[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 52 (Wednesday, April 21, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H2235]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1415
                             WAR ON SAVINGS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gingrey). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, just a few minutes ago 
before the House finished its legislative business, we passed 
legislation that would allow National Guard members and Reserve members 
to take money out of their IRA accounts and not have a penalty on those 
individuals. When they do that under current law, if you invade your 
retirement account, you pay a penalty if you do that because we are 
trying to encourage people to keep their savings intact so they can 
build a retirement fund.
  It is outrageous that the best we can do for these National Guard and 
Reserve families that are under incredible economic strain because 
members of their family are serving longer tours in Iraq than they had 
planned to, that those who are scheduled to get out of the Reserves in 
the Army cannot get out because of the stop order.
  So those people have been without those incomes for many months now, 
they have not been able to meet the obligations of their families. 
Their home mortgages are threatened. Their car payments are threatened. 
Loan payments are threatened. And we are telling them that they must 
invade their retirement savings in order to continue to subsidize the 
war in Iraq. It is unbelievable that we would do this.
  So the Reserves and the National Guard members from my area, from the 
San Francisco Bay area, are being told that after we invaded Iraq they 
must invade their savings because we need them to continue to serve in 
Iraq. So the penalty they pay is that they are going to lose their 
retirement benefits down the road. Many of those people in the 
Reserves, many of these people in the National Guard do not have the 
kind of incomes that will let them then replace the 5, 10, 15, $20,000 
that they wanted to borrow from their IRAs. So for the sacrifice they 
have made to defend this country in Iraq, they have to lose retirement 
benefits in the future years. It is unbelievable that we would think 
that this is an answer to their problem.
  This government could extend them interest-free loans. This 
government could give them additional pay if they are kept in the 
service beyond their contract date. If they are kept in Iraq beyond the 
original time frame, we could provide them additional pay.
  At the same time we are giving tax cuts to the wealthiest people in 
this country, we are asking our service people who are in harm's way, 
who are getting killed, who are getting maimed, who are getting injured 
in so many ways that they have to invade their savings so that they can 
keep their families together while they are protecting this country.
  I cannot believe that that is the response of the Republican Party in 
this Congress, that that is the benefit that we are going to provide 
these families and these soldiers who are making this sacrifice on our 
behalf. Now, mind you, all of the advice that these soldiers had when 
they started their IRA accounts from their employment, from Goldman 
Sachs, from Merrill Lynch, from Charles Schwab is do not ever touch 
your retirement savings because the sooner you start and the longer you 
do it, the better chance you have at retirement where you will be 
secure. But because, unfortunately, they have joined the armed services 
or because, unfortunately, they cannot get out of the armed services 
because of the war on Iraq or because they have been sent to Iraq to 
fight the war for longer than they have anticipated or they were told 
was going to happen, they must now take their savings and try to 
support their families with that.
  I cannot believe that is what a grateful Nation would do to these 
individuals; but that is the bill that just passed. We all voted for 
it. We want to do whatever we can to help them, but that cannot be the 
response of this Nation to these military families that find themselves 
in this kind of economic stress. How cynical of an approach that 
somehow we cannot help these families out beyond saying they will not 
have to pay the penalty for destroying their savings. Well, the minute 
they touch those savings, they are being penalized because they are 
giving up retirement benefits in the future.
  This Congress owes our National Guard members, our Reserve members 
better than that, and we owe their families better than that. And we 
ought to correct this and correct it immediately because these 
families, the financial stress is continuing because of this war on 
Iraq. And we ought not to have them go into financial ruin because they 
have defended this country, because they have served this country, 
because they answered the call of this President.

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