Bill Archer: “Mr. Speaker, we have accomplished a great deal this year for older Americans and for baby boomers who are nearing…”

“Mr. Speaker, we have accomplished a great deal this year for older Americans and for baby boomers who are nearing retirement. We repealed the punitive Social Security earnings penalty so that seniors who wanted to continue to work could do so without the loss of their benefits. We protected the Social Security and Medicare trust funds from being spent, put them in a lock box, and we are paying down the debt by historic levels. Today, we continue our broad agenda to help Americans enjoy a healthier and more fulfilling retirement. If there is one cloud on our economic horizon, it is the lack of personal savings, private savings in the private sector in this country, which is at an all time low. In fact, negative. We as a people borrow more than we save. We should be encouraging Americans to save more, and one of the proven methods of doing that is simple: do not tax savings or the interest earned on savings. While we have tried many times, and the last time IRA contribution limits were raised was almost 20 years ago in 1981, there is wide bipartisan support for raising the limits from $2,000 to $5,000.”