With overwhelming bipartisan support and little public attention, the House of Representatives recently passed the most significant reforms to individual retirement accounts in more than a decade.
But while support in the Senate is also strong and bipartisan, a few recalcitrant Republicans, notably Ted Cruz of Texas, are threatening to hold up passage over small pet issues.
We need the Senate to go along. The improvements are important because the shift away from traditional, employer-based plans that began in the early 1970's has proved deeply flawed tens of millions of Americans are now facing retirement without adequate financial resources.
Most importantly, the legislation would facilitate the ability of holders of 401(k)'s and IRA's to use the balances in their accounts to purchase annuities that would provide a steady, predictable income from retirement until death.
Compare that with the current system, under which Americans with individual accounts must currently decide how to invest their retirement savings as they are accumulating them.
That was an insane idea. Why did we turn ordinary Americans into money managers, burdened with the task of figuring out which funds to invest in or, even crazier, which individual stocks to buy? How many of us would fix our own plumbing or take out our own appendixes?
Steven Rattner, counselor to the Treasury Secretary in the Obama administration.
