Next up: Obama wants your retirement money ~ By Roger Hedgecock

Commentary from WorldNetDaily

By Roger Hedgecock Posted: January 25, 2010 ~ 1:00 am Eastern © 2010 Trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see are not going down well with voters. The president has plans for even more big spending. The Chinese have said there's not enough money in the world to finance U.S. debt. Already, the annual federal deficit is being financed by selling 80 percent of the Treasury notes and bonds – to the Federal Reserve! Obama needs lots of real money, and he needs it now. According to the Labor and Treasury Departments, draft federal regulations will be published for public comment as soon as next week which would "promote" the conversion of 401(k) and IRA accounts to annuities. Make no mistake here: Obama is after your retirement money. The "annuities" will "invest" not in the familiar packages of bond and stock mutual funds but in the Treasury debt! The biggest pool of real money left in the U.S. (more than $4.7 trillion) is in 401(k) and IRA "defined contribution" accounts. Created by Congress, these saving for retirement devices allow millions of working Americans in more than 700,000 private plans to defer federal income tax on annual contributions to the account. During working years (the accumulation phase), the account is invested mostly in private companies. These retirement accounts are the lifeblood of capitalism. In retirement, tax is paid on the amount withdrawn from the account. Many retirees choose to buy private annuities with all or part of the 401(k) locking in guaranteed (lower) return. The annuity allows further tax deferment because only a portion of the payout is return of principal. Private annuities also presently invest mostly in private companies although they are permitted to also invest in Treasury debt. Now the feds want to "regulate" the inclusion of tax-deferred annuities into already tax-deferred retirement accounts of still-working Americans. As stated this week by Assistant Labor Secretary Phyllis C. Borzi and Assistant Treasury Secretary Mark Iwry, recent stock losses to retirement accounts mean that the feds must protect workers with safer "lifetime income options." And what could be "safer" than Treasury bonds with principal and interest guaranteed by the U.S. government? READ FULL STORY >