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^ Could we recover some of those subsidies by taxing those persons who do not enroll in the Thrift Plan and do not have other savings that are adequate to provide them with essential retirement benefits? ... just asking. I haven't read the Senator's proposal. I agree it could be an option for those without a workplace plan, but the Plan literature better have bold print warnings to the unsuspecting citizens about what the protections are under the plan and what rules the Plan doesn't have to follow.

I think it is interesting that a Senator thinks people would be better off under a plan that isn't subject to the rules and participant protections that he and his cohorts have required the rest of us to comply with. As much as I dislike some of those rules, I understand that they were implemented to prevent real and perceived abuses by plan sponsors. Those rules also increase the cost of operating a DC plan. I also wonder what protections participants have under the federal thrift plan. One of my aunts worked for a large local city in the late 80's and contributed to their DC plan. When she left, they sent her a letter saying that if she did not take a complete distribution within 2 years, her entire balance, including her deferrals, would be forfeited. At the time, I asked an ERISA attorney I knew about it and he said a governmental plan could do that.