What’s good for the goose is good for the gander?
“Main Street over Wall Street” needs to be replaced with” Hypocrisy without limits!”
First came the delay and possible dismemberment of the fiduciary rule. Part two is to scrap the idea of individual states providing retirement plans for uncovered workers.
According to The Wall Street Journal: “The House on Wednesday passed resolutions to overturn rules encouraging states to set up retirement savings plans for private-sector workers. The measures would effectively prevent states and local governments from offering plans that allow small businesses to automatically enroll workers in individual retirement accounts.”
This needs to be passed by the Senate to become law with a presidential signature.
You would think the Federal government (especially the House of Representatives) would recognize the crisis stage many Americans are facing, regarding their lack of retirement savings.
Consider:
- 55 million Americans have no access to workplace retirement savings plans;
- About 50% of workers have NO MONEY saved for retirement; and
- Social Security is facing huge future funding gaps, due to demographics.
What is even worse are the tedious and stupendously hypocritical arguments the usual suspects are bringing to the table.
The measure’s sponsors say the Labor Department’s regulation allowing auto-enrollment “will discourage small businesses from offering private-sector plans” and force people “into government-run plans with fewer protections and less control over their hard-earned savings.”
It gets worse…
”Let’s be honest about what this regulation is really about. It’s part of an assault on small-business retirement plans that began under the Obama administration.” – Rep. Tim Walberg (R., Mich.), one of the sponsors of the resolutions, said before Wednesday’s vote.
Newsflash, Representative Walberg: YOUR RETIREMENT PLAN IS SPONSORED BY THE GOVERNMENT!
The thrift savings plan that covers federal employees is considered the gold standard for workers’ retirement funds by many industry experts.
According to David Madland, senior fellow at The Center For American Progress:“The Thrift Savings Plan is a high-quality retirement plan because it offers simple, easy-to-understand, and sensible investment options that have very low fees.”
According to the Thrifts Savings Plan website:
For 2016, the average net expense was $0.38 per $1,000 invested.
That’s $0.38 per every $1,000 contributed.
I see plenty of 403(b) plans run by private sector insurance companies that charge close to $38 per $1,000 invested. Public school teachers would kill for this plan.
The fact that Representative Walberg and his co-conspirators want to deny average the average American worker the same opportunity that the Federal government has provided to them is several stages above reprehensible.
In a repeat of the tactics used to bring down the fiduciary rule, the same useless arguments get thrown against the wall (i.e., consumer choice and the government is bad). Blah, blah, blah.
This works because workers are fed misleading information from the lobbyists and marketing departments of the large financial firms that will do anything to keep investors ignorant of the one indisputable fact about their investments: Fees matter. A lot.
The opponents of rules such as this are being played like puppets on the strings of their masters — that is, deep-pocketed, financial firms.
There is an expression that people who recommend investment products “should eat their own cooking.” This means they should invest the same way they advise their clients to do.
In this case, members of the House who opposed this legislation are feasting on the same government- subsidized benefits they are denying their constituents. The goose should wear a pig’s snout. Clearly they don’t care if the gander gets screwed over.
“Populism” at its finest.
