Officials in the Obama administration are moving quickly to destroy private retirement accounts in the United States, warned Robert Crone, the national director of the National Seniors Council (NSC). Officials in the Labor and Treasury Departments recently held a meeting to discuss the nationalization of America’s pension system.
The hearing, which took place at the Labor Department, featured a parade of left-wing groups that argued for more government regulation of the private pension system and the elimination of 401k plans and IRAs, warned Crone.
An AFL-CIO representative agitated for more regulations to oversee private retirement accounts. The big labor agent also suggested that private 401k accounts be replaced by annuities run and sponsored by the federal government.
The intent of the Labor Department meeting was to explore why Americans were not saving more for retirement. Crone said, however, that the real purpose of this meeting was to explore ways for the government to take over private pension accounts.
Rebecca Davis, a representative of the progressive Pension Rights Center, complained that IRA and 401k plans were unfair to poor people. She laid down a list of demands to the Obama administration, including the establishment of a government-run program administered by the federal Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation. Davis also stated that private annuities “are problematic.”
These reforms would completely destroy private retirement accounts in the United States, Crone warned. The federal government would require all Americans to purchase government-backed annuities rather than save and invest in private plans that suit their individual needs, Crones said. Then the government would take these investments in federal annuities and redistribute them through a government retirement system.
J. Mark Iwry, deputy treasury secretary who presided over the meeting, is a harsh critic of private pension plans, calling them schemes that favor the rich. The president has appointed Iwry as the lead man to take over private pension plans.
A bill is already waiting in the U.S. Congress that would require businesses to enroll employees in a scheme that would take part of their paycheck and pay it into a government IRA. This would effectively open the door for government to confiscate all retirement accounts, said Crone.
“This effort ultimately is designed to grab the retirement nest eggs of America’s senior citizens,” said Crones. “This new government annuity scheme, even if it is at first optional, will turn into a giant effort to redistribute the wealth of America’s older citizens.” Crones also warned that he expects the president to go after Social Security and turn it into a welfare scheme.
Crones said that NSC is planning a grassroots effort to stop this government grab of private equity accounts. This endeavor will be launched with the seating of the new Congress in 2013.