House passes savings bill for guard, reserve forces(Tap IRA's)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/21/taxes.military/index.html

The House passed unanimously a bill Wednesday to give financially strapped National Guard troops and reservists serving in Iraq and Afghanistan the ability to make penalty-free early withdrawals from their retirement funds.

Democrats criticized the measure as, in the words of Rep. Tom Lantos of California, "the tiniest of tiny benefits."

"This legislation is a monumental insult," Rep. George Miller, D-California, bellowed on the House floor. "We're telling them we invaded Iraq and now they have to invade their savings."

The bill is designed to ease the financial strain of servicemen and women, many of whom had to leave higher paying jobs when they were called to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill would allow the service members to tap into their 401(k) and IRA funds.

Aren't they a generous bunch? Now the poor schmucks can tap their retirement savings so they will have to some day work as Wal-Mart greeters if they're lucky when they should be enjoying retirement.

[MasonJar]

1. True, however, I bet all those Enron employees wish they had

taken out all of theirs.

[UpInArms]

2. oh so generous!

for them to be allowed to have no financial security - since there will be no Social Security if the BFEE has its way.

Where are the WMDs? The initial lie that was given for the National Guard to be deployed to Iraq in the first place.

We are poisoning the lives with "depleted" uranium, we are destroying their spirits by using them to destroy an entire country and we are encouraging them to destroy their future as well.

Our government should be ashamed (okay, just most of its representatives).

[Frodo]

14. Kind of like a couple years ago...

...when they changed the rules so that you don't have to pay the 10% penalty if you are making the withdrawal to pay a tax penalty. So people who were desperately behind on their taxes and owed thousands in penalties and interest could at least ruin their retirement too!

[mbperrin]

3. How damn nice! I'm SURE they've all got millions saved

that they'll never need for anything else. They can use THEIR OWN money without paying a penalty.

[underpants]

4. How much of an indicator of the impact on them is THAT?

On the communities and on the FAMILIES too.

They had to pass a special bill to allow them to dip into savings? So what now, they were obviously living beyond pay check to pay check so what now?

[jayfish]

5. What A Token Piece...

of garbage. They should have passed a law that allows reservists to defer all liabilities for a full year after their return from service. <sarcasm>I mean the economy is just chugging along, so all of these lien/debt holders, utilities, etc; shouldn't have any problem with it...right?</sarcasm>

Jay

[Tracer]

6. How wonderful.

Now the guardsmen's families can use their savings to buy food, instead of going to food banks like they are now.

<sarcasm off>

[salin]

7. hey - you can drain your retirement savings... with no financial penalty!

While I appreciate the idea that tapping into the savings under these circumstances should carry no penalty... this seems like a rather cold, cheap solution rather than dealing with the real problems.

[SoCalDem]

8. Wow.. what philanthropists we have in congress

Probably most of the guys in the guard are in there because they DON'T HAVE IRAS OR 401-K'S OR.....JOBS THAT HAVE BENEFITS :eyes:


I am sure that there are some, but get real... "allowing" them to draw out what savings they may have put aside for their later years is somehow "generous"??

How about paying them $500.00 a day tax free, while in a combat zone?? There's an idea.. Make war cost so much that we could not afford to go :)

[llmart]

9. I'd be willing to bet...

that most of them don't have much in these accounts anyway and also that they know what a piece of shit this legislation is. Another slap in the face to the guardsmen from the Repugs.

[Boat Guy]

10. No, this is GOOD

See? Many will quickly exhaust their 401(k) plans, leaving them with no choice but to start racking up huge credit card debt in order to keep food on their families' tables, roofs over their heads and clothes on their backs. This will of course translate into an increase in consumer spending, which as wel ALL know will boost the economy, meaning employers will begin hiring more people, sending stocks soaring back to pre-2000 levels, thus increasing the value of employee retirement pla -- d'oh! *SMACK!*

[Hobarticus]

11. Red, white and blue food stamps for our fighting men...

That's next.

It's freakin' disgraceful.

[denverbill]

12. Too bad they ain't private mercenaries.

We pay our regular grunts about $20/year, but the mercenaries can make up to a million/year. ($3000/day, in some cases).

Why not pay our troops what the mercenaries get? That's the going rate after all.

[AndyTiedye]

13. What Do They Need Retirement Savings For?

Bush* will keep sending them back again and again until they're killed anyway.
:mad: