Levin interviews Ghilarducci (2008) on her plan to seize 401Ks and private pension plans in exchange for government-back retirement plans.

Mark Levin Replays Interview with Teresa Ghilarducci

Govt Claims 401(k)s Through “Office of Older Americans?” – Senate Hearings Already Held: National Retirement Accounts

◼ I’ve written about this twice, first in January 2011, and again on February 4th, 2013. When Bloomberg News reports the government is “weighing” a role in “helping Americans manage” their 401(k)s and when that government arm, The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, says it is “exploring and are interested in terms of whether and what authority we have,” it’s reason to pay attention. - Maggie's Notebook

Here We Go, The Left Now Calling 401k Plans ‘Subsidies’

◼ The call by progressives to end 401K plans is growing. Now they’re trying a different tack – these plans that workers contribute to out of their paychecks with some matching funds by employers are being called “subsidies” by the left because the funds aren’t taxed until retirement. - The Lonely Conservative

The progressive leftists have different ideas floating around out there about what to do with our savings. The main message here is that anyone who worked and saved for what they have didn’t earn it. Your earnings, in their minds, belong to someone else. You may not be rich by anyone’s standards, but if you worked and saved for your whole life, in their minds you’re fair game, because there’s someone out there who didn’t work and save. And now somehow that’s your problem. This is the Obama world. Maybe you worked and saved for your entire life as a middle class American. If the money you saved pushes you into the “rich” category by their standards you now must be punished.

Democrats Are After Your 401(k)

◼ link - RUSH: By the way, TIME Magazine headline. Snerdley listen to this. Man, when I'm prescient, I am prescient. I did not know this. Six hours ago, TIME Magazine headline: "Fiscal Cliff: Why Congress Might Have to Mess with the 401(k)." Now, I want to take you back. It was October 28th of 2008. It was before the 2008 election on this program. It was an economist from the New School, Teresa Ghilarducci, who first suggested to Congress the idea going after 401(k)s....

George Miller was told by this babe, the government's losing $80 billion by allowing you to deduct from your gross income, your taxable income, whatever you contribute to your 401(k), and they wanted to take that away. They had a hearing. They actually had a hearing on this back in 2008 where they heard from this professor. She appeared and she said, "I've got a better plan.

"What we want to do, we want to take your 401(k) at its August level, before the crash. We'll give you that equivalent and put it in your Social Security account, essentially, and we're going to invest that money that we take from your retirement account, your 401(k), at its August level. We're going to buy government bonds with it, which will guarantee you 3% -- and then we will require that you put 5% of your pay into your 401(k) although it's not yours anymore.

"The government owns it. They will manage it. They will take care of it, and then when your retirement day comes you'll get your Social Security check and part of your check will be whatever your 401(k) monthly payout is, after 3% of growth every year under the stewardship of the government." That was the deal. People went nuts over it. They went nuts over it, just as they went nuts over losing the deductibility of their credit card interest back in '86. Just as they're gonna go nuts when they lose the deductibility of their mortgage.

Well, that's gonna happen.

You mark my words.

That's already being floated out there as being on the table as part of the cliff deal. Not this year. Not this year. There will be a second part of the cliff deal in the first quarter of 2013. They're floating the idea of reducing the mortgage interest deduction for just the very poor, eliminating it not for everybody but just the very poor. But this 401(k) plan, TIME Magazine's out now with a headline six hours ago saying (summarized), "Oh, it's just such a shame. It's just such a shame. The government might have to look at your 401(k). They might have to mess with it," and it's this plan that was introduced four years ago....

As the debate around tax reform grows more heated, broker-dealers and other companies that service retirement plans offered by employers are increasingly concerned that the tax benefits of 401(k) plans are on the chopping block.

◼ 401(k) servicing industry sounds alarm over tax changes - Reuters

An industry group that normally works behind the scenes, the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries, on Monday launched a media campaign intended to educate U.S. employers and workers that the federal government might consider changing the tax benefits of retirement savings accounts.

That worries the ASPPA because Americans might end up saving less, and some smaller employers might eventually decide to discontinue their own 401(k) plans.

The "Save My 401(k)" campaign includes a website, Facebook page, Twitter feed, and even an online videogame. The budget is undisclosed but is in the six figures, according to the ASPPA's chief executive, Brian Graff.

The goal of the media campaign, said Graff, is to raise awareness among employers and employees that they may be in danger of losing some of the tax breaks surrounding their 401(k) plans.

◼ ‘Save My 401(k)’ - Larry Doyle, Sense on Cents/Business Insider