Tax reform or what is being touted as middle income tax reduction may be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  Don’t be caught off guard with illusions. 

We are 22 trillion dollars in debt.  The largest cause for this debt is entitlements, social security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  Discretionary spending is the smallest part of the federal budget yet it gets the most attention. Why, because no politician will go near the big three mentioned above.  How on earth can politicians be talking about tax relief for the largest part of the tax paying population with our debt being so huge?  How can they increase revenue while still appear to be giving tax reductions.

One way is described in an article written by Jason Zweig found in an article in the Wall Street Journal dated 04/22/2017 entitled “Grab the Pitchforks, Your 401{k} May need to Ward Off Congress”.  In essence, Mr. Zweig describes how lucrative our politician’s retirement pension system is compared to ours.  He also describes one of the possibilities of raising revenues as changing all 401K contributions from before tax to after tax.  Americans now are not saving enough for retirement because it takes all of their incomes to manage their households.  The cost of actual living has increased at a much higher rate than their income has over the last decade.  I cannot think of a worse idea to inflict yet more harm to the middle class.

I am writing this to encourage you to send your congressman or woman a note telling them to leave our 401K’s alone.  Tell them if they are thinking about altering our retirement system then they must also alter all federal retirement plans as well, including their own.

Make sure and mention how we have not forgotten how they conveniently exempted themselves and their staffs from the Affordable Care Act.  This will not happen again especially with something like our 401K’s.