"What if the government Abolished your 401K? "

 

This is another rant coming on....I see another group of government affiliated Economist making noise about going after the "Hoi Pelloi" 401K's again...I have"ranted before" about government being interested in our 401K's
       I will rant some more after this article....

What if the government abolished your 401(k)? Economists say accounts aren't worth it

The federal government should stop allowing pre-tax contributions to retirement savings, abolishing the 401(k) and Individual Retirement Account, two economists from opposing ideological camps argued in a research brief in January.

Allowing people to shelter their retirement money from taxes is a policy that largely favors the well-heeled, they said. Congress could use that money, nearly $200 billion a year in lost tax dollars, to shore up the underfunded Social Security program.

Their suggestion created a stir. One social media post has drawn more than 700,000 views.

"We do not think that this subsidy, which you can only rationalize if it increases saving ... we don't think it does increase saving very much," said Alicia Munnell, an assistant treasury secretary under President Clinton. She co-wrote the brief with Andrew Biggs, a senior fellow at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

Here's why economists are coming for your 401(k)

Why, then, are economists coming after your 401(k)?

That employee retirement plan and its personal savings counterpart, the Individual Retirement Account, were created to help Americans save for retirement.

But federal data suggests tax-favored retirement accounts help only some Americans, and wealthy Americans in particular.

For households in the top 10% by income, the median retirement account held $559,000 in 2022, according to the Survey of Consumer Finances. An overwhelming 93% of those households held retirement plans.

For middle-income Americans, those in the 40th to 60th percentile by income, the median retirement plan held just $39,000, and nearly half of that group had no retirement savings.

Many smaller employers don't offer 401(k) plans. Even when they do, workers might balk at participating, because they can't spare the income or they're afraid they might need to withdraw it later on, triggering tax penalties.

"Income for a lot of workers is very unpredictable," said Monique Morrissey, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

A looming crisis in retirement savings

Many researchers believe America faces a crisis in retirement savings. Fewer than half of us have retirement accounts, Census data show. Even among those nearing retirement, ages 56 to 64, the share with retirement accounts lagged below 60% in 2020.

Without a retirement account, most retirees depend on Social Security. But monthly Social Security checks averaged about $1,800 in 2023. The typical household run by someone 65 or older spends $4,345 a month, according to a BlackRock analysis of federal statistics.

The 401(k) and IRA emerged in the 1970s and gained popularity as tools for Americans to build savings for retirement. Over the years, the plans have gradually replaced traditional pensions, which deliver monthly benefits to retired workers. From 1975 to 2019, active private sector pension participants dwindled from 27 million to fewer than 13 million, according to a congressional report.

As investments, tax-advantaged retirement plans are “a really good deal,” said Damon Jones, a University of Chicago economist. The government doesn’t tax income contributed to a traditional 401(k) or IRA. You pay taxes when you withdraw the money in retirement.

The tax breaks cost the federal government about $185 billion a year in lost revenue, according to Treasury Department estimates for 2020.

Yet, millions of Americans don’t take advantage of tax-favored retirement savings − or can't. Nearly half of workers have no access to a retirement plan at work, according to one AARP analysis.

The 401(k) and IRA emerged in the 1970s and gained popularity as tools for Americans to build savings for retirement. Over the years, the plans have gradually replaced traditional pensions, which deliver monthly benefits to retired workers. From 1975 to 2019, active private sector pension participants dwindled from 27 million to fewer than 13 million, according to a congressional report.

As investments, tax-advantaged retirement plans are “a really good deal,” said Damon Jones, a University of Chicago economist. The government doesn’t tax income contributed to a traditional 401(k) or IRA. You pay taxes when you withdraw the money in retirement.

The tax breaks cost the federal government about $185 billion a year in lost revenue, according to Treasury Department estimates for 2020.

Lower-income Americans miss out on retirement tax breaks

And many lower-income Americans have more pressing priorities.

“Most people, middle-class or lower, struggle to put food on the table and a roof over their head, and they don’t have the money left over to save,” said Steve Rosenthal, a senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

Wealthier Americans, on the other hand, tend to take full advantage of the tax perks. According to research by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, three-fifths of the retirement savings tax benefits go to people in the top 20% of Americans by income. More than four-fifths go to people in the top 40%.

“The fundamental problem with our retirement system is it rewards people who need no help,” Rosenthal said. “All the schemes are oriented toward rewarding those who have the savings or the income to reap the benefits.”

The whole point of the tax subsidies was to encourage more Americans to save for retirement, say the authors of the research brief, published by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

But that hasn’t happened. From 1989 to 2022, the share of workers ages 25 to 64 who participate in employer-sponsored retirement plans has risen 2 percentage points, from 51% to 53%, the researchers found.

“They’re basically saying we ought to call it quits on our retirement tax system because it’s broken. And it is broken,” Rosenthal said.

Many in the financial industry applaud tax-favored retirement plans

Agreement on that point is far from unanimous, and some in the retirement industry greeted the new research with vitriol.

Brian Graff, chief executive of the American Retirement Association, flagged the paper on LinkedIn with the comment, "No, it's not April 1st. . . and I personally cannot think of a more preposterous idea."

Much of the financial services industry applauds tax-favored retirement plans, saying they deliver a dignified retirement to millions of lower- and middle-income Americans.

“It’s not only the rich,” said Craig Copeland, director of wealth benefits research at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a nonprofit that works with benefit providers. “A lot of middle-class people have 401(k)s, and typically, that’s the bulk of their savings outside of their homes.”

“Most of these plans wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t a tax preference for them,” he said.

Abolishing the tax subsidies “is not going to hurt the wealthy,” Copeland said, “because the wealthy are going to save. It’s going to hit those middle-quartile people” − the middle class.

Even the economists who wrote the brief concede there’s little chance Congress will abolish tax-favored retirement savings anytime soon.

“I know they’re not going to repeal it tomorrow,” Munnell said. “But it should be part of the debate.”

Instead of eliminating the tax benefits, the economists say, Congress could modify the subsidies so the programs reward responsible saving without lavishing tax breaks on the wealthy.

For example, the tax subsidy could be capped for savers who amass $500,000 or $1,000,000 in retirement money. Or, the tax benefit could be limited to the first $10,000 or $20,000 in annual contributions.

'The economy is different now':Parents pay grown-up kids' bills with retirement savings

Alternatively, Congress could lower the age by which savers must begin drawing down their retirement accounts. Instead of lowering that age, Congress has been raising it, from 70½ in 2019 to 75 in 2033.

“If you’re troubled by how large these retirement plans are, you can limit what goes in,” Rosenthal said, “or you can limit what comes out.”

Daniel de Visé covers personal finance for USA Today.

Strip away the tax benefits, Copeland says, and employers would lose their incentive to offer retirement savings in the first place. Companies use 401(k) plans to attract workers, and employers reap their own tax savings by administering the plans.

  I saw this article on the "Bing" page when I opened my browser, and I read it and I got pissed, it reminded me of the same people that say that we regular people need to move to "Move to 15 minute cities and eat crickets to save the planet" crap that our "betters" want to foist on us,  somehow we will be affected but the "cloud people" will not, they have strip us of our wealth and the 401K is a huge part of our wealth.  Individually we don't have as much as the "cloud people" but together we have a lot of money, and a lot of us have clout, we vote, we are involved, and a lot of us are armed, we are the check in the overbearing ideas of the people that believe that in their schooling, family, and wealth, they should rule like the feudal lords of old and if we "dirt people" would get with the program, things would get soo much better, their college professors said so.    Well I don't cotton to those beliefs, poor people are beholding to the government for survival and they will do what "the man" says to keep the government cheese coming, we in the middle class can tell "The man" to stick it.

       The government leaning economist have been eyeing the 401K system for quite a few years, they don't like the idea of all that money out there that the government can't get their hand on, imagine what the government could do with all the money from the 401K system?  All the social programs it could finance to "help the poor in the name of fairness" or "shore up Social Security" in the name of "fairness and equity", basically to me that is giving freeloaders my hard-earned assets that they didn't earned due to some marxist belief.  People have told me that they could never do a 401K because they never had the money, and yet I saw all the poor money decisions, 

          The same people that say that they never have money to put away for retirement, seem to have money to get hammered every weekend, get new tattoos, the latest technology,  trade in a car every year or 2 or lease one and rent an apartment or house and not buy one and so forth, am I making assumptions...you betcha but there is truth in what I say.  I started my 401K back  when I started at Ford Motor Company, yes they gave me a 401K option and a pension, and I started as soon as I was eligible and started maxing it out as much as I could, and when I lost my job at Ford due to "The Way Forward", and I rolled my 401K away from Ford and I was then hired by my present employer and they also have a 401K, so I have 2 of them, one is managed by the financial company that my employer works with the other is a local wealth management firm. 

      The point I am trying to make is that you have to prioritize what you want to do, and do it.  What I like about the 401K is that if I croak, my wife or my kid get all of it, try that crap with social security......Yeah right....your spouse gets $255 in death benefits from the SSA and that is it, any other money that you earned in your lifetime....Ha, they keep it to give to illegals and to people that never paid in the the system, and these government related economists want to make a case to take your 401K and dump it into SS? all because soo many people didn't and it ain't "fair".   You know the same people that want you to Live in "15 minute cities, and eat cricket burgers....yeah them people....but the cloud people...they will be exempt from that little requirement.  It is just new feudalism all over again where we can't travel far, but they can. 

We are pretty good about living under our means.  That is why I have a 25 year old F-150, Hey it works well and the occasional repair is much better than a note.  The spousal unit drives 4 year old Edge, she does the same at her place of employment,  we don't carry a balance on our credit cards..we have only 2.  I do new hire tours at my place of employment and I explain the magic of compounded interest in their financial future.  I use a phrase a good friend of mine used when I first met him 14 years ago.

 My Friend goofing off, this was about 14 years ago

"Nobody takes better care of a old you than a young you, take advantage of the 401K match and every time you get a raise, you bump up your your percentage. so when you retire, you ain't shopping for cat food to supplement  your social security"  I get some strange looks but they remember that and that is the intent.  If you have financial freedom, you have a lot of options."

     I keep equating us to the modern day "Kulaks", the modern statist want the government to break us like their hero Stalin did to the Kulaks of old.  If they can take our money and wealth, they can control us.  You notice the 68,000 IRS agents that pedo joe talked about getting all those tax cheats?  you notice that all those cash transferring services have a $601 cap now before you have to declare it to the IRS?  The cloud people will have tax lawyers to protect them....we won't have anybody, they will come after us instead, easier than dealing with the lawyers of the "cloud people".

I recall that NY Governor Hotchel has asked people to shelter Illegals in their homes, how much longer before it is no longer a an "ask" but a "demand", remember to a democrat, especially a big state democrat, all the assets you own belong to them, you just don't know it yet, but you will.  and thanks to the crappy civics lessons we have had in the school system, they don't realize that one of the amendments kinda play into this...

the 3rd amendment, granted it was soldiers back then, but the principle was the same

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

A smart lawyer can use this to stretch this to cover "illegals" also, the principle is the same, the government is demanding that you house people in your home and you have no say in this.

     I ain't bashing the rich, I just don't want to be ruled by them. We have to keep paying attention to what those clowns in D.C are up to.  If the Donks get a super majority, I am afraid they will try to push through legislation and couch it in the language of "Fairness" or "equity" and tap into the "class envy" that they play on and really are successful at.   

Instead of eliminating the tax benefits, the economists say, Congress could modify the subsidies so the programs reward responsible saving without lavishing tax breaks on the wealthy.

For example, the tax subsidy could be capped for savers who amass $500,000 or $1,000,000 in retirement money. Or, the tax benefit could be limited to the first $10,000 or $20,000 in annual contributions.

“Most people, middle-class or lower, struggle to put food on the table and a roof over their head, and they don’t have the money left over to save,” said Steve Rosenthal, a senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

"The left is coming for your retirement".......again

 

I have blogged quite a bit about "Retirement accounts and 401K's" on my blog, y'all can follow the linkie and go down the rabbit hole for quite a while, LOL.  I saw this and thought, "well crap" they are going to try to soak us for more cash to feed the gaping maw of the leviathan".  We are nothing but sheep to be sheared as needed by .gov and occasionally slaughtered for mutton chops as necessary for a political purposes.  I have a small pension from Ford, and 2 401K's one from Ford and the other from my present employer.  I have a gut feeling that social security will not be there when I retire because when I retire it is forecasted to be at a negative balance, and nobody has the political will to make the changes to save the program.  The donks sure ain, it is a huge vote buying program for them, How many times y'all hear "Vote for the GOP and they will push Granny off the Cliff and cut her SS".  the GOP can't try to save it, because if they make changes, it will cost them politically for years.  It is the "3rd rail of Politics" not to be touched.  Several years ago several countries like Cyprus seized peoples bank accounts to shore up the government's finances, don't think that ours won't do the same thing.  I am almost of the belief that if push came to shove, ours would seize ours "in the name of fairness".  I remember in 2013 during the 2nd term of the anointed one, there was a proposal to take everyone's 401K and put it into SS and give them "credit" and call it "MYra accounts and managed by the Feds" They backpedaled big time by the reaction, but if there was any traction, they would have done it.  To me it was a trial balloon floated by an "outside leftwing consultant"....Ya right.  To me, it is your own personal responsibility to set up your financial security, not the government, if you rely on the government, you surrender your individual sovereignty to the state and do what they tell you, and become a slave to them, and also what they giveth, they also can taketh away.

      I shamelessly clipped this from Newsmax

Starting in 2026, a new rule from the Biden-era Secure 2.0

Act will limit how some workers can make retirement contributions.

The new rule is raising serious concerns not just for the upcoming year, but regarding long term precedent and implications for hardworking Americans.

The Secure 2.0 Act, introduced by one of the most left-wing members of Congress and signed into law by then-President Joe Biden, was passed in 2022 with the stated goal of helping Americans save more for retirement.

It includes automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans and expanded access for part-time workers. But one part of the law is especially controversial: changes to how "high-income earners" can make catch-up contributions to their retirement accounts.

Until now, workers aged 50-plus could choose between contributing to a traditional 401(k) (which lowers their taxable income now) or a Roth 401(k) (which is taxed now but grows tax-free).

Starting in 2026, workers earning $145,000 or more will be forced to use Roth-style accounts for catch-up contributions — meaning they'll pay taxes upfront whether they want to or not.

This Secure 2.0 provision removes choice and seems more like a quick way for the government to collect taxes than a real plan to help retirees.

Calling someone making $145,000 a "high earner" also feels out of touch, especially with how much inflation has increased costs in recent years.

People nearing retirement — many of whom have worked hard, paid taxes, raised families, and planned carefully — should not be penalized now when they need flexibility the most.

This rule isn't just about taxes — it's about control.

It shows how the government is slowly limiting Americans' ability to decide how to save for their future, all because of its own poor budgeting; another consequence of nearly a hundred years of the left's spending policies.

Unlike this approach, previous administrations (like President Trump's) trusted the people more — cutting taxes and growing the economy instead of reaching into pockets of hardworking Americans.

In the end, Americans should have the freedom to choose how to invest for retirement.

The Secure 2.0 Act’s catch-up rule takes that freedom away — and the people deserve to get it back.

This Secure 2.0 Act Development also represents a significant milestone in that it marks the government taking away a choice to citizens that had previously been available under current retirement savings provisions.

The chances of something similar happening in the years ahead are even greater with the out of control fiscal insanity perpetuated by the left in Congress and more than a few who call themselves conservatives.

Expect the government to try and get its hands on whatever they can to satisfy their short term spending thrills, especially regarding another program, the Social Security Ponzi scheme. 

Our current debt is so out-of-control that we can barely pay the interest alone on it.

The principal on the debt continues to raise daily.

The interest alone is on course to become the largest portion of the national budget.

And with Social Security starting to massively wane (only 80% of the program is funded after the year 2033), monies will be needed for that program as well.

The left-wing flubbed Social Security and they flubbed catch up contribution choices.

With such fiscal irresponsibility already upon us, and expected to get only worse, future leftist administrations will continue to come after our retirements and other sources of income.

A few Pithy Thoughts......

 Well Todays is Halloween where creatures, and crawlers and witches and parents escort various other creatures, crawlers and mummies to your door and you will bribe them off with "Candy", Normally a fun day for a kid and I remember charging my kid a 30% parent tax....Gotta get them used to the tax burden early you know.  But there are some unpopular things to pass out during halloween, when I was a kid, it was "Apples", not because it was healthy, but because there was rumors of sicko's putting razor blades in the apples to mess up the kids.....Don't know if it was true...but every apple we collected went right into the trash. Well today is a bit different, 

Meanwhile the CDC is changing their "suggestions" again.....They are either hyper political or hyper incompetent, or both...The net results is that I and many Americans flat out don't trust anything coming from the CDC anymore and it shouldn't be this way certains things you should trust, but I suppose the phrase "I'm from the Government and I am here to help you" has a certain mistrust involved in it, if you are a freedom loving American....Now if you are a statist loving leftist, then you worship big government....but to the rest of us....this is the image that we see......

Meanwhile the Xiden administration has proposed its latest "Get Rich Scheme to Soak the Rich", it is to go after potential or unrealized wealth ....What?   Really?   They are saying that it will only impact the Billionaires and millionaires......I call bovine scatology, you wonder why the Xiden Whitehouse wants to know about any transaction over $600 in your account and they are hiring 80,000 more IRS agents....and you know that they will hire "The Cream of the Crop......Sure they will..." well anyway this is a load of feldercarb...say your house goes up in value....yep it is unrealized wealth, and you will pay tax on it even if you don't sell it.....and when you do sell it, you will pay tax again..Same goes with your 401K's  it is a regulatory nightmare for the financial institutions.They gotta find more ways to pay for all the free goodies they promised people to get their vote.  But if you lose value in your house or your 401K or your other retirement accounts?.....try getting a refund from .gov......Yeah pull on the other one...it has bells on it.  The end results is that it ain't gonna "Soak the Rich", it is going to soak the middle class and strip more of our wealth as is the endgame to turn us from citizens to vassels or serfs.  We are the Kulaks of the Modern age.

 Meanwhile the National School Board and the FBI has teamed up to quell the latest "Threats to Democracy", you know the radicals burning and looting and causing mayhem wherever they go...BLM, Antifa, Islam,  no, you are wrong, ..... Parents that are upset about their kids being indoctrinated by the government to hate themselves with CRT, and the issues of the LGBTQ community and the issues of guys identifying as girls going into the girls bathroom and assaulting girls..And of course people found out a few months ago that the FBI didn't classify BLM or Antifa as "Hate organizations" so they didn't investigate or track them....I said as much last year because they recruit from the same collage campuses so they have a similar world view.

And finally there was an expose that the Oberlord of the Liberal Left, the Grand Poofda of the Deep State Herr Fauchi paid money to study Sand fleas eating live beagles as they were sedated to not move...I wonder how this is playing, but knowing the legacy media it was quashed by most of them because they worship the man whereas the rest of us would like to  shoot him, defenstrate, behead tar and feather,drop him in a deep hole and walk away because of the damage he has done to our country, families, and Western Civilization.

"Democrats Paid BLACK LIVES MATTER If Trump Won the 2020 elections"

 

I clipped this from SSG , This also was mentioned by the  ILOH at one of my favorite Websites, and he asked a question about people who were good at catching fraud.  Larry was an investigative accountant, and catching people stealing money was a specialty and he was pretty good at catching what he called "Red Flags" and there are a bunch of them, basically statistically impossibilities and he would ask others to vet what he comments and there are others that are more into number crunching than he is and they got more into it and they also agree with what he said and expounded on it.  you can check out on his website for more information.  The problem is that the media is totally in the tank for Biden and are burying the story because it is not in "their" interest to broadcast it. 

   

  I had heard rumblings about this back in 2021 about the "pay to play" that the donks had pushed, I had always said that the Antifa and the BLM rioters are the footsoldiers of Soros, and they would use them to support a political cause because to the left, political violence is a volume knob to turn up or down depending in the political situation, but to us on the right side of the aisle....

     

          The left wants to totally control the levers of government, they want to have total control over you and yours because they are the compassionate ones and they by their education, are totally superior to us "Dirt People", they want us to keep working and being productive to support the system so they can skim off it lord over us like the nobles of old.

 The endgame is to totally strip the power of the middle class because we are the checks and balances on those that would seek to rule us by imperial fiat.   We are considered the modern day Kulaks and the modern left wants to break us like their hero Stalin did to the Kulaks of old.  The Modern left wants to demonize us, harass us, ridicule us and strip us of our 2nd amendment rights so they can do to us like Stalin did to his "Kulaks"

Here is a quote from a rant I did back in 2015 before Donald Trump was even on the radar and Hillary was warming up for her coronation because it was "Her Turn".

In Rules for Radicals, several themes persist throughout Alinsky’s lessons to future community organizers. The most notable is his use of symbol construction to strengthen the unity within an organization. Often, he would draw on loyalty to a particular church or religious affiliation to create a firmly structured organization with which to operate. The reason being that symbols by which communities could identify themselves created strongly structured organizations that were easier to mobilize in implementing direct action. Once the community was united behind a common symbol, Alinsky would find a common enemy for the community to be united against.
The use of common enemy against a community was done to promote another theme of Rules for Radicals, nonviolent conflict as a uniting element in communities. Alinsky would find an external antagonist to turn into a common enemy for the community within which he was operating. Often, this enemy would be a local politician or agency that had some involvement with activity that was causing detriment to the community. His goal was to unite a group through conflict with an external antagonist. Once the enemy was established, the community would come together in opposition of it.
     This management of conflict heightened awareness within the community as to the similarities its members shared as well as what differentiated them from those outside of their organization. The use of conflict also allowed for the goal of the group to be clearly defined. With an established external antagonist, the community’s goal would be to defeat that enemy, whether it be a politician, policy, or opposing agency.

     I have mentioned in the past that the modern SJW's are Marxist and they are doing what history taught them.  I will  make a historical point..remember the external antagonist that is required for the SJW's?

According to the political theory of Marxism–Leninism of the early 20th century, the kulaks were class enemies of the poorer peasants. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin described them as "bloodsuckers, vampires, plunderers of the people and profiteers, who fatten on famine.” Marxism–Leninism had intended a revolution to liberate poor peasants and farm laborers alongside the proletariat (urban and industrial workers). In addition, the planned economy of Soviet Bolshevism required the collectivisation of farms and land to allow industrialisation or conversion to large-scale agricultural production. In practice, government officials violently seized kulak farms and murdered resisters; others were deported to labor camps.

    According to the political theory of Marxism–Obamaism of the early 21th century, the white people were class enemies of the poorer peasants. Barack Obama described them as "bloodsuckers, vampires, bitter clingers, plunderers of the people and profiteers, who fatten on white privilege.” Marxism–Obamaism intended a revolution to liberate poor urban people and farm laborers alongside the cube dweller. In addition, the planned economy of Globalism Bolshevism required the collectivization of assets to allow  the future green economy or conversion to large-scale clean energy production. In practice, government officials violently seized white middle class assets and murdered resisters; others were deported to FEMA camps..

     It isn't much of a stretch, I see history replaying before me, I see the same thing that Lenin and later Stalin did to break the power of the kulaks whom were land owning peasants.  In the modern sense, they need to break what they call the political power of the middle class to guarantee their power.  If they can use social pressure to make a law to seize the assets of people that are considered "class enemies".  Remember the 401K's that millions of people have....most of them are middle class and white.  That is an example.  That is billions of dollars sitting in there where the government can't touch it....But the government can change the rules, then seize it....You doubt me?  look at Greece, Cyprus and other places.  The government seized assets for the "Common good".  See a parallel?  the outrage you see against whites is just an excuse for plunder on a wide scale.  The government in the name of social justice and equality can and will seize assets....They will use the social outrage, the same thing Lenin and Stalin used against the Kulaks to further the transforming of Russia into the Soviet Union.  The enemy of the political elites are the middle class, the SJW's are useful idiots being used to create a have and an have not society.  The middle class is a check on the power of the political elite.  The elitist would have a complete society that depended on them for sustenance. Once you control their sustenance, you control them....then you can do whatever you wanted.  That is the Endgame."

    to todays article.

      Why this doesn't surprise me, that the democrats were neck buried with the BLM movement, I remembered them sending the DOJ community axtivist to "Help with the organizing for the Ferguson riots and earlier with the Trayvon protest.

Mike Benz stated that the Democratic Party anticipated Black Lives Matter mobilization if Joe Biden called for protests, particularly in the event President Donald Trump won the 2020 election.

Benz said Democrats assumed Black Lives Matter would respond to such a call but believed further testing was needed to assess how reliably the group could be mobilized during an election crisis.

Benz said the party viewed large-scale demonstrations as increasing the stakes and believed it was necessary to strengthen ties with Black Lives Matter in order to ensure responsiveness.

He described what he characterized as a deliberate effort by Democrats to secure loyalty through financial and political concessions.

“And they just assumed that black lives matter would mobilize in the event of a Biden call to take to the streets. But they said, well, we’ll need to do more testing. We just assumed they would in this war game. We should robustly test their likely receptivity so they can be mobilized at election time in case Trump clearly wins the election, the scale of recent demonstrations has increased the stakes for the Democrat party to build strong ties with Black Lives Matter and be responsive to the movement’s demands,” Benz said.

According to Benz, Democrats discussed providing substantial financial support to Black Lives Matter in order to secure that loyalty.

He specifically referenced a figure of $50 billion and linked the funding to business and labor organizations.

“Give black lives matter what they want. Give them $50 billion in Chamber of Commerce money,” Benz said.

Benz further claimed that a private agreement between the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO played a role in managing protest activity during that period.

He said the agreement was referenced in a Time magazine article by Molly Ball and was connected to decisions surrounding protest activity.

“If you remember, Chamber of Commerce signed the secret deal with the AFL CIO.

That was the crux of the Molly Ball Time magazine article to have the protesters stand down when it was announced by one so,” Benz said.

Benz stated that from June 2020 through November 2020, Democratic leaders discussed plans at senior levels to provide favors to Black Lives Matter with the expectation that those actions would later result in political cooperation.

He said the goal was to ensure that the organization would respond to calls for mass protests if Trump prevailed in the election.

“Between June 2020 and November 2020, the Democrat Party openly planned the highest levels to do favors for black lives matter, so that black lives matter would owe them favors and be responsive to a Biden call to take to the streets, to street protest Trump out of office if he won 52-47 in a landslide Electoral College victory,” Benz said.

Benz characterized these discussions as a strategic effort to prepare for election outcomes Democrats viewed as unfavorable.

He said the planning was tied directly to concerns about a clear Trump victory and the role that organized street protests could play in challenging the result.