Democrats’ Plan to Politicize and Devalue Americans’ Retirement Accounts
‘The Biden Administration wants to put American workers in a position where portions of the potential returns on their retirement savings could be effectively donated away to left-wing political causes without their consent. What a disastrous way to pile onto the pain they’ve already caused millions of American families.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding politicized pension plans:
“Washington Democrats’ reckless spending has embedded painful inflation deep in our economy.
“Runaway prices are making families’ monthly budgets harder to balance. And as interest rates rise, the financial markets where millions of Americans invest their life savings are becoming more volatile.
“Short-term bond yields are trading at their highest levels since the precipice of the Great Recession in 2007. Indications of expected stock market volatility appear to be on the upswing.
“But with Americans’ retirement accounts already in jeopardy, Democrats have gone looking for still more ways to put workers’ savings at even greater risk.
“The Biden Administration is trying to enact a radical new regulation that would help liberals use Americans’ own retirement savings as financial muscle for political causes they may not even support.
“The Labor Department’s proposed new rule would water down financial managers’ fiduciary obligation to get the best return for their clients. This Administration wants to let the fund managers prioritize extraneous factors — from companies’ carbon footprints to various H.R. policies — when deciding where to invest hardworking Americans’ savings.
“The Biden Administration wants to let Wall Street use workers’ hard-earned savings to pursue left-wing political initiatives instead of trying to maximize the return for their clients’ retirements.
“Democrats want to let money managers make these unrelated ideological goals a higher priority than getting their clients, ordinary American workers, the best returns for their own retirements.
“Not surprisingly, studies suggest that investment funds where the managers put a political thumb on the scale in this fashion tend to underperform normal investments.
“When you put ideology ahead of seeking the highest returns, well, the returns suffer. And if the Democrats have their way, the losers will be ordinary American workers who have spent their whole careers putting money away for retirement.
“In effect, we are talking about letting financial companies garnish the retirement savings of workers without their permission in order to pursue unrelated liberal political goals.
“The Biden Administration wants to put American workers in a position where portions of the potential returns on their retirement savings could be effectively donated away to left-wing political causes without their consent.
“What a disastrous way to pile onto the pain they’ve already caused millions of American families.
“I’m grateful to my colleague from Indiana, Senator Braun, and to my friend and fellow Kentuckian, Congressman Andy Barr, for leading a bipartisan resolution in both Houses to make sure that Americans’ retirement accounts are about one thing: maximizing returns on investments.
“And I’ll be proud to support this commonsense measure later this week.”
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Related Issues: Inflation, House Democrats, Senate Democrats, Democrats' Reckless Taxing And Spending Spree
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