Obama Seeks ‘Automatic Pensions,’ Labor Enforcement

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601213&sid=a1.x9_d3sPc0&refer=home

By Holly Rosenkrantz

Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama called for establishing automatic workplace pensions and expanding unemployment insurance as part of his spending plan for the U.S. Labor Department next fiscal year.

Obama is proposing a 4.7 percent increase in the Labor Department’s budget to $13.3 billion for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. That’s an increase from an estimated $12.7 billion in the current fiscal year and $11.8 billion in 2008, according to a budget outline submitted to Congress today.

The budget “lays the groundwork for future establishment of a system of automatic workplace pensions, to operate alongside Social Security, that is expected to dramatically increase” retirement and personal savings, Obama’s Office of Management and Budget said in its outline, without giving details on the costs.

The plan would force employers that don’t offer retirement plans to enroll employees in a “direct-deposit IRA account,” with the option for workers themselves to opt out. Currently, 75 million working Americans, or about half the workforce, lacks employer-based retirement plans, according to the administration.

The proposal “raises more questions than it answers,” said Representative Howard “Buck” McKeon of California, the top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee.

“We need to take a step back and question this ever- expanding role for the federal government,” he said in a statement.

Extended Benefits

FULL story at link.

[MarjorieG]

1. Would have helped my husband who always had/forced to leave before vested.

Flexibility for workers with leaving or saying, also, if health care and retirement plans go with us.

[antigop]

2. The answer is to bring back DEFINED BENEFIT pensions

Any actuary will tell you that the most efficient way of delivering retirement benefits to a large population is through DEFINED BENEFIT plans.