Look out for your 401k

The greedy pols are eying your pile of money to pay off their obscene debts.

How’s that 401(k) working out for you?  Well, if the Obama administration has its way, you won’t have to worry about that any more.
Apparently, you’re too stupid and lazy to be trusted with your own retirement planning. So, what you need is for the government to “urge” you to convert your 401(k) plan to a government annuity.

The U.S. Treasury and Labor Departments will ask for public comment as soon as next week on ways to promote the conversion of 401(k) savings and Individual Retirement Accounts into annuities or other steady payment streams, according to Assistant Labor Secretary Phyllis C. Borzi and Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Mark Iwry, who are spearheading the effort.

TaxProf has a roundup of some useful links concerning this, but here’s the key takeaway:
There literally isn’t enough money in the world to float the T-notes the Treasury must issue in order to prop up our unsustainable spending path.  There are, however, about $3.6 trillion in funds just sitting in 401(k) accounts.  If the government can urge–or force–you to convert your 401(k) into T-note funded annuities, the Treasury can continue to issue those notes to float the government’s deficit.  Essentially, you’ll be converting your retirement funds into an IOU from the government…just like your social security account has already done.

http://www.qando.net/?p=6596