Obama, what is best in life?

When the current Republican governor of California was asked this question in one of his movies, he replied "To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women." It seems that candidate Obama and his Democratic accomplices have their own answer to the above question. They know what is best in life, and not only for them, but for you as well. By you, I mean the tax paying citizen of the United States. Our Democrats have come up with a new plan to fix social security and it involves taking over your 401k. Apparently, these Democrats feel that they are "losing" almost 80 billion dollars each year, because some of your earned income is being diverted to a retirement account before they had a chance to tax it. It is a very interesting choice of words, because their "loss" is simply their inability to reach further into your pocket. Some of us may see this more like a thief complaining that an average day's plunder was a loss for him.

There is a plan to kill off private retirement accounts such as the 401k, and afterwards every wage earner will be obliged to contribute to a government run retirement account. This fund will be "integrated" with social security. Interesting concept, our Democrats propose. Since you, the taxpayer don't know what is best for your future, our government will manage your money for you. Will you have a say in how much money you will place into this scheme, that is additional money to what you already invest into social security? Apparently not, as you will be obliged to place 5 percent of your income into this account. Don't you worry though, because our government knows what is best for you.

This fund will be used to buy government bonds that are expected to earn 3 percent. Wow, that interest is almost half of our inflation rate. Furthermore, you will no longer receive any matching funds from your employer, into this retirement scheme. Why, you ask? People contribute to these accounts because such accounts are temporarily tax exempt. I emphasize temporarily, because you will still pay taxes on this income when you actually withdraw these funds. Employers contribute to these funds also because of the tax breaks being offered. So if you remove such incentives, employers will no longer contribute to these accounts. You, the tax payer, will still be forced to contribute. This return of 3 percent may sound pleasant when compared to the most recent market trend, but it is less than half of the 7 percent rate of return that you would earn from the average 401k account.

Some out there will think, sounds a lot like social security. We contribute a set amount to social security, we are used to such contributions, and we will become used to this. Turn your ear to the constant frantic screams from our government officials about how social security is bankrupt and how it needs to be fixed. If social security will not be waiting for you when you retire, neither will this plan. In fact, a large part of this scheme is to divert more funds into social security. These funds will evaporate, if social security fails. Fear of social security being unreliable, is another reason why so many Americans contribute to private retirement plans; they don't believe that social security will get them through their golden years.

Back to Conan and what is best in life. The House Democrats want to crush their enemies, namely the American taxpayer who wishes to manage his own retirement plan or, in their eyes, has withheld some of his tax. They want to see these enemies driven before them, I guess these enemies are the investment companies competing with our government sponsored retirement accounts. And finally they wish to hear the lamentations of their women; this might mean that when husbands die before their wives, not only will social security payments disappear but so will their other retirement accounts. This is the Democratic party platform, and their candidate for presidency's vision of the American dream. Namely, higher taxes, bigger government, loss of the individual's ability to manage their money, and to rid this country of capitalist firms. They may know what's best for them, but this is not necessarily what will be best for you.