MEA Votes

For those who were gazing at the retirement horizon before the alarming financial events of September, these times are enough to make you sit upright and reassess your thinking. It ought to also make you pay closer attention to what’s being promised in the political arena.

As if all of the discussion of rescue plans, saving banks, hits on your 401(k), and the stock market ups and downs weren't enough, there is plenty of talk during this political season of things like the future of Medicare, Social Security and health care taxes that might put retirement security even a little more out of reach.

Pensions and personal savings plans are one part of the retirement mix, but what about these other things? Some health care plans being discussed promise tax credits. But the fine print says those credits will have to be paid for by cuts to Medicaid and Medicare. Schemes to tax employer-paid health benefits would hit active employees in the pocketbook, pushing their taxes up while they are trying to save and recoup some of the losses of the recent financial downturn.

Robbing Peter to pay Paul is no way to dig out of this. And it doesn’t help provide the retirement security that we deserve. So keep an ear tuned to the various solutions being proposed to get average people out of this financial ditch. Now is not when we need to be buying into any financial sleight of hand.