Thursday, September 13, 2007

It's our money not yours

Liberally conservative has a great breakdown of an article by Rahm Emanuel, Illinois congressman and former Clinton lackey, in the Wall Street Journal.

The article talks about Emanuel's plan to have the government sponsor 401k plans and to force all people to fund them.

While I would expect that type of socialist drivel from a former Clintonista, this is the quote that caught my attention.


“Last year, we spent $125 billion in tax subsidies to encourage retirement savings”


Just how did the US government spend all that money to "encourage retirement savings"? Was it a bunch of PSA's on TV promoting savings? Was it mass mailings, telling us to save? Did they contribute to our 401k's? After all, 125 billion is a lot even for federal government standards.

No, the government didn't spend one dollar to advocate anything. What Emanuel is referring to is the tax savings we all get by contributing to our 401k's. He calls that "spending".

To inform Mr. Emanuel, the money was never yours to "spend".

His choice of language is so 1984. It was never our money to invest in a 401k........ it's the "government's" who subsidize our ability to fund our own damn retirement account.

40 years ago, this guy would have been beaten up for this kind of talk. Now it's part of the general lexicon and no one says a word.

No comments: