Congressman calls for mandatory TSP enrollment

by: inSANEmom

Thu Apr 02, 2009 at 10:07:25 AM EDT

Congressman calls for mandatory TSP enrollment

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Mar 10, 2009 17:02:50 EDT

To pay for a government smoking prevention bill, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., wants all government employees to be required to enroll in the Thrift Savings Program - including all service members.

Continued below the fold...

The forced enrollment in the government's version of a tax-deferred savings plan doesn't sit well with the lawmaker who is responsible for opening the program to the military. Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., the former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's military personnel panel, said some service members may not want their money tied up in the TSP because they receive no government match for their contributions, as federal civilian employees do.

If enrollment is required, Buyer said the government should provide matching funds for service members, which he acknowledged would require finding money in the defense budget.

"Any future matching requirements combined with mandatory enrollment could result in significant costs to the defense budget," said Buyer, currently the ranking Republican on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Buyer's criticism is aimed at HR 1256, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. It requires all government workers to automatically be enrolled to divert 3 percent of their basic pay into the pre-tax savings plan. They would be allowed to reduce their contribution or disenroll. The idea behind automatic enrollment is that most people would not go through the steps to drop out.

Under complex congressional budget rules, requiring mandatory TSP enrollment would trigger a temporary increase in mandatory spending, which Waxman would tap into to pay for his anti-smoking bill.

This is BULL SH*T. Congress wants to FORCE every soldier to pay 3% into a TSP to pay for smoking prevention. Even though it is money that we will eventually get back... even with a matching deposit from the government... (assuming of course the country isn't completely bankrupted and they say, "Sorry, we can't afford to give you that money now.") ... that is OUR money and WE should determine how we spend it and how we invest it.

Yes, we will be given the option to opt out. But how long after they start taking our money will it stop? And what hassle will we have to go through to get our money back? And the whole idea that it is an automatic enrollment because they think most people won't go through the steps to opt out? That's just sleazy and backhanded. Not only that... do they really think people will hand over 3% every month without a thought? For us we are talking a couple hundred bucks every month. Do they think we won't notice or simply say, "oh well... it's only a couple hundred bucks" and forget about it?

And really... it's not like they are asking us for our money so we can be sure there is proper armor on every humvee, body armor on our guys, or ammo in their rifles. They want us to do this for a SMOKING PREVENTION PROGRAM. Are they freaking kidding me???

The government is spending TRILLIONS of dollars on pet projects yet they want SOLDIERS and the families to fund THIS?  If they need to fund social programs, they need to figure out where to get the money from out of the BUDGET.... NOT FROM SOLDIER'S POCKETS!

If you do not agree with this legislation I encourage you to contact your government officials and tell them to vote NO on HR 1256.  And if it does pass, take the time to opt out and send a message to Washington that they do not have your support.