WASHINGTON — Rep. Joseph Crowley said Tuesday that many Americans are not knitting a solid safety net to support themselves during their retirement years.
“Overall, saving rates have dropped from nearly 14 percent in the 1970s to less than six percent today, while nearly half of U.S. households don’t have a savings plan,” Crowley, D-N.Y., said in a talk to the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
In an hour-long presentation at the liberal think tank, Crowley, a member of the Ways and Means Committee, said many middle-class American families face savings and retirement crises because fewer private-sector workers today are covered under “defined-benefit” pension plans.
“It’s clear that savings are the path for middle class families to achieve the American Dream, yet that dream is being put at risk,” said Crowley, vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.
Crowley outlined several ideas to deal with what he called a savings crisis, including extending the myRA program introduced by the Obama Administration and codifying it into law.
MyRA, or My Retirement Account, is a retirement plan run out of the U.S. Treasury Department. It was spelled out by President Barack Obama in his 2014 State of the Union address and designed to provide a secure savings program for people without an employer-sponsored 401(k) plan. The Treasury launched a pilot project in mid-December.
Crowley’s other proposals include creating a USAccount and increasing the Child Tax Credit.
The USAccount would create a savings plan for every child upon birth with a start-up investment of $500 from the federal government, Crowley said. Families would be able to contribute an after-tax amount of $2,000 to the account every year. Crowley and Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., introduced a USAccount bill in September, but it didn’t pass the last session of Congress.
Crowley, who represents part of Queens and the Bronx, said he recognizes bipartisan support is important and he looks forward to working with both Democrats and Republicans.
“There’s nothing in the myRA program plan that the Republicans oppose,” Crowley said of the Obama plan. “What we are looking for is to make it permanent and we would be asking the Republican arm to do that as well.”
But Crowley also didn’t miss a moment to take a swipe at the Republican majority.
“Quite frankly, I don’t see many, if any, ideas about the future of our country coming right now from the Republican Party. But I work in a bipartisan way,” he said.