An economic advisor to former President George W. Bush unveiled a proposal on Friday to reform the current retirement savings system by replacing the current deduction for contributions to retirement savings accounts with a flat-rate refundable credit that would be deposited directly into a saver's account.
The proposal, put forth by William Gale, who is currently a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, would replace the existing tax deductions with a flat-rate refundable credit that serves as a matching contribution into a retirement savings account.
In introducing the proposal at a briefing on Friday, Gale said that as the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction deliberates on medium-term budget options, "consideration of reforms to strengthen the private retirement system would be appropriate and constructive, especially since any plausible long-term fiscal plan will involve some reductions in Social Security and Medicare benefits."
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Melanie Waddell
Melanie is senior editor and Washington bureau chief of ThinkAdvisor. Her ThinkAdvisor coverage zeros in on how politics, policy, legislation and regulations affect the investment advisory space. Melanie’s coverage has been cited in various lawmakers’ reports, letters and bills, and in the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule in 2024. In 2019, Melanie received an Honorable Mention, Range of Work by a Single Author award from @Folio. Melanie joined Investment Advisor magazine as New York bureau chief in 2000. She has been a columnist since 2002. She started her career in Washington in 1994, covering financial issues at American Banker. Since 1997, Melanie has been covering investment-related issues, holding senior editorial positions at American Banker publications in both Washington and New York. Briefly, she was content chief for Internet Capital Group’s EFinancialWorld in New York and wrote freelance articles for Institutional Investor. Melanie holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Towson University. She interned at The Baltimore Sun and its suburban edition.
