Are Democrats really stupid enough to threaten 401(k) plans?

Hillbuzz ^ | 10/13/10

[techcor]

Does anyone know the purported logic behind the taking of 401K funds for any purpose, especially to prop up unions?

The usual.
1. They want to do it.
2. It's racist not to do it.
3. You're racist for even questioning why they are doing it.

[brownsfan]

“I’m not buying that. After watching Lisa Murkowski and Mike Castle lose primary battles, I believe that a lot of Republicans are going to watch their P’s and Q’s. They simply aren’t going to want to be targetted by a 2012 primary challenge.”

The system will never be totally purged. It attracts the political class, and those people can’t be trusted.

Drop your guard at your own peril.

[raybbr]

The first sentence of the blog is a link to the info.

[Da Coyote]

If this happens, a lot of folks will make it such that NO congresscritter that voted for this will risk going outside.

It will be war.

And not a war the libs will like.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

They didn’t have a problem putting 42,000,000 Americans on food stamps, then cutting the budget for food stamps so they could bail out the teachers’ union pension funds.

[ModelBreaker]

They don’t have to do it explicitly. They have already confiscated most of them to pay for Obamacare. Follow me on this.

1. Obamacare effectively prohibits “cadillac” plans. These are high deductible but complete coverage after that plans. In other words, the patient pays 0% after the deductible is met.

2. Cadillac plans are great because they get you thru the occasional $250,000 medical charge for surgery or big problems.

3. Without cadillac plans, that is, with Obamacare approved plans, the patient will end up paying about 20% of that $250,000, or $50,000 out of his pocket.

4. What Obama is counting on is that this will force Dad, in the last few years of life, to drain the 401K’s, leaving mom with not much, except social security.

5. Where does the money go? Ultimately, it goes to subsidize the medical plans of people who the gvt is subsidizing.

That’s why the cadillac plan prohibition was such an important part of Obamacare. It uses your 401k to pay for Obamacare without actually saying that’s what it’s doing.

[353FMG]

A more important question is; are Republicans courageous enough to thwart the RATS’ plans?

[FightThePower!]

“Does anyone know the purported logic behind the taking of 401K funds for any purpose, especially to prop up unions?”

Its very simple, there is a huge amount of money that they can redistribute to buy votes. It is by far easiest to take. It would be difficult to send out the Army to confiscate our homes, but you can take someone’s 401k and replace it with government bonds with a few keystrokes. Of course it will be sold as a way to keep us from losing money in “risky” 401k’s.

[apillar]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If there was even the slightest chance of this becoming law, you would see a stock market crash that would make “the great crash” look like a mild downturn as hordes of people cashed out their 401-K’s and IRA. It would be far better to take the early withdrawal tax hit and salvage something than lose control of all of it to the government. That's why if this ever happens it will be a slow “frog in boiling water” process, where the feds assume a little more control of private retirement accounts over the course of many years, until you literally can't withdrawal it without their permission. That's when they'll drop the hammer.

[absolootezer0]

No one except union members and welfare recipients will ever take them seriously again.

they can't even count on union members. alot of union members (at least in MI) are now on 401(k) plans, not pensions.

[SteveH]

They will “borrow” say 10% of the 401Ks to cover the union debts through national law machinations doing whatever is needed to accomplish that. The other 90% will be billed as untouchable in return, going into a “lockbox.” Next election cycle, once the trail is broken, the lockbox language will be displaced by more attention on what might happen if the union pensions collapse with “insufficient” 401K borrowed support (maybe a new term will pop up for the concept at this time and quickly acronymed so as to augment focus on the downside pension collapse over everything else.

After a while, ... perhaps the history of Chile will repeat itself, but in the USA?

So even the revolution and the aftermath might not be altogether clean.

I am not advocating anything, but just trying to understand where this is all going down the road a few years. Might as well leverage the historical exemplars if only to attempt to develop a model for predicting the future in lieu of a crystal-ball forecast...

[PMAS]

Yup, George Miller (d-CA)has been tlaking about it for a few years now.

[anniegetyourgun]

After all we’ve been through (not to mention my warnings on 11/4/08), I continue to be amazed at how deluded so many are....still thinking “oh, that would never happen.” Right.

[a_screen_name]

Are Democrats really stupid

[truthguy]

Nelson has been booed at, spit upon, and harassed everywhere he goes in Nebraska. I expect this to continue for the rest of his life…and it will be remembered when he’s up for re-election in a few years. His career is over, and any hope he had of spending his retirement as a celebrity former Senator being wined and dined all over town is gone. The man is a pariah, as well he should be.

Yes you have nailed it. Evey politician who tries to pull this type of BS needs to be blasted and blasted in a manner that they can understand. This, and only this will prevent or at least severely limit this type of behavior. Ben Nelson is everything that is wrong in American Politics. By contrast Chris Christie is almost everything that that is right. I have one or two areas that I disagree with Christie, but I have enormous respect for the guy. You know where you stand with him. We need more Christies and less Nelsons.

[NRG1973]

“I’m not buying that. After watching Lisa Murkowski and Mike Castle lose primary battles, I believe that a lot of Republicans are going to watch their P’s and Q’s. They simply aren’t going to want to be targetted by a 2012 primary challenge.”

The system will never be totally purged. It attracts the political class, and those people can’t be trusted.

Drop your guard at your own peril.

Think about what you just posted...if you take what you posted to its logical endpoint then there is no reason to ever have an election.

Come on...get real...this is just a ploy by the Democrat party to try to bring out its base (and union employees) for the election. After the election results this year, and the beating the Dems take, this proposal wouldn't get 100% support from the Democratic caucus no less get any Republican support.

[Onelifetogive]

I also think anyone who did a Roth IRA conversion in the last ten years and paid the income tax on that conversion was a fool. I am almost 100% certain that those Roth IRA accounts will not remain "tax free" into your retirement years.

I agree. Taxes later is ALWAYS better than taxes sooner.

[faucetman]

The best way is to vote in Mark Kirk in Illinois and Christine O'Donnell in Delaware. They would BOTH be seated immediately giving Republicans 2 additional votes in the Senate and Dems 2 less. This is why Obama will campaign in these states, even in Delaware where (supposedly) O'Donnell is way behind.

[FightThePower!]

“I'm willing to shed blood to protect my wealth. Is Harkin as committed in taking it as I am in keeping it?”

I like the idea of you shedding blood and all, but who are you going to attack? All they will do is take your 401k and replace it with bonds. It isn't like someone has to come to your door.

[TexasPatriot1]

Opposite answer than previously stated.