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Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« on: January 29, 2014, 02:12:15 pm »
http://www.newsmax.com/PrintTemplate.aspx?nodeid=549599


Newsmax
Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
Tuesday, January 28, 2014 10:47 PM

By: Mike Dorning and Margaret Collins

President Barack Obama offered more Americans the chance to save for retirement through payroll deductions with a plan for new government-sponsored savings accounts.

The accounts, which Obama announced tonight in a State of the Union Address that concentrated on expanding economic opportunity, will be available to workers who don’t have access to a 401(k) plan, administration officials said.

The "MyRA" accounts, similar to an individual retirement account, will provide "a new way for working Americans to start their own retirement savings," Obama said in the text of the speech released by the White House.

Under the initiative, workers would be allowed to have a portion of their pay deducted for deposit into an account invested in U.S. government bonds that would be treated for tax purposes as an individual retirement account, administration officials said.

The accounts, set up through the Treasury Department, would have a maximum balance after which money would have to be rolled over into an IRA, the officials said.

The officials project that millions of Americans will take advantage of the savings accounts.

"This isn’t earth-shattering stuff," said Brian Graff, the chief executive officer of the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries. "But it is a step in the right direction to get more people saving for retirement, which I would think is a bipartisan issue."

Existing Authority

Obama can establish the savings program under existing executive authority without new legislation, the officials said. He will announce details of the plan tomorrow.

"I don’t expect this to get a lot of pushback," said Graff, who discussed the proposal in advance with Treasury officials. He said it draws on an existing program that permits workers to purchase U.S. savings bonds through payroll deductions and adds "a retirement twist."

The proposal resembles an earlier Obama administration plan that would have required employers to offer an automatic IRA option to employees. That plan, which was included in Obama’s 2014 budget, would have cost the government an estimated $17.6 billion in foregone revenue over 10 years.

About 68 percent of U.S. workers had access to retirement benefits as of March 2013, with 54 percent participating, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Company Reaction

"Although we don’t have the details yet, Vanguard is generally supportive of expanding savings opportunities for those not covered by a workplace retirement plan," Linda Wolohan, a spokeswoman for Vanguard Group Inc., said in an e- mail.

Wolohan declined to comment further before hearing the specifics of Obama’s proposal. Vanguard was the second-largest manager of 401(k)-type assets in 2012 behind Fidelity Investments, according to researcher Cerulli Associates.

Fidelity, which is also the largest provider of IRAs, declined to comment before hearing the speech, according to an e-mail from spokeswoman Eileen O’Connor.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., which manages retirement assets and administers plans, declined to comment before seeing more details, Gregory Roth, a spokesman for the bank, said in an e- mail.

Under the proposal, proceeds couldn’t be cashed out without a tax penalty until the depositor reaches retirement age, unlike ordinary savings-bond purchases, Graff said. The funds could be transferred to an ordinary IRA without penalty, he said.

One of the biggest challenges for the U.S. retirement system is that many workers don’t have access to a pension or 401(k) plan through their employer, said Lisa Mensah, executive director of the initiative on financial security at the Aspen Institute.

"We have to get people in," Mensah said. "You do need an automated way for people to get into the savings system."

Small-business groups in the past have opposed such proposals because they say that setting up the required payroll deduction would be a cost for them.

U.S. savings bonds designed for retirement accounts have been proposed in the past and termed R-bonds, said Don Fuerst, an actuary and senior pension fellow at the American Academy of Actuaries.

The securities are seen as a way to allow low-income workers to save for retirement, Fuerst said. They usually can’t contribute much at the start, making their balances expensive to administer and vulnerable to investment-management costs.

"If you’re only putting a small amount into the plan the fees could eat up your investment income," said Fuerst, who is based in Washington. "This gets around that."

With savings bonds, the U.S. government could issue the investments and cover the costs of keeping track of them, he said.

The accounts aren’t as attractive as a typical employer- sponsored 401(k) because there is no employer match and only one investment option, Graff said.

Even so, he said, it may significantly boost retirement savings for middle- and low-income workers who don’t have access to a 401(k) account, Graff said.

Research has shown that middle- and moderate-income workers are likely to save for retirement when they can do so with a payroll deduction and are unlikely to do so when they don’t have that option, Graff said.

Among workers earning between $30,000 and $50,000 a year, 72 percent of those covered by an employer-sponsored payroll deduction retirement plan such as a 401(k) participate, while only 5 percent of those without such a plan set aside money through an individual retirement account, according to a 2010 analysis by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Participation in the Obama retirement savings program would be voluntary, Graff said.

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Offline ABX

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Re: Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2014, 03:15:01 pm »
Because Obamacare worked so well for healthcare, you know you can trust the government with your retirement too.

Offline Gazoo

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Re: Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2014, 03:35:54 pm »
Because Obamacare worked so well for healthcare, you know you can trust the government with your retirement too.

He started with clash for clunkers. He had a DREAM all would drive electric cars he likes. (SEE HITLER and VOLKSWAGONS) He then tried to make ONE bank (guess who was the CEO?) in one of his past budget plans that not ONE democrat would vote for. He then destroyed jobs, healthcare, took over GM=government motors and now he wants to dictate retirement plans?

You have got to be kidding me! WTF part of YOU HAVE TO HAVE A JOB BEFORE you can have a retirement plan and you don't do amnesty when Americans are suffering without jobs, doesn't this SOB get?

« Last Edit: January 29, 2014, 03:40:33 pm by Gazoo »
"The Tea Party has a right to feel cheated.

When does the Republican Party, put in the majority by the Tea Party, plan to honor its commitment to halt the growth of the Federal monolith and bring the budget back into balance"?

Offline rb224315

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Re: Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« Reply #3 on: January 29, 2014, 03:46:04 pm »

This is a great plan.  Schlubs put their money in a government account and the government steals it.  That's much easier than trying to steal it from 401k accounts.
rb224315:  just another "Creepy-ass Cracka".

Online mountaineer

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Re: Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« Reply #4 on: January 29, 2014, 05:35:28 pm »
I must have missed the part where workers who don't have 401(k) plans can't already invest in IRAs or anything else they want.
I've never had a 401(k) but somehow managed to set up an IRA, invest in stocks, CDs, mutual funds, etc., without any help from Uncle Sugar.

Edit to correct "can" to "can't"
« Last Edit: January 29, 2014, 06:23:53 pm by mountaineer »
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Offline truth_seeker

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Re: Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« Reply #5 on: January 29, 2014, 06:20:49 pm »
I must have missed the part where workers who don't have 401(k) plans can already invest in IRAs or anything else they want.
I've never had a 401(k) but somehow managed to set up an IRA, invest in stocks, CDs, mutual funds, etc., without any help from Uncle Sugar.
No help from Uncle Sugar? The initial contribution by you is deducted from your taxable income for the year. The annual interest and dividends from the account, are tax deferred. These are tax benefits, by Uncle Sugar, even if you don't recognize them as such.

Traditional IRAs were enacted under President Reagan in 1986. Roth IRAs were enacted under President Clinton in 1997, for a different category of savers and investors.

Seems like a bipartisan history, of providing Uncle Sugar's" tax benefits to taxpayers, such as yourself.



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Online mountaineer

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Re: Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« Reply #6 on: January 29, 2014, 06:24:36 pm »
That I don't have to pay taxes on something is hardly a benefit.
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Offline Rapunzel

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Re: Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« Reply #7 on: January 29, 2014, 07:20:10 pm »
This is FDR social security-like... don't do it...
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776

Offline rb224315

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Re: Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« Reply #8 on: January 29, 2014, 11:19:12 pm »
No help from Uncle Sugar? The initial contribution by you is deducted from your taxable income for the year. The annual interest and dividends from the account, are tax deferred. These are tax benefits, by Uncle Sugar, even if you don't recognize them as such.

Traditional IRAs were enacted under President Reagan in 1986. Roth IRAs were enacted under President Clinton in 1997, for a different category of savers and investors.

Seems like a bipartisan history, of providing Uncle Sugar's" tax benefits to taxpayers, such as yourself.

This is the same logic an abusive husband might use on his wife.

After she gives in to his demand for 50% of her paycheck, I can hear him say "Good job, little lady.  You just saved yourself another a$$ whipping."

Somehow I doubt the battered wife would consider herself as having gained some kind of benefit from the situation.  The abusive husband certainly does, though, as does anyone to whom he might give the money he stole.
rb224315:  just another "Creepy-ass Cracka".

Offline truth_seeker

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Re: Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« Reply #9 on: January 29, 2014, 11:43:55 pm »
This is the same logic an abusive husband might use on his wife.

After she gives in to his demand for 50% of her paycheck, I can hear him say "Good job, little lady.  You just saved yourself another a$$ whipping."

Somehow I doubt the battered wife would consider herself as having gained some kind of benefit from the situation.  The abusive husband certainly does, though, as does anyone to whom he might give the money he stole.
Reagan initiated the IRA program in 1986, so I'm sure he was thinking of battered women, etc.

Newsflash: "Reagan's IRA program, now dubbed spousal abuse, by contemporary true conservative."

Tune in again tomorrow, for more examples of conservative communications.
"God must love the common man, he made so many of them.�  Abe Lincoln

Offline raml

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Re: Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« Reply #10 on: January 29, 2014, 11:51:45 pm »
Since when is anything to do with taxing us a benefit? That we should be thankful Uncle Sam doesn't tax money we earned when in an ira is hysterical and only a liberal would even think of saying this. Taxing our income in any way was never even voted on and approved by congress it is just a government taking it without consent.

Offline 240B

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Re: Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« Reply #11 on: January 29, 2014, 11:54:56 pm »
Because Obamacare worked so well for healthcare, you know you can trust the government with your retirement too.

To be run by the IRS no doubt. The same as everything else with the government, it will start out as an opt-in program and then will quickly become mandatory and involuntary under threat of property confiscation, fines, and prison.
 
Congress has been trying to get their hands on personal retirement plans for years. They see all that money sitting out there, and they are salivating to confiscate it one way or another.
 
My opinion is that they want to coerce all people to convert their retirement funds to government bonds. That way, they get the money 'now' to spend, while granting some tenuous "promise" to pay it back with interest 'later'. Also, since the money would be in their hands, it would be quite easy to take it for some transgression of the citizen, or to outright confiscate it from all citizens due to some national emergency as has already happened several times in other countries overseas.
 
 
You cannot "COEXIST" with people who want to kill you.
If they kill their own with no conscience, there is nothing to stop them from killing you.
Rational fear and anger at vicious murderous Islamic terrorists is the same as irrational antisemitism, according to the Leftists.

Offline Rapunzel

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Re: Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« Reply #12 on: January 30, 2014, 12:01:42 am »

To be run by the IRS no doubt. The same as everything else with the government, it will start out as an opt-in program and then will quickly become mandatory and involuntary under threat of property confiscation, fines, and prison.
 
Congress has been trying to get their hands on personal retirement plans for years. They see all that money sitting out there, and they are salivating to confiscate it one way or another.
 
My opinion is that they want to coerce all people to convert their retirement funds to government bonds. That way, they get the money 'now' to spend, while granting some tenuous "promise" to pay it back with interest 'later'. Also, since the money would be in their hands, it would be quite easy to take it for some transgression of the citizen, or to outright confiscate it from all citizens due to some national emergency as has already happened several times in other countries overseas.

Exactly what this is all about. 
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776

Online mountaineer

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Re: Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« Reply #13 on: January 30, 2014, 12:04:04 am »
Reagan initiated the IRA program in 1986, so I'm sure he was thinking of battered women, etc.

Newsflash: "Reagan's IRA program, now dubbed spousal abuse, by contemporary true conservative."

Tune in again tomorrow, for more examples of conservative communications.
You sure can twist what some people have said! Whew.
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Offline Rapunzel

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Re: Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« Reply #14 on: January 30, 2014, 12:05:07 am »
You sure can twist what some people have said! Whew.

Some people get their jollies mocking conservatism - as if there is something essentially wrong with being a conservative in this country.
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Offline Atomic Cow

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Re: Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« Reply #15 on: January 30, 2014, 12:06:02 am »
If you like your 401K and/or IRA you can keep it.

Until Dear Leader decides to confiscate them all and convert them to an ObamaRA.
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Re: Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« Reply #16 on: January 30, 2014, 12:06:25 am »
If you like your 401K and/or IRA you can keep it.

Until Dear Leader decides to confiscate them all and convert them to an ObamaRA.
And that, my friends, is the bottom line.
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Offline Rapunzel

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Re: Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« Reply #17 on: January 30, 2014, 12:48:26 am »
MyRa is nothing more than a government confiscation program to take money from the haves to give to the have-nots.    They will con the GOP into passing this claiming it is voluntary and then turn it into another FICA, Medicare, etc., mandatory tax... IMHO this is a backdoor way to put more money in the general fund under the guise of you can collect it when you retire - just like SS.
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776

Offline flowers

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Re: Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« Reply #18 on: January 30, 2014, 12:54:58 am »
bkmk


Offline Fishrrman

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Re: Obama Unveils Retirement Plan for Workers Lacking 401(k)
« Reply #19 on: January 30, 2014, 02:30:10 am »
[[ Barack Obama offered more Americans the chance to save for retirement through payroll deductions with a plan for new government-sponsored savings accounts. ]]

Are they going to do to 401k's and IRA's, what they just did to health insurance?
Sure looks like it.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet our new program: Obama-K !!

Just as those "old" health insurance policies were deemed unworthy of being continued, forcing people to buy ObamaCare insurance, how long until most privately-operated 401k's and IRA's are judged by the government to be "insufficient performers", and mandate that they must be "converted" into Obama-K's ??

And how long before EVERYone is forced into Obama-K ??

Just like what Atomic Cow said above:
"If you like your 401k and/or IRA, you can keep it. Period!"

Until they change the rules.