http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/howie_carr/2015/01/carr_no_child_s_college_fund_left_behindSunday, January 25, 2015
By:
Howie Carr
If you work for a living, Barack Obama is looking to rob you — again.
This time he and his Democrat kleptocrats are after your 529s. Those are the states’ college-savings plans, where you can invest money you’ve earned (and paid taxes on) into mutual funds for your children’s college educations.
Then, when you need the money to pay those bloated tuitions, you can withdraw the 529 funds, tax-free.
You begin to see the problem, at least from the point of view of Barack Obama. No. 1, you actually worked for the money — that makes you a bitter clinger right there. As Granny Warren says, you didn’t build that business.
No. 2, why shouldn’t you have to pay taxes on your earnings — twice?
Obama’s latest soak-the-middle-class scheme surfaced last week. It’s part of what he calls “helping working families.”
As long as there’s a Republican Congress, Barack and his card-carrying fellow travelers have no shot at pulling off this mega-heist. But it’s the thought that counts, and this is their latest thought on how to screw people who get up and go to work every morning, at least when the hippies haven’t blocked I-93.
In 15 years, 12 million of these 529s have been set up. I have three of them, for each of my college-age daughters. Fidelity runs them in Massachusetts. They’re a good deal, at least until Obama wrecks them.
Personally, I stopped throwing money into my kids’ 529s about oh, six years ago. I had a hunch, and I didn’t want to bet a bunch. Same reason everyone scoffed at the Roth IRAs — the Democrats said they were going to let you pay taxes now so you wouldn’t have to pay taxes later. Riiiiight!
Most people never know they’re rich until Obama raises their taxes. Because he only raises taxes on “the rich” — just ask him. This week “the rich” are defined as anybody who’s set up college savings plans.
How do we know people with 529s are rich? Because the average balance of a 529 is $21,000. In some plans, you can make contributions of as little as $25 per month.
Obviously, if you can afford to budget $25 a month for your own child, you’ve got way too much disposable income, when there are still illegal aliens out there trying to make ends meet on a mere three or four EBT cards.
Last week Obama invited an illegal alien to the State of the Union address to take a bow. But he apparently had zero interest in saluting anyone with a 529, and we all know why. Because they all have jobs. They work.
