Government wants your 401(k)

By Jerome R. Corsi
WND.com

The Obama administration appears to be proceeding with a novel way of financing 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 investment accounts.

The requirement to invest private retirement assets has been cleverly buried within plans to create "automatic IRAs" that would mandate employer groups enroll all employees in 401(k) or IRA plans.

The U.S. Department of Labor released yesterday an agenda for an upcoming joint hearing with the Department of the Treasury scheduled for Sept. 14 and 15 on whether government life-time annuity options funded by U.S. Treasury debt should be required for private retirement accounts, including IRAs and 401(k) plans.

WND reported in January that Assistant Labor Secretary Phyllis C. Borzi and Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Mark Iwry are planning to stage a public comment period before implementing regulations that would require private investors to structure IRA and 401(k) accounts into what could amount to a U.S. Treasury debt-backed government annuity.

In a 2010 budget blueprint unveiled Feb. 26, President Obama proposed that employers sponsoring 401(k) plans or other defined contribution plans should be required to offer automatic enrollment in these plans, or in direct-deposit IRAs, as steps that would change the nation's voluntary retirement plan into a government-mandated nationalized program.

With the Treasury needing to sell another $1.4 to $1.5 trillion in government debt to finance the anticipated fiscal year 2010 federal budget deficit, the Obama administration is obviously scrambling to find ways to sell government debt without having to raise interest rates.

Under ERISA, the Department of Labor regulates approximately 700,000 private pension plans, with approximately $4.7 trillion in assets.

The Investment Company Institute estimates that IRA assets have grown from $25 billion in 1980 to a peak of $4.747 trillion by the end of 2007, declining to $3.613 trillion in 2008.

For 401(k) plans, the ICI estimates a peak of $3.025 trillion in total assets was reached in 2007, declining to $2.350 trillion in 2008.

The ICI estimates that total U.S. retirement assets decreased to $14 trillion in 2008, down 22 percent from the peak of $17.9 trillion in 2007.

Kerry introduces 'Automatic IRAs'

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