Son of Social Security

Just when you thought it was safe to relax for a few weeks, Congress betrays us by not taking the whole month off to stump for reelection.  Some of the usual culprits, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee and his pals, snuck back into town last Thursday (10/7/10) and held hearings on the infamous matter of confiscating every IRA left intact by those who have not chosen to pay taxes and penalties and whisk what is left of our money to safety.

Just this once–we told you so!  Articles on the GRA (Guaranteed Retirement Account) have long been met with a great deal of scepticism, “Oh, they would never do that!  Take my IRA and confiscate your 401(k) and force us into a government run program?  You’ve got to be wrong.”

One good Ponzi scheme deserves another, so here are the basics:

1.  Your real, true, honest-to-goodness private savings plan for your old age will be converted to a “Government Retirement Account” backed by the full faith and credit of their United States of America.

2.  Upon your death, anything left in the fund cannot be left to your heirs but reverts to the government.  A reasonable supposition is that rather than requiring percentages to be withdrawn at specific ages, as private plans do now, the GRA will specify how much you will be allowed to remove.

3.  An additional 5% mandatory payroll tax will force all workers to start a “retirement” plan whether they have one or not at present.  “But…but…but…they’ve already hit us with the 3.8% for Obamacare, have not renewed the Bush Tax Cuts (meaning income tax is going to shoot up and Cap Gains increase by 50%) and said the putative value of our health care plans will be treated as taxable income,” the naive may protest.

Yes?  And your question was?  Oh, you wanted to know if there is any limit on how many new ways you can be taxed.  None.  They’re still mulling over the VAT at 27%, which will slaughter those currently paying 25% or less to the IRS, and I’m sure a very large increase in welfare will be supplied to compensate for this.  You get to pay for that, too, if only through the declining dollar and inflation.  Don’t forget Cap and Trade is still on the agenda to run up your electric bill a government-estimated $3,000/year.  Hey, it’s only money, people, and it’s for the planet.  They say that with a straight face.  I can’t.

4.  This will be in addition to the nearly 15% of your income already sequestered through FDR’s tax.  (We hold that your employer would pay you the “matching ‘contribution’” if he weren’t obliged to give it to the feds.)

5.  Your “investments” will be held in–well, what do you think?  U. S. Treasury Bonds, of course..  Don’t worry, your balance will go up fast at a quarter of a per cent. in interest.

6.  Depending upon when/how estimated the sums involved in IRA alone are between 7.5 Tr and 14.5 Tr.  No, they aren’t going to pay off/down the national debt with it, they’re going to throw the money in the general fund and spend it.  The point is to take it away from you, not to do anything useful.

7. Karl Denninger suggests that this outrage is “likely to be snuck into the next mega-bailout bank bill (when they start collapsing due to the foreclosure mess), and like before, there will be nothing the American people can do to stop it.”

8.  There is ample time to shove this monstrosity through between now and the end of January, and the chances of overturning it and ObamaCare  are iffy even with the best possible election results;  what’s it take to overturn a presidential veto, two-thirds?   Majorities may be do-able if we all go vote anti-incumbent, but not two-thirds.

9.  Theresa Guilarducci, author of this bare-faced grab for your money, obviously believes that you aren’t competent to plan your own future, you know, and it isn’t “fair” that some of you will have better pensions than others.  Not including current and former members of Congress, union and government employees, and the Bonus Boys, of course.  Oh…did I ever point out that one reason Banksters get multi-million dollar bonuses in cash or stock is to avoid the ruling that they can’t be paid over a million dollars a year?  THAT one really socks the rich, huh?  Not at all; the bonuses aren’t salary.  Duh.  Here’s a nice quote:  the purpose of the legislation is “to seize private 401(k) plans to more “fairly” distribute taxpayer-funded pensions to everyone.”  That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy…because we don’t have any money available to be confiscated.  We already took our beatings years ago, and a very good thing.  I would have been forced to make withdrawals this year and there wouldn’t have been nearly as much left.

An excellent idea would be to find out what it will cost in taxes and penalties to ransom what you’ve got socked away.  A skinny bird in the hand will always be better than government smiles and lies.

Oh, my stars and garters!  I read somewhere today that Medicare estimates it spends $11,000 per annum on people in my age bracket.  Let’s see, now, if they show that as the “worth” of the plan, and I get a massive $2112/mo from SS, that’s all of $25,344/year, add the “value” of Medicare, and my income is now $36,344.  Most of it taxable.  There goes the Fancy Feast, Grandma will be down to Little Friskies.  The very sad part is that IS pretty much top of the heap, but we can remain tranquil because because the Baby Boomer crowd and we old folks have been warned that at some point “means testing” will be required.  First, no COLA for three years minimum, then declare Medicare is “income,” any questions who gets thrown off the sleigh given the choice of lawyers, unions, government employees, multinationals, and politicians.  It was always in the cards that way because most of us vote more conservatively and we don’t contribute to PACs.

Rich regards,

Linda Brady Traynham

for The Mesh Report