Did you hear?  Barrack Obama is targeting YOUR RETIREMENT ACCOUNT in his proposed budget for 2017.  I’m Bryan Ellis.  I’ll tell you what he’s saying, what it actually means… and why this is a HUGE ISSUE for self-directed investors RIGHT NOW in Episode #189.----Hello SDI Nation!  Welcome to the podcast of record for savvy self-directed investors like you!  Welcome to another dose of predictably profitable thinking!Well, well, well my friends… another day, another proposal to regulate and overtake your control of your money from our good buddies – overlords, anyone – in Washington DC.  Today, you get another episode of the unfortunate intersection of politics with your money.That’s right my friends… Obama’s new budget proposal for Fiscal 2017, released in the last 24 hours, squarely targets something called “Retirement Security”.  Right there in black and white on the White House’s OMB – that’s office of management & budget – web page is a nice little paragraph that says, and I’ll ask for your indulgence as I – very dramatically and with entertaining flare – read this delightful citation about Obama’s take on the retirement situation in America:“Millions of working Americans lack access to a retirement savings plan at work. Fewer than 10 percent of those without plans at work save in a retirement account on their own. In 2015, retirement security will be one of the key topics of the White House Conference on Aging. The Budget would make it easy and automatic for workers to save for retirement through their employer – giving 30 million more workers access to a workplace savings opportunity. The Budget also ensures that long-term part-time employees can participate in their employers’ retirement plans and provides tax incentives to offset administrative expenses for small businesses that adopt retirement plans.”Ah yes, my friends… Obama… the white knight riding into save the day for the poor and downtrodden… those without the basic fundamental right of a big retirement account.  That’s a right somewhere in the Constitution, isn’t it?  Oh… no it’s not.  But hey, that doesn’t matter to this crew.  So we’ll just use some simple reasoning to figure out the REAL motive.So Obama’s OMB tells us that millions of Americans lack access to a retirement savings plan at work… and that virtually nobody who doesn’t save at work saves on their own.Mr. Obama and team… the truth isn’t familiar to you, is it?  You see, there’s this thing called an IRA.  The IRS says that stands for Individual Retirement Arrangement… most of us think of it as an Individual Retirement Account.  And here’s who is qualified to have an IRA:  ANYBODY who earns income and is under age 70 ½.  That’s it.  Those are the qualifications.  You’ve got to earn money – meaning you’re employed – and you’re 70 ½.  There’s nothing about minimum income requirements… so it’s available to the poor, too.  There’s nothing about minimum number of work hours… so it’s available to those working part-time, too.  And oh yeah… anybody using an IRA can take that bad boy from one employer to another as many times as they want… because it’s not connected to the employer at all.  It’s all about the INDIVIDUAL… and it ALREADY does everything you’re proposing.  What you’re proposing will NOT, as you said, give 30 million more people access to saving for retirement in the workplace.  That opportunity exists already… and all of the proof is right there on the IRS website for all the world to see.Remember:  All you need is to earn income and to be 70 ½ or less.  That’s it.So, my friends… maybe there’s another agenda here?Of course there is!To detect it, we need to read just a bit further, like so:“The Budget also ensures that long-term part-time employees can participate in their employers’ retirement plans and provides tax incentives to offset administrative expenses for small businesses that adopt retirement plans.”Ah-ha!  So what the actual plan is NOT to give more retirement savings options to the un