Current events there Joe!

What school did you go to to earn your history degree btw?

Those so called (By you I might add;) ) did pretty good for themselves as far as a legacy goes so, looooossssserrrrssssss?????? I think NOT!!!!

Btw Joe, It's always refreshing to read your comments in the manner you care to express them because if you didn't, then I'd actually start to - well maybe - worry about you, and your present state of mind - CAPECHE???

Btw, how are those suspenders holdin up??? :) :) :)

Respectfully,
Henry

The 401(k) was a central plan, a central tenet to get people to save for their own retirement in addition to Social Security.  It came into play during the Reagan years, and it was designed to supplement your own investment program, dollars that you have earned in a retirement plan that was independent of Social Security.  And, of course, the way it works, your company offers you the 401(k). You can take a percentage of the gross, your gross pay every month and put that in your 401(k).  It reduces your taxable income. 

George Miller, who heads the House committee that deals with 401(k)s, about a month ago said, we have to eliminate this tax subsidy.  The government is losing $80 billion a year.  We can't afford to lose this kind of money.  There are too many people that don't need this tax break anymore. So what we're going to do, we're going to take away the whole notion that you get to deduct from your gross whatever you contribute to your 401(k).  The government needs that money.  So one of the big incentives for having a 401(k) came under assault.  Then that same committee two weeks later brought in an economist from the New School in New York called Teresa Ghilardu.

She wants to basically eliminate the 401(k), and the way she wants to do it is she wants to go to people who have a 401(k), who have seen its asset value plummet because of the market plunge.  So she wants to go back to August levels.  Everybody that has a 401(k), we'll take you back and we'll give you money. We'll restore the value. The government will. We're just going to print some money here, and we're going to restore your 401(k) to its August amount.  Then we're going to take it.  We're going to take your 401(k), and we will put it in your Social Security account that the government is monitoring for you, and we will invest every year 3% in government bonds.  We'll buy government bonds so that your 401(k) will grow at 3% every year adjusted for inflation.  The most that you will be able to contribute to your 401(k) every year is 5% of what you earn. 

And then when you retire, your 401(k), and plus there's a $600 annual addition that she formulates here because she finds it inequitable that some people get a 36% tax deduction and some don't because the various income tax rates that affect how much of a deduction you get.  So the bottom line is, they'll take your 401(k) and put it in Social Security. They give you 3% a year plus 5% of your gross added, and then at the end when you retire, you get one check. Your Social Security check plus whatever your 401(k) is.  The government takes over your 401(k).  Not so much flushes it, they just take it, like they're going to take some pension money.  Now, this is not centrist. This is not moderate. This is George Miller, and this is the kind of thing that Reid and Pelosi will go for.

Here is an article from the Wall Street Journal on a hearing of the House Education and Labor Committee earlier this month

:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122477680834462659.html

JRdub,

Winning a poker pot takes more than luck.  Turn on ESPN right now and watch the big tournament.  A bunch of luck, true, but some skill too.