
When the pension crisis hit: How the Obama administration failed to take a stronger stand
- September 25, 2021
The president was a member of the White House’s Financial Stability Oversight Council, which had recommended a sweeping change to the way federal workers’ retirement plans were funded.
The changes would have raised the pension contribution rate to match the rate paid by private-sector workers.
But it was vetoed by President Obama, who said the proposal was too far to the right.
The White House later said that it had “taken no action” to make the changes because the president’s position had been clear for a long time.
It was the largest pension-fund savings to date, and a key part of the president and his wife’s legacy.
The pension-reform effort was so controversial that it drew criticism from many Democrats, who say that it will result in millions of Americans losing their retirement savings.
That criticism didn’t sit well with the White, which accused critics of trying to “overrun” the president.
As he prepared to leave office in January 2021, Obama announced his intention to create a new pension-plan company.
The Obama administration would take over the work of the two largest pension funds, the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds, and establish a new system of savings for future generations.
It would also provide $250 billion in emergency funding to help the country’s biggest banks withstand the effects of a global financial crisis.
The president and congressional leaders had been looking for a way to help future generations, which were expected to benefit the most.
A few months before he left office, Obama sent a letter to congressional leaders saying that the federal government needed to take on more responsibility.
“Our economy will be stronger if Americans can plan for the future, build a nest egg and pay down debt,” Obama wrote.
The idea was to “make sure we can meet our obligations to future generations.”
The next year, Obama proposed to put $500 billion into the Treasury to create an insurance fund to provide government guarantees to people and businesses who would not have otherwise been able to afford it.
The government would be paid by the private sector.
But Congress blocked the plan, saying that it would “unnecessarily raise the retirement age and force taxpayers to bail out the banks.”
The administration argued that it needed the guarantee to ensure that future generations would be financially secure.
The proposal was quickly rejected by lawmakers, and the administration never put a price tag on it.
In the meantime, Congress passed legislation that created the Social Services Investment Board, a private-equity fund with the goal of making future generations financially secure and to pay down future government debt.
The board has since given more than $3 trillion to the Social Service, but Congress has never passed legislation authorizing it to do anything other than help future retirees.
In January 2021 — just before the president left office — he released a sweeping, five-page document calling for an overhaul of the federal retirement system.
The document proposed an increase in the retirement contribution rate from 4.2% to 6.2%, to be paid for by eliminating tax breaks that allow private-industry workers to deduct the cost of Social Security.
It also called for raising the retirement contributions for future workers to match those of the private- sector, and to reduce the contribution rates for Social Security benefits.
By January 2022, the White Senate and House had proposed similar changes, but they never made it to the president, who is often criticized for being too conservative on retirement issues.
The reforms would have eliminated the exemption for federal employees’ spouses and families, but not their own.
They would have also reduced the retirement income tax deduction for certain investments.
They included a tax credit for early retirees who have made their contributions in retirement, but only if the retirement plan is defined by the president as a public service.
The Senate and the House did not pass any legislation in January 2022.
The administration had hoped to announce its proposal in May 2022, but it fell through.
By the end of the year, there was little hope that Congress would act, so the White announced the plan would be released in July.
The new plan included a number of ideas aimed at helping the public, but none that could be applied directly to the private sectors.
There was no guarantee that a public-sector worker’s pension would be protected, because there are no private-partnership pension plans.
There is no guarantee for future retirees that the Social Sciences Investment Board would provide a guaranteed payout to them in the event of bankruptcy, but there are other plans in place.
In some cases, a retirement plan that is a part of a larger pension fund will be protected.
And the White also said it would not change the eligibility requirements that current and future workers had to meet for retirement benefits.
And as long as they were paying into a plan, they would be covered by the Social Securities Retirement System.
There were some suggestions from some Democrats that the administration’s plans might help some workers who are getting ready to retire.
And there was the possibility of the plan benefiting some people in certain industries, which could boost