“They” in this case is one academic testifying at a Congressional hearing, who wrote a paper advocating ending tax shelters on 401k contributions and earnings.

Not a good idea, in my opinion, but lots of people testifying at Congressional hearings have lots of different ideas, good and bad. This one doesn’t seem to have been endorsed either by Congress as a whole or by Obama.

But let’s suppose that Congress was convinced to pass such a law, and Obama signed it. The effect would be roughly equivalent to being forced to cash out your 401k now (which would also make future earnings taxable), but with the taxes on what you’ve already accumulated deferred until you draw on it, and without the 10% penalty for early withdrawal.

In order to avoid this feared outcome, you’re proposing cashing out the whole thing, which not only subjects only future earnings to taxation, but subjects your accumulated contributions to *immediate* taxation, *and* imposes an extra 10% penalty on top of that.

Whatever your politics, this doesn’t make sense from a financial standpoint. Don’t let political fearmongering rush you into making bad decisions with your nest egg.

I’m sure the math doesn’t add for a lot of people. I don’t have a mortgage, a car payment or kids to feed. And my credit card debt is fairly low. (And I’d have to give up the extra money I put towards this debt to meet this challenge.) This is like a crash diet for finance. Unless you have a certain income, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Please describe to me exactly how it could be change for the worse, given:
2 ongoing wars, costing billions per month
Largest financial meltdown since the Great Depression
Largest financial bailout since the Great Depression
U.S. actively torturing
U.S. actively operating “black sites” around the world
Abu Ghraib
Guantanamo
Signing statements used repeatedly to bypass the Constitution
and the list goes on…

Again, please explain how the change could be for the worse.

Off the top of my head, I’d guess ‘the black people’ voted for Obama for the same reasons that ‘the white people’ and ‘the hispanic people’ and ‘the asian people’ and ‘the young people’ and ‘the old people’ voted for him. All of these people must have voted for him because he message resonated with them.

And, as has been mentioned, black people largely tend Democratic in presidential races.

Lastly, I’m sure you’ve been called racist before–I’m not going to level that charge at you. But I’m curious: have you ever wondered WHY you might be called such a thing? I guess I’m asking if you realize how your comments seem to others or if you are coming across differently than you intend.

Deepali, I would not hasten to say that “Tuesday night showed a shift in our collective conscience.” There were 46% of us who did not “shift our conscience.”

Gerrel, Of course I did not vote for McCain because he was white. I voted for him because of his character, his platform of a strong America, his tax and healthcare policies, his immigration policies for the millions of illegal immigrants, his honesty, his resistance to the socialistic ideas of “spreading the wealth” and most importantly, his EXPERIENCE. Why do you suppose the black people voted for Mr. O?

But a lot of people woke up Wednesday morning with a new found sense of hope, whether or not they voted for Obama. It’s not just about politics, it’s about achievement, and the fact that we can say that we elected a black man while the specter of slavery still hangs over us *is* a tremendous achievement.

And yes, I think this affects us all – when there is a shift on a large scale like this, it filters down to the microlevel. When you think big about achievement, it makes it easier to think small. If a “racist” nation can elect a minority to the highest office, I can get out of debt.

Racism isn’t dead either, as a lot of the comments on this thread show. Certainly anything is possible for women and for Americans of non-European descent, but if we ignore the fact that the deck is still stacked against us, it’s at our own peril.

You really need to read up. Obama raised more like $600M.

It might also serve you to read some of the commentary from conservatives who area actually thinking about the GOP can regain power and looking at the real causes behind McCain’s loss. Also keep in mind a significant number of congressional seats changed over, too, as well as a significant number of voters changing their part affiliation.

McCain also made a number of strategic campaigning mistakes that cost him dearly. Those decisions are going to be heavily reviewed as lessons learned for the next go-round during the mid-term elections and in the next presidential run in 2012. Just like the way the Democrats reviewed how the GOP won the last two times around, and innovated to help this time around.

This is however, not an easy process and it does involve some pretty big egos saying that they were wrong. It’s much easier to call names and blame it on the other party’s something or other.

You’ve made up your mind about who you like (and that’s your business), but to indoctrinate your 4 year old, that’s another matter.

We took our kids to vote, and told out 3.5 year old who we voted for, but we certainly didn’t demean the candidates or teach them to do so. I don’t know what political stripe my daughters will grow up with, I just want them to grow up and understand the importance of civil political discourse as well as voting for our leaders. The thing that terrifies me most in a democracy is seeing uncontested offices where the incumbent automatically wins.

As McCain said several times on the campaign trail and in his concession speech, Obama is a decent man who loves America, and will be a good President. That they disagree on policy is something entirely different, and entirely acceptable. Cheap shots like “NObama” and a lot of the crap that gets forwarded in emails do nothing to add to the debate. I’ll also add that the same goes for “MCSame” and the lies that were eagerly forwarded about Palin. Thank goodness the fact checking sites and snopes exist, so I can send a response to people who forward things around.

Anybody who doesn’t think this was a historic election is kidding themselves. I see this as not only giving hope to blacks that anything is possible, but women and every other non-white male group as well.

-sigh- Despite what you’d obviously like to believe, the history of this country should make it fairly clear to anyone who cares to look that few things are given to black people because of the color of their skin. It is far more often a hindrance than a help.

So disagree with Obama’s policies and positions to your heart’s great content, but please don’t believe for a moment that over half the electorate voted for a black man because he’s black.

Surely you didn’t vote for John McCain because he’s white?

However you voted, it was a historic election and will be a tough presidency.

Now is the time to move forward and work together. Both McCain and Obama encouraged Americans to put the election behind us and move forward in a spirit of non-partisanship.

Things are not the same, and anyone who has lived with President Bush in office knows things can only get better!

Now to the rest of you that are inspired by the outcome of this election and the “uplifting speeches” so belittled above. I’m inspired to, like I’ve never been inspired by a politician before. No, obviously it’s not going to change those of you not inspired by Obama, but for many of the rest of us, we are changed. We view this nation in a new light. And you all should be celebrating that we feel this way, not trying to belittle our our inspiration.

Some people go to blogs to be inspired about their finances, some go to church to be inspired about their spiritual lives, if we can be inspired by a leader, about the nation we live in, the rest of you should be cheering us on. After all, you’ve converted the “anti-American” parts of the nation to be “pro-American.” Shouldn’t you be happy too?

We now know just how much money you need to buy an American Presidency, just about 6.5 million will do it.

Good to know.