Minneapolis to discuss gun control. And the cost of the 2012 elections are in. The final price tag is estimated at 7 billion. According to the Consumer Confidence index, half the respondents said that the financial crisis went under the labour Retirement Plan. We are interested in hearing from you if the financial crisis delay your retirement. Want to give us a call, the numbers are on your screen. For republicans, 2025853881. For democrats, 2025853880. For independents, 2025853882. If you want to reach out to us on social media, you can send us a tweet at twitter. Com cspanwj. Around 40 people so far responding on facebook. And you can send us an email to journal cspan. Org. The survey that was mentioned talks a little bit about respondents and what they were asked about as far as their Retirement Plans and if the financial crisis be laid all of that. It says that respondents delaying retirement, nearly half of them planned to do so. This was done in 2010, but predicting the number retiring, it was important to consider three developments host when they were asked as a result of the financial crisis if you are a household member planning to postpone retirement. In the first 45 minutes this morning from you, we want to hear about your Retirement Plans and of the financial crisis delayed that. Tell us yes, no, and if you could, how those plans changed. The numbers are on your screen. For republicans, 2025853881. For democrats, 2025853880. For independents, 2025853882. You can send us tweets at twitter. Com cspanwj, facebook at facebook. Com cspan, and e mail as well. A couple of facebook respondents, this is from fred host so, when it comes to your Retirement Plans, have things changed when it comes to your Retirement Plans . Allen joins us on first up, our independent line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan. Host go ahead. Have your plans change . Caller a lot. I have been in limbo, unemployed for about eight months now. But it to best way to a budget a balanced budget would be reinstating the tax on wall street transactions. There are quadrillions of dollars in turnover and a 1 tax would generate trillions of dollars in revenue. Host talk about your retirement strategy a little bit. Host there is not caller there is none. That is the point. Average people are in the same kind of predicament, not knowing what what do they call it . They want to have stability and predictability. Where is it . Host when it comes to yourself, have you put anything away . Caller ipad, but it is all gone now. I would like to see a National Infrastructure project. We could put people to work. Host steve from twitter host next were going to charlie. Mississippi, independent line. Caller good morning. I am from jackson, where the capital is. I retired in 2009. It is a good thing. I was a civil servant. Now in the state house there is legislation where some young republicans want to phase out our state Retirement Program for civil servants. House bill 486 allows people to just elect, if they want to contribute to like a personal retirement system instead of state retirement. Host as far as your personal plan, is that grandfathered by these proposals from the legislature . Caller most of the bill has been in committee. They grandfathered me in because they have retired because i have retired. The same thing will for the retirement system, it will bleed people also. Host you do not have to mention specifics, but do you receive a monthly benefit, then . It is caller it is about 1,300. I have saved up about 30,000. I am set up, in a way. Host are you going to take Social Security . Have you . Caller i am 58, it will be awhile. Host what did you do for the government . Caller i was a librarian. Host that is charlie, calling us from mississippi. You can choose the line that best represents you and tell us about your Retirement Plan and of the financial crisis delayed or change those for you. This is from twitter host sandy, washington, democratic line. Caller how are you . Host well, thank you. Caller i was just going to say, not because he wanted to, but i had retired, if you want to call at that. I was more of a housemother because my daughter had cancer and i quit working and took care of the kids for a while as she went through the chemo and radiation. I played housemother for a while. Sam has always been a decent mechanic of heavy equipment. He had a foremans job here in washington. He really quite loved his job. And then they sold the dealership to a company out of california and he worked there for another four years, and two years prior to when he could retire and collect Social Security they laid him off because of the financial crash, i guess that is what you would want to college. It put us in a real bind for a little what to call it. It put us in a real bind for a little while. He waited. Host because you live on Social Security, how much of your day to day life is affected . How . Caller there have been times in our life when we have worried a little bit about money, we have never been middleclass is what i always considered we were, but you deal with it every day. Now it is worse, because you are on this fixed income and really do not have we do not have a huge safety net, i guess is what you would call it. We had some savings, some 401k. It is a worry. Every day it is what you pay first and you have a daughter struggling with medical issues and you try to help, you know what i mean . It has been very hard. Host that was sandy from kings, washington. Again, you could join us of a phone to discuss your financial plans your Retirement Plans and the financial crisis. For democrats, 2025853880. For republicans, 2025853881. For independents, 2025853882. It was interesting to note that when at our last caller from what at our last caller was from washington, it that our last caller was from washington. Washington came in first, state bystate, 56 of the respondents from that state said that they delayed plans because of a crisis, followed by arizona, michigan, colorado, and florida rounding out the top. At the bottom of the list, some of those states would include new york, missouri, ohio, South Carolina, and pennsylvania. This was from the Conference Board of the Consumer Confidence survey. Asking people about their Retirement Plans because of the economy and financial crisis, that is what we are asking about you this morning, if the financial crisis has delayed those plants for you. Give us a call. Robert, clinton, md. , you are on, sir. Caller 401k, in the early part of november my three kids were named the beneficiaries. We did all the paperwork. Here it is, since february 4, and i have not got the money yet. The company that has the 401k, first of all, you cannot find them. I work in the credit union. They would not give you any information about the company that had the 401k. Here it is, the fourth, and they still have not got the money. You have got to wait a long time to get your money. Host tell us a little bit about your plans, because of the limbo you are in. What does that mean for you . Caller how it means i have to be very careful about four hope 401k. If something happened to me, i would release the money to my kids or Something Like that. If they needed it right away, they could get it, but they still have not received the money. I still do not know how these things work. Because of the interest, i do not know. Thank you very much. Host jacksonville, ark. , good morning. Caller how are you . Caller host fine, go ahead. Caller in 2008, when the financial crisis started, i was working at a job on the pipeline, i was investing my 401k and everything. The crash, no one was able to build anything, so everyone in this shop had lost their job. The plant had closed. I had to live on my 401k until i could find a job. And then i got sick and wound up having to live on it. With all of that going on, i lost my house, my family. The financial crisis took everything. Now i am left living on what little disability i guess and, you know, the people up there in the banks and everything that ended up getting all that money, they did not do nothing as far as helping the people that lost their homes, do know . I was working every day, paying for their homes, you know . I was working every day, paying for a home. It wiped a lot of people out and there was never any restitution for nobody. Host you have a message for washington . Caller i have no idea. I just live my life, dayto day, doing what i have to do. Sometimes i have to sacrifice medication, or food, sometimes it is a constant fight. If i had had my job i would have had the insurance to take care of my injuries and stuff like that, it just wiped me out. Host this is liz from twitter new host you may have watched the super bowl yesterday. During it, cbs news and cbs sports conducted an interview with the president on a number of topics, including part of the conversation turning to the economy. [video clip] you think there is going to have to be additional revenue . There is no doubt that we need additional revenue coupled with smarter spending reductions to bring down the deficit. We can do it in a gradual way so that there is less of an impact. These deductions that certain folks can take advantage of, the average person cannot. Not everyone has access to Cayman Island accounts, the average person does not have access to carry interest income, where they wind up paying a much lower rate on the billions that they earned. We want to make sure that the whole system is fair and transparent and that we are reducing our deficit in a way that does not hamper growth and reduce the kinds of strategies that we need in order to make sure that we are creating a strong middleclass. Host jim from South Carolina, on the republican line, good morning. Caller how are you . Host well, thank you. Caller you keep mentioning and hearing people talking about pensions, but pensions are just invested the same way that 401k is. Stocks and bonds. People with pensions lost money as well. I heard cases where people were not going to get as much money. If someone is manages their 401k, i do not know, it needs to be managed properly and prudently. But not all things had to be bailed out. Many people who went wild and crazy in realestate got greedy, and we bailed them out. It is not just onesided, where the banks were the only villain. Lets face it, we got crazy in the Technology World and the realestate world. People are still walking away from loans. Mr. Obama who you had on a moment ago, he gave cover for the gaping holes in the banking system. Every 40 or 50 years, real estate does this. It creates problems and is a drag. I hope that somehow we are able to get through this. Thankfully, the best technological invention ever made is the mute button. You use it when the president comes on tv. It is so nice. Host a couple of stories from arizona republic. Talking about remaining allusive, according to the headline, the president s allies in the Peace Process gained traction. Host this follows up in todays the washington post, in the world section. Without some kind of initiative under way, the administration fears that the United States will be accused of abandoning the region. Host patricia, st. Paul, the soda. Minnesota. You are on. Caller on for what . Host your Retirement Plans and if they have been delayed by the financial crisis. Caller financial plans, depending on yourself, have a lot to do with whether you can retire or not. Social Security Assistance goes right into Social Security after that. I have two plans, Pension Plans. My husband died when he was 66 and he had a pension plan. He did not draw any Social Security. He did not draw any of his pension plan. I have the ability to draw both. My pension, his pension, and Social Security. That makes a difference as to whether you can retire or not. I retired because of health issues. I think, when they Start Talking about the private sector doing the same as the unions, it is not going to make a difference. It is not going to be able to do that. To my knowledge, the private sector never has a plan. What happens with a Union Pension is that the workers come behind you and put money in the pension plan for them. We put money in the pension plan for us. They do it for them. 401k and private Pension Plans do not have that. Host that is patricia. This is jordan, from facebook host again, our conversation for the next 20 minutes or so, the financial crisis. If you can give us a call, do so using the numbers on our screen. For republicans, 2025853881. For democrats, 2025853880. For independents, 2025853882. Robert, fort walton beach, florida. Hi. Caller the man from South Carolina was spot on, we cannot rely on the 401 k. They were just like regular stock markets. The trick is you do not have to have a mortgage going into retirement. You do not need to wait for 10 years until you retire to start saving for retirement. Social security is just going to be a supplement. Do not have much, do not have a mortgage. Takeout the annuity, i will not let uncle sam tax me to death. I will buy some lowend real estate that you can rent. If youre smart, you can keep it under the radar. Host what did you do . Before you retire . Retired . Caller i was in the Swimming Pool game. With those bad habits, they will take a lot of your money. Quit those bad habits, they will take a lot of your money. Host you have other ways of supplementing . Caller i still have my 401k and a little bit from the pool co. , but you live on what you have got and i will take my Social Security at 62. I have 5 cents. I was able to travel, but you sit there thinking the you can retire the older you get an travel and travel. I enjoy where i am at. Host if Current Conditions exist, will you be able to keep going for the near future . Caller without a doubt. I will not let them tax me to death on the annuities. Get the rental income off of that. Host here is twitter host a couple of stories about technology. The lead story from the new york times, taking a look at Cyber Security. The headline says that these broad powers include a secret legal review on americas growing arsenal of cyber weapons. Host if you go to the pages of the financial times, page 4 if you get the paper at home, writing about stronger Cyber Security measures coming by the end of the month host virginia beach, good morning. Joe, democratic line. Caller i did not postponed plans to retire. The reason i did not have to do that is because i purchased a plan where if you put your money into that, roth, that is the only time the government can touch it. Otherwise it is taxfree. But my concern is that even in the bank today the inflation alone begins to take your money in. You have to engage and participate. I think that all of us need to do if a little bit more. That is my comment. Host fred, independent line, maryland. Caller this is more of a question. The benefits of companies and their retirement packages, companies that come in, like ing, putting it on retirement packages, the people that go in to sell it, they make a large percentage of those sales, that is how they make their income. I do not understand benefits for a worker when such a large amount of money is detracted from the to pay their sales goals. Host do you have a personal strategy when it comes to retirement . Host i have a 401k. I also invest in five specific stocks. Everything is a longterm plan. Host another chris joins us, from San Francisco, california. Democratic line. Caller i was pretty much forced into retirement, lost my job in 2008 and i have been looking for fulltime work since. Collegeeducated, 20 years of experience. I live in San Francisco in an area where did score where discrimination based on age is encouraged. Discrimination based on race is encouraged as well. It is a shame. My senators, basically if you are not from a protected class, you do not exist. These people i saved up a lot of money over my life and had planned on retiring at 65, like everyone else, but i spent a lot of my retirement just trying to survive, which is a shame. Host was your retirement 401k . Personal savings . How did it break down . Caller it was a mix. Host , n. C. , joe is joining us on the independent line. Ash, n. C. , joe is joining us on the independent line. Caller all of a sudden everything fell apart several years ago. I could have retired, but i saw the writing on the wall, businesses started falling down and everyone who has a retirement, god bless you, but it is so hard. I feel bad for the grandchildren who they all say are not going to make it. It is terrible, this country has put a hole in front of everything else. They have got to quit doing all this nonsense. Host the outgoing secretary of defense was on meet the press, yesterday. According to the headline, the first line from leon panetta, it would be a shameful and irresponsible act for congress to allow the automated budget cuts known as sequestration to defect. To take affect. Here is a bit of that conversation. [video clip] we have to plan for that possibility. So many members are saying that they would let it take place. Why in gods name would members of congress elected by the American People take a step, badly damaging our national defense, undermining the support for our men and women in uniform. Host you said that this would be catastrophic, but it is not specific. Sequester, are we going to be less safe . It is not just sequester. That is the piece that was missing in that discussion. Under a