Today's hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee demonstrated that even Republicans realize there need to be some tax incentives to help Americans motivate for retirement savings, according to Bloomberg's coverage.
Congressman Dave Camp, head of the committee, told reporters he hasn't finalized his thoughts on proposals to overhaul the tax code and its treatment of retirement issues, but did say he is in favor of requiring automatic enrollment in IRAs – an opinion shared by President Obama.
But Congress should be wary of de-incentivizing participation in retirement plans just to try to shave points and lower an already explosive budget, warns Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, the committee's top Democrat.
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"It's reckless to simply say we're going to get down to a certain figure without saying how you're going to get there," he told reporters after the meeting.
Panel participants, including the conservative Heritage Foundation, also sided with calls to create an automatic IRA system, which would not require employers to match contributions.
The government says retirement tax savings incentives cost about $130 billion in revenue a year; other analysts suggest that number has been improperly calculated and say that cutting benefits won't save the government as much money as reported.
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