Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, 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.”

As Bloomberg reported earlier this year, pension funds are already being taken by stealth and invested in failed banks.

(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)



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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.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/government-prepares-to-seize-private-pensions.html

Crazy stuff!
I allready invest a good chunk of my pay because I don't plan on getting social security. Now they want to take that away from me.

Time to just start putting money in coffee cans and burying them in the back yard.

But, but, the right winged extremists want big, progressive government taking care of them, their healthcare and their money.

I want change.

Change to a third and fourth party.

A few years ago, president Bush had warned the people about trusting your money to a 401K or any other type of savings.

He said the govt. would possibly get so desparate, that they may attempt something like this. He may be right.

And my bet is that if it does happen (Nazi Pelosi has already made mention of this very same thing, but said it was a "good thing" to help the govt. )Oblowme will NOT do anything to stop it.

Is it possible to defect from the US she ponders......

That's exactly what American Production Corps have been doing for a while now.

There is no way this legislation would pass. If it did I think I might consider leaving America for good. How could you trust a government that did something like that? If this would pass I would take the tax penalty and remove all my money from the 401k. Whatever percent I got would be better than no percent. I am surprised that there are so few posts on this topic.

This is a bunch of hogwash.....posted back in 2008.

http://www.factcheck.org/tag/401k/

People are trying to keep fear alive.

Oh great, yet another E-lie. I guess it's beyond a posterchild's ability to vet a story before posting nonsenses....spin...lies.

"Are congressional Democrats talking about confiscating IRA and 401(k) investment accounts?

My mother has recently brought up a rumor that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid endorse a plan for the goverment to take people's 401Ks to make up tax dollars. Is this true and where did my mother get the information? (she can't tell me).

A: No. There's no plan to seize these accounts. One House witness at a committee hearing proposed to allow some people to trade their old accounts for a new type that would be less risky.

"We've had many queries about this doozy. They all lead back to a Nov. 4 report posted by the Carolina Journal, a publication of the conservative John Locke Foundation of Raleigh, N.C. Its headline proclaimed, "Dems Target Private Retirement Accounts: Democratic leaders in the U.S. House discuss confiscating 401(k)s, IRAs." The report is wrong. There's been no such discussion.

What has been discussed is changing 401(k) and Individual Retirement Accounts in the future by limiting the deductibility of donations, and offering as an alternative a $600 tax credit and a new type of account with an annual return guaranteed by the government. That's a controversial idea to be sure, but it's a far cry from proposing that the government seize retirement assets that investors have already salted away in 401(k)s or IRAs. Nobody we know of is proposing anything like that.

The Carolina Journal report claims that Democrats on the House Education and Labor Committee held hearings Oct. 7 on "proposals to confiscate workers’ personal retirement accounts." The report describes in particular the testimony of Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor at the New School for Social Research in New York City. We've reviewed Ghilarducci's written testimony and a video recording of the entire hearing, both of which are posted on the committee's official Web site and are available to anybody who cares to read or listen. Contrary to the Carolina Journal report, nobody at the hearing talked about confiscating or seizing accounts. We also contacted Ghilarducci independently and asked if she's expressed support for confiscation. She told us in an e-mail message that she hasn't:

Teresa Ghilarducci, Nov. 18: It is utterly ridiculous [to suppose] that I advocate seizing 401k assets."

More....

http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/are_congressional_democrats_talking_about_confiscating_ira.html

That's not how I remember it....back when G W Bush was president, he wanted to "Privatize" Social Security and force everyone into 401(k) plans.

It's a good thing that never happened. People lost $$$trillions!!