing 401(k) and IRA accounts.
During a Seattle radio interview in October 2008, Ghilarducci explained the motive behind the plan, stating, “I’m just rearranging the tax breaks that are available now for 401(k)s and spreading – spreading the wealth” (emphasis mine).
However, as we painfully learned in the immediate aftermath of the original $700 million dollar bailout, which was originally sold on the basis that it would be used to pay off bad debt, governments that propose “spreading the wealth” under socialist-style financial reforms almost always collect the wealth under the pretext of being the saviors before greedily hoarding it all for themselves.
The GRA program is being pushed by the Economic Policy Institute, an organization housed on the third floor of the building occupied by the George Soros-funded Center for American Progress. The Center for American Progress is a think tank headed by Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff John D. Podesta, who was also head of Barack Obama’s presidential transition team after the 2008 election.
In preparing to seize private pensions, the United States is going the same way as Argentinean government, which in 2008 nationalized the country’s private pension plans, known as AFJPs, confiscating the wealth of millions.
“We have no doubt that here the right to private property is being violated. Not just for us but for society and the world, this is a clear confiscation,” said opposition Radical Party’s Ernesto Sanz at the time.
How will Americans react to having not only their wealth but their nest egg for future generations brazenly confiscated by the government in one fell swoop? If this doesn’t prompt widespread rioting and civil disobedience in America on behalf of the besieged middle class then nothing will.
Don’t be under any illusions, if you don’t have a private pension and think this won’t affect you – think again. Once the pretext has been created that the state can simply confiscate privately earned wealth, they can then come after anything, your gold, your home, your kids and eventually your very freedom. Once the vampire of big government gets a taste for blood, the teeth will only sink in further, and America’s resemblance to third world tyrannies will rapidly accelerate.
Clearly hussein wants to incite a Civil War II to tear this country apart. We’ve got to do everything possible to prevent it so that instead of fighting each other, we removed hussein and all his think-alike cronies.
Is it possible there is some hidden clause in the Financial Reform Bill?
0bama and his regime may be planning on taking my 401K, but if they know what’s good for them they’d best be planning for a whole hell of a lot more!
UP YOURS, Obama!
I can’t see this happening anytime soon, but remember that the Democrats never totally drop a plan to take over an aspect of the economy and/or people’s lives. “Eternal vigilance” is a good recommendation.
Wanna turn a Tea Party into a Lynch Mob? This would do it.
take your money out and buy Non-tracable assets...
in order to insure progressives are routed from our society, this would have to happen. this is about the only thing, short of death camps, that will wake people up
has anything new popped up on this issue since the election?
Go for it Zero. You’ll be the cause of an armed revolt.
They do that, and it’s Civil War, Part Deux.
Ping
Wow I’ve read a few articles like this recently they are taking pension plans all over the world, i.e., they took the Irish pensions to pay off the banks bad debts. The Irish were not even in trouble financially it was all bad bank debt but they took their pensions I have no doubt they would steal from us even more for the banks. You have to wonder as they say where there’s smoke...
American Retirement Funds at Serious Risk of Being Seized
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article24828.html
Just thought I would point out:
(1) The ONLY reason 401K’s exist is to avoid income taxes.
(2) If there was no income tax, there would be no 401K’s to take (and you wouldn’t be jumping through all these hoops you do now to save for your retirement).
The next time someone asks you about the Fair Tax, remember those two facts.