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Obama's Automatic IRAs

Among the provisions of the massive stimulus package that sailed through Congress without anyone having read it before signing, there is a plan to institute Automatic IRA accounts for small employers that don't offer pension plans to their employees. At the onset, participation in these accounts is to be voluntary, but if Obama's campaign promises are to be believed, at some point in the not too distant future, participation will be mandatory, with funding to come directly from employers. How are small businesses going to cope with this requirement? Can we assume wages will be cut, or future raises will be reduced, or prices will rise, or all of the above in order to fund this expense?

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Permalink Reply by Jeffrey A. Cattani on May 18, 2009 at 1:44pm: If they become mandatory then all that you listed will become true for the small employers in the USA. These are the people that drive the economy and it will be the government that drives us deeper into to trouble.

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Permalink Reply by Gail Perry on May 20, 2009 at 7:47am: I'm interested in determining when the effects illustrated by the Laffer Curve come into play. As the so-called loophole to defer taxation by diverting money offshore is closed, the wealthy people in our country, the people who pay for all that the government wants to spend, will have no choice but to physically leave the country, taking their wealth, their innovative ideas, and their leadership abilities with them. That will leave the U.S. with trillions of dollars of debt and a population of people expecting handouts with no one to foot the bills. I believe it's not a question of if this will happen, but when. The only other question that remains to be answered is, where will they (we) go?; ▶ Reply to This