Covered at Reason 24/7: Obama Wants To Limit Retirement Accounts

Complaining that "some wealthy
individuals are able to accumulate many millions of dollars in
these accounts," the Obama administration announced a plan to cap
the total sum of any individual's retirement accounts at $3
million. Stashing cash beyond that point, the administration
insists, builds sums "substantially more than is needed to fund
reasonable levels of retirement saving." The administration's
argument seems to be based on the use of the word "million,"
implying that only nasty rich people would want to accumulate such
a hoard. But is that true? How much is enough for "reasonable
levels of retirement saving."

As it turns out, that's one of the toughest questions to answer
for retirement planning. Many advisors suggest you base your
retirement savings on something like 70 percent of your
pre-retirement income, multiplied by how many years you expect to
live. So ... Just when do you plan to kick off? As
one article on retirement planning puts it, "basing your
retirement needs on income is like basing your fuel needs on the
size of your car’s gas tank. What really matters is how far you
have to go and what kind of gas mileage you get." Part of that "gas
mileage" for retirement planning includes inflation. By the time
you retire, will $3 million buy luxury? Or a sandwich?

From
Bloomberg Businessweek:

President Barack Obama’s budget proposal would cap
multimillion-dollar tax-favored retirement accounts like the one
held by Mitt Romney, his Republican rival in 2012.

Obama’s budget plan, to be unveiled April 10, would prohibit
taxpayers from accumulating more than $3 million in an individual
retirement account. That proposal would generate $9 billion in
revenue for the Treasury over the next decade, according to a White
House statement released today. ...

Brian Graff, executive director and chief executive officer of
the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries, said
his group will “vigorously oppose” the idea.

“It is a ‘plan killer,’” he said in an e-mailed statement. “As
business owners reach the cap, they will lose their incentive to
maintain a plan, and either shut down the plan or greatly reduce
benefits. This would leave workers with a greatly diminished plan
or without any plan at all.”

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Inhofe Wants to Bomb N. Korea, Another Corruption Scandal Hits New York, Idaho Lawmakers Restrict Drones: P.M. Links

• Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) is
  buying the fear North Korea is trying to sell us and wants to
  launch a
  pre-emptive strike on the country. British Prime Minister
  
  David Cameron is also concerned the nuclear threat to the West
  is real.


• Another day, another political scandal in New York. A state
  lawmaker who represents the Bronx was arrested for
  taking bribes in order help some developer buddies.


• Another day, another solar power industry failure. Former
  employees of a recently shuttered (and subsidized) solar plant in
  Pennsylvania are trying to force the company into
  bankruptcy proceedings for its failure to pay their
  severances.


• Idaho lawmakers have signed off on legislation to require
  police to
  get warrants to use drones for surveillance, except in
  emergencies.


• Google appears to be challenging one of the
  National Security Letters that are used to demand the company
  hand over private data about users.


• The United States is offering
  a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture and
  conviction of brutal warlord Joseph Kony.

Have a news tip for us? Send it to: 24_7@reason.com.

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content

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Inhofe Wants to Bomb N. Korea, Another Corruption Scandal Hits New York, Idaho Lawmakers Restrict Drones: P.M. Links

• Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) is
  buying the fear North Korea is trying to sell us and wants to
  launch a
  pre-emptive strike on the country. British Prime Minister
  
  David Cameron is also concerned the nuclear threat to the West
  is real.


• Another day, another political scandal in New York. A state
  lawmaker who represents the Bronx was arrested for
  taking bribes in order help some developer buddies.


• Another day, another solar power industry failure. Former
  employees of a recently shuttered (and subsidized) solar plant in
  Pennsylvania are trying to force the company into
  bankruptcy proceedings for its failure to pay their
  severances.


• Idaho lawmakers have signed off on legislation to require
  police to
  get warrants to use drones for surveillance, except in
  emergencies.


• Google appears to be challenging one of the
  National Security Letters that are used to demand the company
  hand over private data about users.


• The United States is offering
  a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture and
  conviction of brutal warlord Joseph Kony.

Have a news tip for us? Send it to: 24_7@reason.com.

Follow Reason 24/7 on Twitter: @reason247

Follow us on Facebook
and Twitter,
and don’t forget to sign
up for Reason’s daily updates for more
content

Read More

Ohio CPS Wants to Snatch Kid Away from Family that Has Taught Her Self-Sufficiency

In early March, an Ohio father
wrote to parenting site Free-Range Kids to describe the
harassment he had received from police for teaching his 6-year-old
daughter how navigate their quiet suburban neighborhood and then
having the temerity to decide on his own when she may do so
unsupervised. After letting her walk to a nearby store, he
discovered when she failed to return that the
police had taken her:

Once I got to the police station they would not release her to
me for over 20 minutes, though she was sitting behind bullet-proof
glass just 20 feet away.  When the police finally came to
talk to me, I was told that they had responded to a call of a young
child being unsupervised.  They refused to identify a
reasonable cause for her detention, or even what law had been
broken.  They insisted that they were waiting for CPS to
respond before they would let me see my daughter, but then they
later came back and said that they were releasing me to her because
CPS had told them to give her to me, since I was waiting for
her.  

That sounds like resolution of sorts, right? Child Protective
Services told the police to give her back to her parent. But the
story took a
turn for the worse, detailed again on Free-Range Kids
today:

”Emily” and I are both walking back from the library.  She
wants to do it herself, so I let her walk separate from me
some of the time.  The cops get a phone call from a concerned
citizen who says there’s a strange guy talking to a little girl.
 Three officers respond and cite a concern for Emily’s safety
in crossing the street.  I confirm that I am her father and
give my name, as is required by law.  They refuse to state any
reasonable suspicion of a crime being committed or say what law has
been broken, and so, in accordance with my 5th amendment rights, I
refuse to answer any questions.  We are detained for over half
an hour before being released.  (I asked many times over the
course of the detention whether I was “free to go” and I was told
that I was not. We were told that we were being held for an
“investigative detention.”)  The sergeant who responded
to the scene stated over the radio that he wanted to “hook this
guy” for child endangerment. (The recording of radio traffic during
the encounter was later received through a public records request
that I made.)

They were again reported to CPS, even though police say they
haven’t broken any laws. Later he deals with CPS directly:

I talk with the supervisor at CPS on a recorded phone call.
 I refuse to answer any questions or make any statements.
 Though he did relay that he was concerned about a child
“roaming the streets of [Our City, OH],” he refuses to tell me what
law has been broken.  We go around and around for about 25
minutes.  I find out through my employer shortly after the
phone call that if I do not “cooperate” CPS is threatening to seek
an ex parte order, which would allow CPS to take
custody without a hearing, to separate us that Friday (and
then keep Emily all weekend since a hearing would not have to be
held until close of business on Monday).  Note that I have
cooperated to the full extent required by law.  The Home
School Legal Defense Assn. is very helpful in getting CPS to agree
not to seek an ex parte order so long as Emily
does not go outside again by herself.

Since then CPS has knocked on the door many times.  I did
answer the door when the CPS supervisor came by–I thought that he
was a delivery guy or what not since he didn’t have a uniformed
police officer with him–but otherwise we have simply ignored them.
 There is no law requiring someone to answer their door, and
since I had no interest in talking to them or getting detained by
the cops simply ignoring them seemed the best course of action.

CPS has responded by filing a complaint alleging neglect and
attempting to take the child into protective custody. They are also
attempting to try to force the family to allow CPS officials into
their home, search the house and interview their children.

Free-Range Kids is asking for pro bono legal help in Ohio to
assist the family.

Our Reason TV interview with Free-Range Kids founder Lenore
Skenazy is
here.

(Hat tip to Popehat)

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The High Price of War, Obama Pushes Forward on Gun Regs, EPA Wants Cleaner Gas: P.M. Links

• A study out of Harvard
  calculates that the combined Iraq and Afghanistan wars will cost
  the United States between
  $4 to $6 trillion after future medical costs for veterans is
  factored in. Good luck paying for that, children of tomorrow!


• President Barack Obama is moving forward with his
  promised executive actions to bolster gun control policies even
  as new regulations in the Senate face a tough road.


• Outgoing Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood says it’s a
  “done deal” for Chicago to get a
  $100 million federal loan to build six blocks worth of
  recreational activity along the Chicago River downtown. Remember
  that when the state goes crawling to the feds for a pension
  bailout.


• National Public Radio’s famous Talk
  of the Nation show will be ending after 21 years at the
  end of June.


• The EPA is looking to for gasoline manufacturers to
  reduce sulfur and nitrogen oxides in their products to curb air
  pollution. It will also, obviously, increase gas prices.


• Union interests in California are looking to expand their
  reach. Shocking, we know.
  The targets this time are interpreters who work with the
  state’s medical program for low-income families. The goal is to get
  these interpreters to pay union dues and also guarantee them $60 an
  hour in pay.

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