Freedom Outpost

Today's Feature: November 25, 2012 Dem Lawmaker Pushes Legislation To Allow Guns At Work

Treasury, Labor on path to nationalize retirement

NEW YORK – Two years ago, as WND reported, the Obama administration was proceeding with a novel way to finance trillion-dollar budget deficits by forcing IRA and 401(k) holders to buy Treasury bonds by mandating the placement of government-structured annuities in their retirement accounts.

Remarkably, those financial professionals specializing in private retirement savings and the U.S. citizens investing in private retirement plans now face the possibility the Obama administration and its allies on the political left will impose rules and regulations that effectively abolish the private retirement savings and investment markets.

Recent evidence suggests government officials continue to eye the multi-trillion dollar private retirement savings market, including IRAs and 401(k) plans, eyeing the opportunity to redistribute private retirement savings to less affluent Americans and to force the retirement savings out of the private market and into government-controlled programs investing in government-issued debt.

Government takeover?

An Investment Company Institute study published this month found that U.S. retirement assets totaled $18.5 trillion at the end of the second quarter 2012, of which 3.5 trillion was in IRAs and $5.1 trillion was in 401(k) plans.

Since 2010, the U.S. Treasury Department and the Department of Labor have been holding combined hearings on various plans designed to introduce government-mandated retirement plans and investment options, including government annuities invested primarily in U.S. Treasury debt, into the private retirement savings market.

“This hearing was set up to explore why Americans are not saving as much for their retirement as they could,” explained National Seniors Council National Director Robert Crone, describing a recent Treasury-Labor hearing held in the Labor Department’s main auditorium.

“However it is clear that his is just the first step toward a government takeover. It feels like the beginning of the debate over health care and we all know how that ended up.”

‘Automatic IRA’

With the issuance of the White House 256-page Budget Proposal for Fiscal Year 2013, the Obama administration endorsed “Automatic IRAs,” a plan introduced into Congress in 2010 by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass, and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., in which private companies would be automatically enrolled into government-mandated IRAs, forcing those businesses to contribute on behalf of their employees a “default amount” equal to 3 percent of an employees pay, unless an employee specifically opts out of the plan.

The FY 2013 Budget proposal notes that currently 78 million working Americans, roughly half of the work force, lack employer-based retirement plans.

According to testimony given by David C. John of the Heritage Foundation to the House Committee on Ways and Means on April 17, most of the 78 million working Americans not participating in employer-based retirement plans are part-time employees of smaller businesses, women, members of minority groups or all three.

The remedy proposed on page 147 of the FY 2012 Budget Proposal is “a system of automatic work-place pensions that will expand access to tens of millions of workers who currently lack plans” by providing their employees with a government-mandated “direct deposit IRA account,” exempting only businesses with 10 or fewer employees and providing participating businesses with tax credits to compensate for the businesses implementing and administering the plans.

While the Automatic IRA would serve the purpose of extending private retirement plans to disadvantaged and generally poorer workers, the innovation would place additional costs upon employers. It would require employer contributions to the plans, even if tax credits fully complemented the businesses for implementing and administering them.

Retirement USA

The Service Employee International Union, or SEIU, a key labor union ally of the Obama administration, has mounted an effort to create government-mandated worker retirement accounts as an entitlement program, with the possibility that a portion of all private retirement funds could be forced into U.S. Treasury debt.

Branding the program “Retirement USA,” the SEIU has joined with the AFL-CIO, the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based economic left-leaning think tank that receives substantial labor funding, and two other left-leaning interest groups, the Pension Rights Center and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security.

The Retirement USA idea is promote the concept that all workers in the U.S. have a right to a government retirement account that would fund a secure retirement with adequate dollars, in addition to Social Security and private ERISA-retirement workplace retirement programs such as 401(k) programs.

“Our goal is to involve all workers and all employees in a government-mandated retirement program, with the government putting up the difference for lower paid employees,” Nancy Hwa, a spokeswoman for the participating Pension Rights Center, told WND in 2010.

Put simply, the Retirement USA government-mandated workplace retirement account would require by law employers and employees to contribute to a retirement account for every employee and demand that a portion of that contribution go into a federal-government created annuity that would be funded by purchasing Treasury debt.

“Retirement USA is basically an effort that amounts to nationalizing 401(k)s and IRAs,” David John, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told WND when the Retirement USA idea was proposed two years ago.

Under the guise of making workplace retirement savings accounts available to all Americans and insuring that existing retirement savings accounts pay lifetime income, the SEIU-led Retirement USA effort is quietly exploring strategies that would create “Universal IRAs” or “Guaranteed Retirement Accounts” for all workers.

Following lead of Argentina

Writing in the London Telegraph in October 2008, business and economics editor Ambrose Evans-Pritchard warned that G7 nations, including the United States, may begin following the path of Argentina in forcing privately managed pension funds to be invested in government-issued debt.

In 2008, Argentine sovereign debt was trading at 29 cents on the dollar, reflecting the devalued state of the Argentine peso, with the result that private pensioners holding government debt in their retirement accounts could not be assured those bonds would have any meaningful value at maturity.

“Here is a warning to us all,” Evans-Pritchard wrote. “The Argentine state is taking control of the country’s privately managed pension funds in a dramatic move to raise cash.”

He warned the same could happen in the United States and Europe.

“The G7 states are already acquiring an unhealthy taste for the arbitrary seizure of private property, I notice,” Evans-Prichard warned. “It is a foretaste of what might happen across the world as governments discover that tax revenue and the bond markets are unwilling to plug the gap.”

Currently, as reported Friday by the Financial Times, Argentina is facing yet another bond default after U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Griesa ruled that an upcoming payment to holders of the debt-swap bonds Argentina issued in 2005 and 2010 must be accompanied by a payment in full of $1.3 billion. The payment is to be made to two U.S. hedge fund creditors that did not accept the 2005 and 2010 debt swaps proposed for the bonds Argentina defaulted on in 2001.

Do you think Obama is after your retirement savings?

Yes, everything about Obama is evil, and this is just another example (43%, 153 Votes)
Yes, first nationalizing companies, then health care, then savings. Obama wants as much control as possible (28%, 101 Votes)
Yes, if it looks like a communist and quacks like a communist ... (12%, 43 Votes)
Yes, Obama is after as much money as possible he can take from the private sector (8%, 29 Votes)
Yes (7%, 25 Votes)
No, of course not. Stop fearmongering (1%, 4 Votes)
Yes, though the idea will never become reality (1%, 2 Votes)
Yes, and I think it's a great idea (0%, 1 Votes)
Other (0%, 1 Votes)
No (0%, 1 Votes)
No, Obama will improve the economy without such a shocking measure (0%, 0 Votes)
No, I think the rumors are unsubstantiated (0%, 0 Votes)
No, he knows the senior-citizen voters would revolt (0%, 0 Votes)
No, Obama would never have the audacity to touch retirement money (0%, 0 Votes)
Yes, he may have to consider tapping the retirement savings if America's finances get much worse (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 360

Vote

Patriot Update

	Psalm 666: The State Is My Shepherd, I Shall Not Want A Psalm of Obama (To be sung by children, K-12, every morning of their seven-day school week.)* The State is my shepherd, I shall not want. It makes me lie down in federally owned pastures. It … READ MORE
	Is Obama ‘Confessing’ to Stealing Election? I don’t watch “CSI,” “Bones” or any of those shows about forensic investigation techniques, but I do have a certain fascination with some of the cutting edge scientific methods used by law ... READ MORE

The Last Resistance

The Last Resistance November 25, 2012

Today's Featured Story:

Obama Losing Support Among Major Group of Supporters

Conservative Videos

Tim Allen: Give Your Money Away Before It Gets Taken From You

Tim Allen: ‘You Better Give Your Money Away Before It Gets Taken From You’


Former Abortion Provider Speaks	The Dirty Little Secret About Wolves’ Role in Agenda 21

What you might have missed...
Black, Black Friday: An Interpretive Dance	Can you Pull The Trigger and Take a Life?
Black Friday Employee Prank	Halo 4 – Holiday Release Dates

Muslim Brotherhood Causing Civil War In Cairo

by NTEB News Desk

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood called for protests across the country on Sunday to support President Mohammed Mursi, while the country’s judges urged for a nationwide strike against a decree they saw as granting Mursi new, extensive powers.

The Brotherhood’s protest requests came as Egypt’s Judges Club, a body that represents judges throughout the country, called for “the suspension of work in all courts and prosecution administrations,” after several hours of emergency talks in response to what they called Mursi’s “ferocious attack on Egyptian justice.”

On the ground, clashes erupted outside the High Court between supporters and opponents of Mursi’s new constitutional declaration while the Judges Club held an hours-long emergency meeting inside.

“Some supporters of the declaration shot off fireworks at the gates of the court, and police fired teargas at protesters after they attempted to storm the building,” reported Egypt Independent.

Protesters favoring the declaration started chanting “the people demand the execution of Abdel Maguid,” according to the newspaper, in reference to former Prosecutor General Mahmoud Abdel Meguid, who was sacked after Mursi’s new declaration and was attending the meeting inside.

During Saturday’s meeting, defiant Egyptian judges demanded the president retract a decree granting himself sweeping powers that put him beyond judicial oversight.

As the judges met, civil groups led former U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei, and former presidential candidates Hamdeen Sabbahi, Amr Mussa and Abdelmoneim Abul Futuh, said there could be no dialogue with Mursi until he rescinded the decree.

“We refuse any dialogue with the president until he cancels the constitutional declaration,” according to a joint statement read out at a news conference.

Several judicial bodies have condemned Mursi’s decree, with the Supreme Judicial Council, denouncing it as “an unprecedented attack on the independence of the judiciary and its rulings.”

Earlier on Saturday, the Judges Club of Alexandria announced a strike in the provinces of Alexandria and Beheira and said they “will accept nothing less than the cancellation of (Mursi’s decree),” which violates the principle of separation of powers, club chief Mohammed Ezzat al-Agwa said.

In the same vain, Egypt’s Shura council (upper house of parliament), dominated mainly by Islamists, said it will hold a meeting Sunday morning to discuss the repercussions of the declaration, according to Al Arabiya.

The president already held both and executive and legislative powers, and his Thursday decree puts him beyond judicial oversight until a new constitution has been ratified in a referendum.

The decree also means that the Islamist-dominated panel drawing up a new constitution can no longer be touched and gives it a two-month extension until February to complete its work.

Rallies by Mursi supporters, foes

A hard core group of opposition activists spent the night in Tahrir Square -- the epicentre of the anti-Mubarak uprising -- where they erected some 30 tents, an AFP correspondent reported.

When others attempted to join them in the morning, police fired volleys of tear gas and forced them to retreat into surrounding streets, reported AFP.

The mainly secular liberals say they are determined to keep up the momentum of protests against Mursi’s decree and have called a new mass protest in Tahrir onTuesday.

The Muslim Brotherhood called on its own supporters to take to the streets on Tuesday in Abdeen Square, just streets away from Tahrir, to show their support for Mursi.

“Egypt is at the start of a new revolution because it was never our intention to replace one dictator with another,” activist Mohammed al-Gamal told AFP, showing his broken spectacles and hand in a plaster cast than he said were the result of police action.

Washington, which only Wednesday voiced fulsome praise for Mursi’s role in brokering a truce between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers to end eight days of deadly violence, led international criticism of the Islamist president’s move.

But a spokesman for the Freedom and Justice Party, headed by Mursi before his election, said the president’s decree was necessary to cut short the turbulent transition.

“We need stability,” said Murad Ali. “That’s not going to happen if we go back again to allowing the judges, who have personal reasons, to dissolve the constituent assembly in order to prolong the transitional phase.”

Godfather Politics

Atheists Protest, Cry, and Whine for Being Depicted With Horns
Unions Attempt Disruptions on Black Friday, Consumers Ignore Them
College Cuts Staff Hours to Avoid Obamacare Costs
Obama's Constituents To Be Hit Hardest By Tax Increases
Green Agenda May Make Obamacare Costs Look Thrifty
Families Will Pay Dearly If America Goes Over Fiscal Cliff
Obama's Egyptian Buddy Makes Himself New Pharaoh of Egypt

Breaking News from Western Journalism

A Real Threat To America

Nov 25, 2012 01:02 pm | Sal Traina

There is a large group of radicals in the Middle East who have hijacked a religious community and are threatening the future of their people. Suicide bombers don’t care about the effects of their actions on others. They believe that their… Continue to Post

Video: District Of Corruption’ Reveals ACORN Still Pushing Obama’s Agenda

Nov 25, 2012 01:01 pm | Daniel Noe

PETA Compares Hunting Literature To Pornography

Nov 25, 2012 12:56 pm | B. Christopher Agee

According to the deep thinkers at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, stores carrying hunting magazines should keep them behind the counter along with hardcore pornographic material. In a letter to the CEO of a retail chain, the animal… Continue to Post

Video: Tim Allen’s Anti-Government Rant

Nov 25, 2012 12:45 pm | Daniel Noe

The Two Real Parties: The Hamiltonians And The Jeffersonians

Nov 25, 2012 12:34 pm | Sean Otterbine

The two opposing political philosophies being debated in 2012 can be traced back to George Washington’s presidency. Alexander Hamilton, Washington’s Secretary of the Treasury and a Federalist, offered an economic plan that created a centralized bank (First Bank of the… Continue to Post

Post Finally Digs Into Growing Petraeus Scandal

Nov 25, 2012 12:18 pm | Cliff Kincaid

The Washington Post has been greatly embarrassed by the fact that its local editor, Vernon Loeb, was the ghost writer for the David Petraeus biography by Paula Broadwell and admits he was “clueless” about their sexual relationship. The paper is… Continue to Post

Video: Silent Conquest – The End Of Freedom Of Expression In The West

Nov 25, 2012 08:01 am | Daniel Noe