The Ron Paul Freedom IRA
“In plain English, the idea is for the government to take your retirement savings in return for a promise to pay you some monthly benefit in your retirement years.” ~ Newt Gingrich and Peter Ferrara, “Class Warfare’s Next Target: 401(k) Savings.”
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.
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I would urge the bill to include an offset to Social Security taxes due on the 1040 at least. My husband and I have not paid regular taxes for about 20 years-they are easy to offset with a mortgage and property taxes. But we have paid thousands in self-employed Social Security taxes each year, of which we probably won’t get much back. With Social Security taxes paid before house payments, and not offset by personal exemptions, etc. it is impossible to avoid them! I’ve paid in all I want to pay into SS, so I would love to offset the taxes with the above credit, with the understanding I won’t get any more points from SS.
Multiplication will be the death of me yet.
Possession is not just nine points of the Law, it is eleven points of the law.
All retirement “savings” have already been confiscated!, in terms of being able to be converted into Real Wealth for consumption after retirement.
Here is how and why
True savings is a portion of today’s production set aside for future consumption, or…,True Savings are REAL WEALTH (any thing you eat, wear and use) set aside for future consumption, which is…IN YOUR POSSESSION!
Therefore, by that definition, any form of “savings” in electronic form are NOT TRUE SAVINGS. Electronic “savings” are merely digits that exist only on paper, on a computer, in your head or all three. Those digits are NOT REAL WEALTH! Instead, they are a “CLAIM on REAL WEALTH” that m a y………I emphasis the word may….exist in the future. And the government has by way of its deficit spendings, already distributed and consumed the Real Wealth your electronic digit “savings” represent.
The proof of this point lies is contained in the following facts:
1. Most workers today work for a corporation.
2. When the worker leaves the corporate work place, they leave their Real Wealth Work Product at their place of work, i.e., the corporation is in possession of it, NOT the worker.
Now the government is free to acquire any portion of the workers Real Wealth work product via the power to create debt instruments, hand them to the corporation as “payment”, and force the corporation via legal tender laws, to turn over to the government, the Real Wealth Work product of all workers.
Simply, these workers are NOT in possession of any of the Real Wealth they produced, and the Real Wealth they did produce and left in the corporate work place, has long since been distributed and consumed. All the worker is left with is the “IDEA” that he has Real Wealth, when in fact, all the worker has left are inked digits on paper, on a computer, or digits in his mind.
TO HAVE TRUE SAVINGS YOU MUST HAVE REAL WEALTH SAVINGS IN YOUR POSSESSION!
Consider a farm family who cans, freezes and preserves a substantial portion of their food production on their own premises, enough to last for six months or more. Do they meet the definition of True Savings? Have they set aside current production for future consumption? Are they in possession of their food “savings”?
Now ask yourself the following questions:
Do my electronic “savings” meet the definition of True Savings?
Are my “savings” Real Wealth set aside for future consumption?
Are my “savings” in my possession?
Well, are they?
Ohhh Linda, wish I were closer to give you those multiplication lessons, mathematical I mean, Charles can do the other kind. Anyway back to the topic. I never thought of it this way but a great reply from David Franklin and of course inflation is stealing a large portion of retirement savings. So think back to many years ago as to how citizens handled people who stole things instead of earning them. What happened to horse thieves and why? This is simple of course, without a person’s horse there would be no way to get to, say a Doctor, in an emergency. Or critical supplies, a family member could die from such a situation, so therefore the harsh results to horse thieves in past times. Isn’t stealing retirement wealth a similar situation? What about funds which are diluted over time but now needed to save a life for a specialized but important health procedure? Would this be a similar crime to horse thieving as in the past? Again, what were the penalties then? Just a thought.
CanadaNorth
CanadaNorth, I was spoofin’ darlin.’ If you put $5,000/year into a retirement account at current rates (or even at the 5% no one has seen in many years), at the end of 20 years how much will you have? If you attempt to live on the interest on that pitiful sum what will it buy? I’m not even questioning what inflation and Bernanke will have done to the theoretical “value” of fiat currency. Chuckle…there is nothing wrong with my mathematical skills even though I joke about having a non-aggression treaty with the function of X, and I wish you lived closer, too. The government isn’t going to go along with the idea of the first $5K going into a “retirement” account unless those are set up the way the “SS fund” is, a purely mythical entity. Again, I foresaw a lot of bleak retirements in ’92 when interest rates dropped to 5%. When there is gold-backed currency and stability the traditional rate of 4% will produce gains sufficient to live on, but we’re talking 1810, not 2010. I didn’t want to tell the nice people that the proposal is an emotional bandaid on a slashed carotid artery, so I left the calculations as an exercise for the student! Hug, Linda
Canada, darlin’ you really don’t understand fully why we hanged horse thieves. During that period being left without transportation was tantamount to a death sentence. In an untamed land with large predators, outlaws, Indians, and extremes of heat and cold a man’s horse was his best protection AND where most of his worldly goods were stored unless he were camped. I agree that stealing our income and what we put away for our old ages is very similar, but it isn’t practical to hang the government. The parallel is very close, though…the horse thief took a man’s transportation, food, shelter, canteen, and primary means of self defense, his Winchester or Sharpes. Our property taxes mean that we merely “rent” even fully paid for houses and land from the tax assessor/collector, and if there is anything taxes can be relied upon to do, it is increase. But hey, “it’s for the children,” and “feeding the starving” in far-off lands.
Very well put, David. The pottage gets thinner all the time, and we don’t use the term “wage slaves” lightly. The drum I beat most frequently is that those electronic digits and paper receipts for ED need to be turned into durable goods as quickly as possible. The means to ensure your own survival are best, but cash in hand is still a lot better than having your “wealth” stored in computers subject to the whims of government and the caprices of bankers and foreign lands.
$5000 compounded at 5% for 20 years = $13,266.48