Gingrich and Ferrara are correct in their recent editorial on the Obama Administration proposals for new mandatory automatic IRA accounts and their goal to force existing retirement funds into government controlled annuities. But this is only the tip of the iceberg for Teresa Ghilarducci and her big government proposals to loot your IRA and retirement plan assets to fund the federal government.

Future Washington revenue needs and the growing treasury debt may require government mandates directing retirement plans to purchase government bonds. Stealth nationalization and ultimately confiscation of a majority of private retirement assets is coming to bail out failing state and municipal retirement plans which already have a deficit of at least one trillion dollars. Eventually underfunded union plans and even a bailout of the federal retirement system could take place as these groups line up to get another pound of flesh from productive Americans who worked hard and saved for their retirement years.

It Is Time for a Change!

How would you like to make a pleasant choice for a change each April 15th, the most hated day of the year? Your decision would be whether to give the first $5,000 each year you owe the IRS to the federal government or contribute it to your own “ironclad” private IRA account and receive a full tax credit for the contribution.” This is the Freedom IRA proposal in a nutshell.

Today the news is filled with stories about the Washington proposals for new mandatory IRA’s with the end game to nationalize, control and even force your retirement funds into government annuities. Washington needs the $15 trillion in private retirement plans to ultimately become the forced “buyer of last resort” for the treasury bond market as foreign investors and nations begin to avoid our debt like the plague it has become.

The retirement savings threat from a desperate federal government with falling revenues is real but just warning about the problem and defending the current private system is not enough. The American people must see this attempt to force full coverage with the proposed automatic IRA as the Trojan Horse to set the stage for stealth nationalization as they turn our retirement benefits into Washington’s ATM Machine.

Rather than creating a mandatory clone of the bankrupt Social Security System, let’s consider a simple, new retirement alternative I call the Ron Paul Freedom IRA. We hope he will introduce a bill along with other members of Congress to create this new Freedom IRA. This will generate publicity about the threat to your existing retirement funds from the Obama Administration and offer a free-market alternative to the forced, mandatory proposals from the left.

The Freedom IRA

Basically this would be an IRA with a $5,000 maximum contribution annually where instead of a tax deduction the individual contributor would received a tax credit for the entire contribution. So the ultimate question for the working taxpayer would be, “would you rather give the first $5,000 each year you owe the IRS to the government or contribute it to your own “ironclad” private IRA account?” For lower income workers who might contribute more than their annual tax bill, the tax credit could be carried forward to future years thus creating a future tax holiday for the participant.

It would operate under current IRA rules except distributions would be prohibited before the 59½ current retirement age except in the case of death or full disability. Note the plan funds would be totally protected from lawsuit, government or judicial asset seizures and other outside attacks on your retirement assets.

It would operate under and be automatically grandfathered under existing retirement regulations in the future and would be a voluntary addition to any existing plans covering the participant. Investment options would be up to the participant and investment providers but could range from conventional stocks, bonds and money market funds to CD’s annuities, mining shares, approved gold and foreign currency investments.

No one questions that the American private retirement system is broken due to excessive government regulations, bureaucracy and related costs but more of the same old big government solutions with mandatory coverage and forced participation is not the answer. I’ve worked in the financial and retirement planning industry since the early 1970’s and this is a simple, voluntarily solution to the existing system.

The Game Plan for Secure Retirement

First, contact Ron Paul’s office and urge him to introduce a bill for the Freedom IRA. Then we can contact all responsible Congressman and urge them to support a real cut in taxes and solve the existing retirement system problems in a few short years with the Ron Paul Freedom IRA.

The alternative from Obama and the Democrats means we will have a forced, mandatory government program in our future with growing nationalization and confiscation threats. You can learn more about how this could this happen in the 20-page special report, “Are You Ready for the Coming Obama Retirement Trap?”

Remember the adage, “the best defense is a good offense” and the Freedom IRA is a direct attack on the coming Obama Retirement Trap. Join us and work together to safeguard and secure our existing and future retirement benefits from the desperate Washington political elites.

Regards,
Ron Holland
for Whiskey & Gunpowder

March 4, 2010

P.S.: You can read the part of that 20-page report here.

The Ron Paul Freedom IRA was originally featured on Whiskey and Gunpowder. Visit Laissez Faire Books for the best selection of libertarian book titles.

Well, we told you so about a lot of things, including the plans that the Obama Nation has for your 401K.

To be brutal, the rape artists are moving on their plans to hijack your 401K and replace it with a handsome certificate suitable for framing which says you got a Guaranteed Retirement Account in return for one of your old, unsafe means of preparing for the grim future.  Actually, I made that part up.  You probably won’t get a certificate large enough to frame and hang over your computer as a constant reminder never to trust government with your money, or not to change the rules on you.  What you’ll get is a dud IOU.

Given the speed with which the Left Wing Congress and the “I just sign what they send me” President move, you have at most days to contemplate what is left of years of thrift and deferred gratification.  Those people don’t mess around when they have prey in their sights.

I’m no expert on how a 401K can be restructured, but if I were you I’d be on the ‘phone to my CPA or financial advisor immediately to see if there is any exemption anticipated, any way to get your meager security th’ hell outta Dodge.  What I would really do–and did two years ago–is pay the penalty and close the position out.  You’re going to have to pay taxes on those funds eventually anyway, and far better to snatch two-thirds or so of the prize away before it gets dumped into the general fund and is spent on housing for Hamas, the snail darter, uniforms for the Obama Youth, excruciatingly bad modern “art,” or more perquisites for Congress.  Even half a loaf will be better than none…if you turn it quickly into objects of intrinsic value, such as gold, silver, diesel oil, and emergency rations.

This freight train is building up speed, folks, and actions which were objects of scorn two years ago can be discerned now quite clearly.  Here are some serious warnings:

1.  Empty out your safety deposit box.  Your bank manager will confirm that if there is a Friday surprise he can not guarantee that you will ever have access to it again.

2.  Start pulling your cash out of banks.  Again, turn as much of it as possible into real property–which does not mean “real estate”but tangible assets.  It doesn’t matter if the banks crash before the bond market does or whether the dollar crashes or is devalued first.  The interests rates are so low it is very inexpensive insurance to remove your personal wealth from sinking Bernankes and store it in metal, C-rations (sorry, MRE, “meals, ready to eat”), or cowrie shells.  I’m famous for saying, “The worst that can happen is…” and the worst that can happen is you will lose the premium you paid for gold coins (there are better ways to buy metal), forfeit the 1.13% your funds are accruing in the bank, and have to pay the premium to sell silver ingots back much later.  Don’t stand there like a deer caught in a jack light, and don’t expect any sympathy if you go to the bank one day and see signs that say “Bank holiday.  Closed until further notice.” or “Daily withdrawal limit $300.” There are proposals for those very restrictions floating around, and that limit is going to include transferring funds between banks.  Mr. Paulson asked for permission a while back to post SWAT teams to prevent bank runs.

3.  You’ve been warned repeatedly to accumulate a bare minimum of three months’ supplies of food, water, and Sudoku puzzles, those representing whatever you, personally, would not wish to be without in times of stress and crisis.  Don’t forget the Tullamore Dew.

4.  If the dollar is devalued again history shows that the usual amount is on the order of two-thirds.  If you want to risk getting roughly thirty-three Amero coins for a Bernanke, you keep your innocent faith that this is “just another bump in the road” and that Mr. Obama couldn’t possibly do what Roosevelt and Nixon did.  When the dust settles from what at best will be a controlled demolition you have watched go whoomp-whoomp-whoomp-whoomp-whoomp in a series of rapid shocks you will take what you are given on any assets you haven’t squirreled away in hard money of various kinds including tobacco, soap, fifty pound bags of rice and pinto beans, and canned corned beef.

Our world is a-swirl with forces building hurricane speed, each having an impact on the others.  The concatenation of instability in the bond and stock markets, housing and commercial real estate, the mushroom cloud of increased “money” supply, job losses developing in the auto and tobacco industries due to recent legislation, the Chinese and Japanese at least eying manipulating our currency or replacing the dollar as the standard against which other currencies float, and the possibility that the government is going to appropriate the health industry are just some of the warning signs that indicate it is time to head for the storm cellars with the kiddies, the livestock, a kerosene lantern, a good book, and an enormous picnic lunch.

Those are only the more obvious evils building to gale force.  Ignore the urgency of the klaxons if you will, but this occasionally fey half-Irish lady thinks she knows “Dive! Dive! Dive!” and “Tora, tora, tora” when she hears them.

Call me Chicken Little if you must, but I’m off to stuff some more silver coins under the mattress.  Literally they make lumps which prevent fairy tale princesses from sleeping well, but figuratively you’ll sleep far better if you have prepared for the hurricane before it makes landfall.  It may yet turn and blow away at sea, but a big one is right off your coast, and others are lined up clearly visible on radar.

Take care,
Linda Brady Traynham

June 26, 2009

401(k) as Dangerous as the Dollar was originally featured on Whiskey and Gunpowder. Visit Laissez Faire Books for the best selection of libertarian book titles.