I wrote about this awful possibility 8 months ago...
http://jingoist-foundingprinciples.blogspot.com/2010/02/will-big-brother-steal-our-retirement.html
...and now it seems that the American Thinker has picked up the scent of tyranny in the air.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/09/retirement_fund_trillions_lure.html
Retirement Fund Trillions Lure Government Grabbers
By Peter Raymond
Is the government making plans to confiscate your retirement money? The Obama administration is certainly exploring the idea.
This question no longer seems far-fetched when the group-thinkers in Washington unabashedly promote a doctrine of wealth redistribution and central planning. These Keynesian socialists know they will need vast new sources of revenues to fund their relentless spending binges to "transform" this nation. A logical next step would be to legitimize the confiscation of private retirement assets -- an idea that was contemplated in the recent past by the Clinton administration.
According to the Investment Company Institute, there was $7.835 trillion in IRA, 401K, 457, and 403b accounts in 2009. That is certainly too large a sum to be ignored by the big spending social engineers in Washington. Bureaucrats and politicians have been hard at work formulating a social justice excuse to legislate an historic seizure of private assets. This would not be the first time the statists extorted wealth from U.S. citizens on a massive scale.
The public shakedown always employs a two-step tactic to repeatedly dupe the malleable electorate. First, the statists fabricate and incessantly excoriate a contrived crisis of social injustice that is victimizing helpless and unknowing Americans. Next, they "craft" -- a term Pelosi uses again and again -- insidious legislation disguised as a necessary and compassionate solution that makes participation and universal funding compulsory by force of the law.
It is a simple and effective strategy that continues to trip up even the staunchest conservatives, who ultimately succumb to the throng of propagandized constituents demanding protection from the newly revealed threat.
Patrick Heller warns:
Expect to see terms such as "retirement income protection" thrown around. It is highly likely that such a program would be implemented in steps to help overcome public opposition. The US government plan is to eventually take ownership of all assets in IRAs and 401K accounts and replace them with US government "Treasury Retirement Bonds." In the October 2008 hearings, it was proposed that these bonds pay a 3% interest rate. Another major change is that, upon retirement, the individual's retirement account would be converted into an annuity. Once the individual is deceased, the individual's heirs would not inherit anything.
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funny you should post this...just the other day a friend said "You KNOW they'll tax our retirement money, too" I said "naaa"
ReplyDeleteruh roh! That Treasury Bond think CANNOT HAPPEN! WHat the heck happened to AMERICA?
Z, we're in HEAP BIG TROUBLE if we don't do something dramatic at the polls in Novemeber.
ReplyDeleteThis is naked THEFT that will be going by another name of course.
That last paragraph makes my blood run cold.
ReplyDeleteMr. AOW and I have planned for our retirement via IRA accounts. And for what?
AOW, we're somewhat in the same boat with a 401K. The only advice I can offer is to watch the government every bit as carefully as you watch the performance of your IRA.
ReplyDeleteFor now it would probably be prudent to find out where you can park your money overseas if the animals in DC decide to follow through on their dasterdly plans. We've started doing the homework towards that end. The NIGHTMARE scenario is to allow them to nationalize (steal) your retirement.