DANGER!, DANGER!!, DANGER!!!...SCAM ALERT
Well, just when you think you’ve seen it all, Barry, and company, comes up with something new and, of course, more than just a little radical. So, it is that our present administration has now set out on yet one more quest in its continuing effort to redistribute wealth and to that end has now formulated a rather devious little plan that it sees as being able to provide to them a potential, and rather sizable, windfall. Never ones to be short of ideas that are potentially lethal to our present way of life, these people are constantly on the lookout for any new and improved way that will enable them to move forward in their attempt to remove every last vestige of individualism in this country. The most recent example of this desire is demonstrated by the fact that the Barry “O” administration now says that it wants to “study” and “receive public comment” on the idea of requiring, or to use their words, “encouraging and persuading,” people to voluntarily convert their 401(k) and IRA retirement assets into life-long annuities. Now just why do you think that might be? Why, “To help reduce the chances that workers will run out of funds during their retirement years,” of course, at least according to the Department of Labor. What? Can you possibly run that past me one more time? So if I have this right, what’s really being discussed here is the possibility of an outright seizure of our private retirement accounts in much the same manner that control over our healthcare was seized from us, roughly one year ago. Who in their right mind would ever consider going along with something like this, voluntarily? But you see, as far as Barry is concerned, there's the rub. So at some point I think it very safe to say that some level of coercion will be headed our way all in an attempt to make us a bit more compliant to Barry's way of thinking.
And that process may have already begun. Because you see, in an effort to move forward in this little endeavor, supposedly, the Department of Labor has now teamed up with Timmy “The Tax Cheat’s” Treasury Department to initiate what they are calling, not get this, a “pre-rulemaking act to collect information and data on whether, or to what extent, the [federal government] agencies might take some action to address identified problems facing today’s retirees.” Now does this sound to you, like anything other than what it so blatantly is? For many of those who make up Barry's core constituents, this is no big deal because they don't bother saving for retirement anyway. They are much busier blowing most of their money, most of which is taxpayer provided, on the more important things in life, on those important things like drugs, booze and hookers. For those who do actually do try to put some money away for the day when they finally get to retire, they should be very well aware of the fact that anything the governments gets their greedy little mitts on, very rapidly becomes insolvent at best, and at worst simply worthless. And to find proof of that one need look no further than Social Security or better yet, the Post Office. Social Security will be broke in a manner of months if it isn’t broke already and the U.S. Post Office has been operating in the hole for years. Or how about AMTRAK? Far from having the Midas touch, pretty much everything the government comes into contact with very quickly turns to sh*t, and stays that way.
With the administration's use of typical bureaucrat-ese in attempting to describe the purpose and reasoning behind their proposal, you don’t have to be paranoid or a conspiracy nut to smell a rat here. This is very clearly, far from being just an academic exercise; it is, by the bureaucrats’ own admission, a “pre-rulemaking act,” which implies that there will be follow-on rulemaking act just over the horizon. So you better grab onto your wallet and maintain a very tight grip on. It isn’t like they haven't already established a track record regarding their distaste for the rights of the individual or for seizing upon what would normally be those things long considered as being strictly personal decisions. Just like the debacle that was and remains “Obamacare.” And just as with "Obamacare" we have that supposed vanguard for the elderly, AARP, once again throwing its members squarely under the proverbial bus for the sake of on the receiving end of some generous Democrat kickbacks. Because this purely fraudulent organization seems also to now be very much in favor of this the latest Democrat idea designed to allow the government a way to further insinuate itself into the life of every American citizen by acquiring a controlling interest, so to speak, in the financial aspirations of of our retired folks. Which begs the question, “Why is it, exactly, that AARP is not up in arms to protect your retirement?” The answer to that questions is a very simple one, it's because these people continue to support “Big Government Liberalism” because it, in turn, supports AARP! And why do so many of our elderly continue to buy into the notion that this organization, which consistently demonstrates very little enthusiasm when it comes to actually defending the needs of its members, have the best interests at heart regarding those whom they profess to care so much about. You don’t have to be a "Beltway Insider" to recognize that this scheme is only the precursor to that actual setting up of a so-called public-private partnership between Washington and Wall Street to confiscate private retirement assets in the name of protecting retirees. In other words, the government will have to seize assets to preserve them, or something like that.
Also, you don’t necessarily have to be a Nobel Prize winner in economics like say, that loony leftie, Paul Krugman, to figure out that the purpose behind this scheme, and it is a scheme make no mistake, is to gain federal control over an estimated $3.613 trillion in IRA and $2.350 trillion in 401(k) retirement accounts. Just as you do not need to be an economist to recognize that the policies thus far put into place by this band of bureaucratic malcontents have been designed to do every thing but to actually strengthen our wavering economy. All that you must do is to just start paying attention. We must all choose to be selective regarding who it is from which we get our information. Does anyone honestly think that the policies that have thus far been put into place by Barry and his cadre of leftist Democrats were really intended to have a positive effect on our economy? If so, then my friends you are truly naïve. Either that or you're one of those devout Democrat constituents who have managed to guarantee receipt of your monthly taxpayer funded check in exchange for your continuing reliable vote. Obviously for the rest of us, it should go without saying that we need to effectively ignore those who have come to serve as nothing more than being the mouthpieces for the Democrat Party, which these days is essentially anyone in the state controlled media. You shouldn’t have to rely on the word of some media financial wizard before being able to notice for yourself that the U.S. Government is broke and is now well down the road to complete insolvency. You just have to be a concerned and well-informed citizen and you will very quickly realize that this six-trillion-dollar scheme would be an ideal way to pawn off increasingly hard to sell federal bonds on workers, you just have to listen to the Chinese threaten to cease purchasing federal Treasuries.
And with today's political environment being what it is, with special thanks for it being so, going out to Barry and the Democrats, you certainly don’t have to consider yourself as being overly suspicious of politicians in order to understand that this is nothing more than a very typical ploy. A ploy that could very well end up being the perfect way for the government to expropriate private retirement savings in an attempt to bail the federal government out of what most people see as a looming bankruptcy. All that is genuinely required here is that you just have to possess the necessary common sense and the ability to learn from some very recent past experience. But, if you're one of those people who need something a bit more tangible to go on than just your instincts and gut feelings regarding the devious little “pre-rulemaking” process the Barry "O" Administration has initiated here, consider these basic rules by which government constantly operates and then apply them to the facts as we now know them to be:
"The Rules:
Rule Number One: Always remember, what government would make mandatory it first makes voluntary. And that is the ploy that most definitely being utilized here.
Rule Number Two: “Pre-Rulemaking” is the public-sector equivalent to “Pre-Crime,” a.k.a. casing the joint: When government studies the need for a voluntary government program in order to find ways that “government and the private sector can work together to ensure that people have the tools they need” to make the right voluntary choices already available to them in the private sector, government is unambiguously preparing to make the voluntary mandatory.
Rule Number Three: The Welfare State is a massive, wealth-sucking, redistributive black hole: When the government transforms something voluntary into something mandatory, it invariably uses its tax and regulatory powers to convert the new mandatory government program into an engine of massive income and wealth redistribution.
Rule Number Four: There is no such thing as “voluntary socialism:” After government invites people to opt into a “voluntary government program,” it quickly proceeds to stigmatize and criminalize those who refuse to do so and then taxes and regulates the holdouts to “pay for” the “privilege” of “free riding” on all the other “good citizens” inside the government-run program.
Now, apply the facts:
The Facts:
Fact Number One: Individuals already may convert their 401(k) and IRA retirement plans into annuities, no problem. There is no need for the government to do anything to allow people to convert their 401(k) and IRA assets into a secure stream of lifetime income because there already exists a plethora of private insurance companies and other financial institutions willing to convert retirement accounts into annuities. Government need not apply.
Fact Number Two: As revealed in public documents, studies and testimony, the Treasury Department and the Department of Labor are in the preliminary stages of creating a “voluntary” government program to “encourage” people to annuitize their retirement savings. The stated purpose of the “pre-rulemaking initiative” is to “engage interested persons in exploring ways that the [federal] Agencies and the private sector can work together to ensure that workers have the tools they need to help ensure their retirement savings last a lifetime.” In other words, the federal government is preparing to gin up another so-called public-private initiative (a.k.a. public-private cartel) to “encourage and persuade” 401(k) and IRA participants to convert their 401(k) and IRA assets into a “stream of lifetime income,” i.e., into annuities.
Fact Number Three: They are also seeking comments on whether “13. Some form of lifetime income distribution option be required for defined contribution plans.” In other words, they are seriously considering forcing you to use your retirement savings to buy government approved annuities.
Fact Number Four: The federal government already is the biggest threat to retirees’ “running out of funds during their retirement years.” Rather than allowing retirees to deplete their retirement savings at the rate that best suits them, the government requires “mandatory withdrawal” of a certain percentage of workers’ retirement nest eggs after the age of 70 years and six months. By the age of 75, the federal government requires withdrawal of almost one-quarter of a worker’s nest egg and almost half by age 80. If the Obama Administration were truly concerned that retirees might “run out of funds during their retirement years,” it would repeal the mandatory withdrawal rules instead of cooking up new ways to get the government’s hands on people’s retirement funds.
Fact Number Five: The departmental documents discussing this public-private annuitization scheme hint that the program would utilize private insurance companies to manage the annuities. To understand how this would work, look at how ObamaCare plans to utilize private insurance companies as its cat’s paw to manage and ration health care.
Fact Number Six: The academic papers and expert testimony being promoted by the Feds to justify wide-scale annuitization of private retirement plans reveal: The public-private annuitization cartel scheme would entail massive investment in federal bonds; and the ultimate objective is to eliminate tax breaks for 401(k) accounts and IRAs and effectively confiscate workers’ retirement-plan accounts and convert them into universal Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs) managed by the Social Security Administration."
I think most of us, or at least those of us who actually pay taxes and expend the necessary to actually save for our retirement should, are able to recognize what’s underway here. It is essentially the manufacturing of a scenario, an insidious plot of sorts, where all of the money that we have worked very hard for, and in some case scrimped to save over the course of our lives in an attempt to prepare for our "golden years," is then essentially stolen from us so that Barry and the Democrats can turn around and use it to subsidize their rabid spending spree. There can be no justification for this, other than of course, the incredible spending spree that has directly resulted in our present $14+ Trillion dollar deficit. And now you know the rules and have seen the facts regarding how they, corrupt bureaucrats and politicians, play the game. Therefore the conclusion is much less ambiguous: In the name of helping and protecting retirees, the Barry “O” Administration has arbitrarily decided once again that it knows what's best for us and has therefore embarked on a process, which if not stopped before it really gets started, is destined to end with the effective nationalization of private retirement accounts. A six-trillion-dollar honey pot of private retirement savings is just too much temptation for Barry and the Democrats to resist. To Barry and the Democrats this is seen as free money. Money for the taking because they will be able to put it to much better use, than the people who worked for it and went without in order to save it. These Democrats are nothing short of disgusting.
We have all been witness to how the juggernaut that is the liberal perpetuated Welfare-State Establishment, when in pursuit of private wealth to satisfy its growing fiscal addiction, is like an addict in pursuit of his or her next fix. Once it gets even the slightest whiff of a stash in its nose, our government shows no willingness to be dissuaded from doing all that is necessary and using any and all mean means available in its attempt to acquire control of it. It will go to any ends, engage in any deceit, including self delusion and outright theft, to get its hands on that perceived stash. Then, once acquired, it begins yet another search. And as always when dealing with liberal Democrats, that is defined as being any means viewed as being necessary and that are always considered to be acceptable. And just as reliable is the fact that the left will always call any manner of distrust held by the people regarding what they are doing, or trying to do, as nothing more than pure paranoia and rage directed against the political machine. Any one who has the nerve to stand against these corrupt Democrats as almost immediately labeled as being anti-government, right wing nuts. Democrats maintain the claim that any fear is totally unwarranted when it’s the government that’s after your individual rights and private property. However, the fear should be seen as being very real whenever you have the government, especially when it's under Democrat control, on the hunt for money. Any potential source of additional funds is always viewed as being available to the government. Because Democrats are always of the opinion that all money belongs to the government.
As if you needed any more reasons to be very distrustful of Democrats or of any further incentive to work to vote them out of office any time the opportunity may present itself, this whole concept only deepens existing distrust and drives home the point that these corrupt miscreants need to go. The unions, and their Democrat allies in Congress are still pushing very hard to do away with 401k accounts, to be replaced by Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs). Senator Bernie Sanders (Socialist-Vermont) and Tom Harkin (Socialist-Iowa) have held any number of hearings in the past to explore just that possibility. Both Senators are members of the HELP Committee (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, or as some like to refer to it, the union HELP themselves to our retirement savings.) House Minority Leader, at the time, John Boehner and 12 other Republicans signed a letter urging opposition to GRAs to Treasury Secretary Timmy "The Tax cheat" Geithner and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. According to the letter, establishment of GRAs would end the tax breaks given to 401k accounts. If you think GRAs are a good idea, think again. Oh, unless of course you happen to be a member of a union with an underfunded pension plan. And so you may ask, just why are unions pushing this? Well, it's a commonly known fact that the average union pension plan is only about 60 percent funded, far below the point at which the government considers a pension plan “endangered.” Estimates suggest unions’ multi-employer pension plans are underfunded by $165 "Billion" and could be on the verge of collapse. Therefore, Union leaders see these “retirement security” ideas like GRAs as vehicles to a back-door pension bailout, where union leaders will no longer have to worry about the fact they’ve underfunded their rank and file members’ pension plans. Just let the taxpayers take care of it. Labor is the biggest source of campaign cash for Democrats (Retirement USA backers AFL-CIO and SEIU are spent in the neighborhood of $88 million on this last election), and Harkin also wants to pass “card check," the proposal to do away with secret ballots in workplace representation elections, during the next session of Congress.
The whole premise for this very intriguing concept sprouting from the creative minds of our very enlightened leaders, proposes the forcing of everyone into a new and improved government retirement system that would essentially pay out equally to all Americans, those who have scrimped and saved as well as to those in organized labor who have grossly mismanaged their pension plans. This whole idea is nothing if not patently unfair and seems too crazy to even contemplate. If memory serves, wasn't it Barry who has said on any number of occasions that he is all about creating a system that is fair and equitable for all. If that is in fact the case, I'm wondering how he can justify this his latest little bureaucratic boondoggle? If this shady little shenanigan of his comes off as planned, what we're going to have happen here is that a lot of people are going to get screwed. We'll end up where we have honest hard working people getting seriously short changed for no other reason than the allowing of Barry to then turn right around and come running to the assistance of his Union "masters." While this is nothing less than just one more example of his blatant hypocrisy, it is also standard operating procedure for a very sleazy political hack who has ever come down the pike in the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party, over time, has become what can only be described as being a wholly owned subsidiary of the Unions. Unions are now desperate and with Barry and the Democrats being in hock to Big Labor right up to their scrawny little necks, their union bosses are now calling in the many favors they are owed. Why do you think unions spent so much on those November mid term elections? They’d get a bailout that won’t be called a bailout. The Democrats will tell you they will be saving your retirement, when in fact they’ll be bailing out their union allies.
Just how stupid is it that these people think we are. Are they that confident that we will simply continue swallow their never-ending attempts to encroach farther into our lives while insisting it is they who are entitled to more and more of what we work so hard for. It is because of the specific policies set forth by this White House and a Congress that was, until recently, under the complete control of a pathologically corrupt Democrat Party for the last 4 years, that has resulted in exorbitant prices for both food and fuel. And now they want to rob from us our retirement savings from us just when Social Security is now on the verge of being totally broke. This madness must be made to stop one way or another. Socialism does not work, it never has and it never will. Get over it!
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