Rich Neal: “let me stand as a former teacher, former mayor of a large municipality, but most importantly, in this House today the…”

“let me stand as a former teacher, former mayor of a large municipality, but most importantly, in this House today the lead Democratic sponsor of the individual retirement account. The notion of the individual retirement account was, with heavy emphasis on the middle term, retirement. That is what we are really discussing here. We spoke to the issue in the budget agreement about expanding individual retirement accounts for middle-class people. The point of this issue today is that this individual retirement account proposal has nothing to do with retirement. We are further diverting resources from the public schools, but overwhelmingly it is being done to the benefit of high-income Americans. Mr. Speaker, let me cite a couple of specific examples. The bill before us today would only benefit families with sufficient investment assets that would enable them to accumulate income on those assets over a long period of time. Families paying education expenses out of wage and salary income, however, would receive no or little benefit under this legislation. Families, again, with school-aged children would receive very little benefit. If a family currently had a child in a private school, that family would receive only a small benefit, if they could contribute $2,500 to an investment account after having paid the cost of private school tuition. The bill before us today has no real income limits.”