Right Minded Online

That’s a line George H. W. Bush used on Bill Clinton during their campaign in 1992. I sort of liked that line. And it proved to be true. Sixteen years later, Willy’s not after your wallet, but Congressional Democrats sure are. In an attempt to use the recent stock market drop as a power grab, Congressman George Miller (D-CA), wants to end $80 billion in tax savings for higher-income people enrolled in a 401(k).

“We’ve invested $80 billion into subsidizing this activity,” he said, referring to tax breaks allowed for 401(k) contributions and savings.

With savings rates going down, “what do we have to start to think about in Congress of whether or not we want to continue and invest that $80 billion for a policy that is not generating what we … say it should?” Mr. Miller said.

Congress should let workers trade their 401(k) assets for guaranteed retirement accounts made up of government bonds, suggested Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor at The New School for Social Research in New York.

When workers collected Social Security, the guaranteed retirement account would pay an inflation-adjusted annuity under her plan.

“The way the government now encourages 401(k) plans is to spend $80 billion in tax breaks,” which goes to the highest-income earners, Ms. Ghilarducci said.

Whoa. In those five paragraphs, you have pretty much everything you need to know about liberalism.

1. Those of you who invest a portion of your income in a 401(k) know that money is considered non-taxable. It encourages personal savings and personal initiative. Democrats consider this a “subsidy.” They don’t particularly care for personal savings and personal initiative, because those things lead individuals to personal freedom, thereby avoiding government dependence. Liberalism is designed to lure (or force) people into government dependence. That $80 billion tax break is considered a “subsidy” by Democrats, because they view our paychecks as property of the State, and whatever shows up as our net pay is what lawmakers have graciously allowed us to keep.

2. Notice how Democrats would use the stock market drop to lure people away from personally-owned 401(k) accounts and into government bonds. Notice how government bonds are linked to Social Security, the mother of liberal government entitlement programs. Of course, anybody who can do math knows Social Security is headed for a train wreck as a shrinking percentage of workers is going to be expected to subsidize the retirement of an increasing number of older Americans. Rather than use the impending doom of Social Security as evidence that the government does NOT belong in the retirement business, Democrats want to lure even more Americans into giving up their private retirement assets and accepting govenment bonds as an alternative.

3. Liberals honestly believe the average American is too ignorant to be trusted with handling his own retirement, so they have to do it for us. In reality, there are a great number of Americans who are smarter than the people they elect to Congress.

4. Notice how Democrats want to give Americans the choice of giving up their personal retirement savings and accepting government bonds. But they never offer the choice of giving up our “government accounts” (i.e., Social Security) and moving that money into the private sector.

5. If you need more evidence that Democrats have absolutely no business meddling in the financial market, look no further than Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the mortgage crisis, which is entirely the result of Democrat policies.

As I’ve written many times, the fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives is the concept of personal freedom. Conservatives believe in empowering individuals. Liberals believe in empowering government at the expense of individuals. That’s why the Democrat-led Congress has its eye on our private 401(k) accounts. This has nothing to do with protecting Americans. It has everything to do with giving even more power to government, and more control to the Democrats.