793 Federal employees and their Thrift Savings Plan

The same congresspeople who booed the President last night when he talked about the end of their gravy train have access to their own TSPs, Thrift Savings Plans, and they are trusted to manage them. It's a little bit like the school choice issue. They can choose to send their kids out of the district to a private school that is superior to the public one across the street, but they don't want you to do that because it might hurt public education. It is OK for them to shelter their retirement funds, but if you or I do it with funds that could go the government, it might hurt Social Security. Take a look:

"The TSP is a retirement savings plan for civilians who are employed by the United States Government and members of the uniformed services. The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, administers the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). The Web site http://www.frtib.gov, provides information about the FRTIB electronic reading room, procurements, and employment opportunities. "

This is like the 401(k) you may have through your company, but the "company" who contributes to this plan is you and I, the taxpayers. Gene Sperling, a Clinton economic adviser, has proposed a Universal 401(k) plan which would be similar to what federal employees have. It is described at www.americanprogress.org/ Center for American Progress: "The president and progressives could both protect Social Security’s guaranteed benefit and promote ownership with a new Universal 401(k) that offers all Americans a private retirement account on top of Social Security, and uses government funds to match contributions made by middle income and lower-income workers. The Universal 401(k) would spread individual savings and wealth creation to tens of millions of American families currently falling through the cracks by offering all Americans the generous incentives and automatic savings opportunities that the best employer-provided 401(k)’s offer their employees."