Obama Admin to Force Placement of Private Investment Accounts Under Federal Control


The only way for government to succeed in offering mediocre (at best) solutions to its citizenry is by making it too inconvenient or expensive for people to choose the free enterprise route.  The Obama administration did it with the Affordable Care Act — Obamacare — and according to a disturbing new report, they are planning on doing the same thing with retirement accounts.

Katie Pavlich from Townhall discusses The Wall Street Journal‘s report on the issue:

President Obama’s regulators aren’t slowing down, alas. And on Wednesday they unveiled another part of their plan to push Americans out of private investment accounts and into government-run plans.

The Department of Labor says its so-called fiduciary rule will make financial advisers act in the best interests of clients. What Labor doesn’t say is that the rule carries such enormous potential legal liability and demands such a high standard of care that many advisers will shun non-affluent accounts. Middle-income investors may be forced to look elsewhere for financial advice even as Team Obama is enabling a raft of new government-run competitors for retirement savings. This is no coincidence.

Labor’s new rule will start biting in January as the President is leaving office. Under the rule, financial firms advising workers moving money out of company 401(k) plans into Individual Retirement Accounts will have to follow the new higher standards. But Labor has already proposed waivers from the federal Erisa law so new state-run retirement plans don’t have the same regulatory burden as private employers do.

Like Obamacare, which made providing private health insurance plans so expensive that major companies dumped employees into the government exchanges, these Obama administration regulations will make retirement savings through private sources so burdensome, it will force employees into government accounts.

Considering how the government has handled Social Security over the years, this is a terrifying scenario that will ultimately lead to 1) individuals saving less for retirement 2) the government raiding retirement accounts to pay for other programs 3) more government dependency.

It would appear that while countries such as Cuba, China, and Vietnam are opening up to private enterprise and the free market, President Obama is determined to do the opposite and move towards nationalization.

Source: Townhall.com



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