Could you 401K be going away?

If House Education & Labor Committee Chairman George Miller D-California, and Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Washington, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, get their way, we can say good-bye to our 401k. These guys are looking at redirecting those tax breaks to a new system of "guaranteed retirement accounts" to which all workers would be obliged to contribute. I don't like the idea of the government controling my retirement account. This scares the pants off of me.

Under this plan, all workers would receive a annual inflation-adjusted subsidy from the U.S. government but would be required to invest 5 percent of their pay into a guaranteed retirement account administered by the Social Security Administration. The money in turn would be invested in special government bonds that would pay 3 percent a year, adjusted for inflation.

The current system of providing tax breaks on 401(k) contributions and earnings would be eliminated.

Here's a link to the full story as reported in Workforce Magazine.