Bush asks for tax changes to encourage savings, retirement planning

[Judi Lynn]

Bush asks for tax changes to encourage savings, retirement planning

MARY DALRYMPLE, AP Tax Writer
Monday, February 2, 2004


(02-02) 11:54 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --

Tax incentives for saving and retirement form the core of tax programs in the president's proposed budget, which also asks lawmakers to make recently passed tax cuts permanent reductions.

The president's 2005 budget asks Congress to consolidate a myriad of retirement savings accounts into two types, one for individuals and one for employees.

Taxpayers would be permitted to put up to $5,000 each year into their individual retirement savings accounts and into a lifetime savings account, which could be tapped for any reason. Bush had previously proposed that individuals be allowed to put as much as $7,500 into each account.

Lower-income individuals would be encouraged to save with a dollar-for-dollar matching contribution up to $500 for money deposited into individual development accounts, which could be tapped for retirement, education, business development and first-time home-buying.
(snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/02/02/national1149EST0590.DTL

[colonel odis]

1. gotta have something to save to have a savings plan n/t

[lastknowngood]

2. Hey shrub how the hell are you going to save

if you keep sending our jobs overseas?

[KissMyAsscroft]

3. Gonna need that savings plan..

for when Bush eliminates Medicare and SS.

[htuttle]

4. Now they want us to SAVE?!?!?

I thought they wanted us to SPEND?

Aren't the TV pundits still telling people that the Stock Market is a better investment than keeping your money in a savings account?

Is this what it looks like when VooDoo Economics starts collapsing in on itself?

SAVE! SPEND! SAVE! SPEND! RED LIGHT! GREEN LIGHT! ORANGE ALERT!!!

[Fovea]

5. Bush asks for tax changes to encourage savings, retirement planning

and bigger, longer, more luxurious vactions for the rich.

[eileen from OH]

6. Oh, crap

I thought I was supposed to go SHOPPING because otherwise the terrorists would win.

Damn, I sure wish I'd get copied on all the memos.

eileen from OH

[zbdent]

7. What encouragement to save? Check the interest rates

Now, if you could get say, even near the mortgage rate for interest in your savings account, then you might get people saving.

Right now, the interest rates on the savings accounts are about the same as the loan rates for the best credit car buyers. Practically zero.

Where's the real incentive? If you are living hand to mouth, you have no money left to save, since you are probably running out of unemployment compensation. God forbid you get sick and need to be hospitalized. It's much cheaper to die.

[Malva Zebrina]

8. right and much more a consideration to your survivors and heirs

to not have to saddle them with some outrageous medical bills just to keep yourself alive for a month longer.

The health care in this country is a crime the way it is going right now. It is really geared toward who can afford to pay for their survival and who can do that are those who are young and having their insurance paid for by an employer, or those who are rich and can afford to pay for anything that will extend their lives and keep them healthy beyond that of others who are not as fortunate.

The rest can go pound salt.

Take care of yourself--there are ways if you are hand to mouth. groups usually can accomplish more than an individual who is struggling. Find the group, or start one of your own. It is probably easier to do in a rural area, but not impossible to do in the middle of a large city.

Barter, and grow food and learn to preserve it for your survival. Make deals with others in the same boat. Share resources and give hope to each other.

A good book I read is "The Good Life" by Scott and Helen Nearing.http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805209700/026-4102474-3584422 Two people who embraced the simple life simply because they enjoyed it but also because they believed it better than what they had previously. Both lived to be in their nineties and enjoyed good health. They became an enigma and mentors to many interested students and admirers who visited thier self sufficient homestead.

This can be done. I do not believe it an impossible task.

[cthrumatrix]

9. is this to dump "medicare" ...remember the discussion in O'Neills book

where he and Gresspan outlined this saving plan for 37 yrs old and younger...while the "over crowd" still has their benefits