Hands Off Our Retirement Savings!

There have been rumblings from the Obama Administration regarding efforts to create "Guaranteed Retirement Accounts" and impose new government mandates which would undermine 401(k) retirement savings plans and jeopardize employers’ willingness to continue offering them to their workers.

Human Events reports that Vice President Biden mentioned this idea in February as part of the White House's "Annual Report on the Middle Class." They also report that "in conjunction with the report’s release, the Obama administration jointly issued through the Departments of Labor and Treasury a 'Request for Information' regarding the 'annuitization' of 401(k) plans through 'Lifetime Income Options' in the form of a notice to the public of proposed issuance of rules and regulations."

I am a member of the House GOP Savings Recovery Solutions Group, and yesterday my colleagues and I sent a letter to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urging the Obama Administration to keep its hands off of the retirement savings of Americans. We stressed that any proposals to dismantle or nationalize the private 401(k) system in favor of a government-run retirement security regime must be rejected.

You can read a copy of the letter here.

We can do better than a government power grab, and I have cosponsored the Savings Recovery Act that would help Americans rebuild their retirement, college, and personal savings.