The main, if not explicitly stated, purpose of these Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRA's) is to fund the collapsing union pension funds with this un-Constitutional confiscation and redistribution of monies from private citizens' retirement accounts such as 401(k)'s and IRA's.
This plan was originally proposed by Professor Theresa Ghilarducci, an economist at the New School for Social Research in New York several years ago. The Obama administration seems willing to move forward with this plan, and indeed Vice President Joe Biden floated the idea to the public for GRA's back in February's “Middle Class” report.
Ghilarducci's proposal calls for eliminating the 401(k) plan system and replacing it with a government-run pension plan funded by employee contributions. Her plan claims that participants would be guaranteed an inflation-beating return and a lifetime stream of income, accordingly.
"What people want from their pensions is guaranteed income for life," Ghilarducci said when her plan was first brought to light in 2008. I would submit to Ms. Ghilarducci that what people really want is for the federal government to NOT confiscate money they earned and have it "managed" and redistributed by a federal government that has repeatedly and without exception proven that they are incapable of managing any program with efficiency, and indeed are more likely to create a reasonable chance of insolvency over time for any program under their management.
Ghilarducci's plan would eliminate the tax breaks received for contributing to a 401(k) or an IRA plan thus making the desirability of these plans practically vanish. The thought behind this idea is that these tax breaks are depriving the federal government of too much revenue. Far better to redistribute Americans' privately earned and saved retirement accounts and further reward a huge Democratic constituency by keeping their pension funds solvent on the backs of us "greedy" Americans.
If this plan is passed in a lame duck session of congress this fall, it will only serve to show the continued arrogance and disregard the Democrats have towards a vast majority of hard working and responsible American people. It will also serve to illustrate that the progressive Democrats still have not gotten the message that a majority of Americans have been saying to our government over the course of the last few years. Finally, it will also give the Republicans one more law to repeal in 2011.
