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The myRA program was deemed a conservative way to save and tailored for people who were not accustomed to investing in the markets because account holders could not lose money. The funds were invested in United States Treasury savings bonds, which paid the same variable rate as the Government Securities Fund, available to federal employees through the government retirement plan.

There was not a minimum deposit or a fee. But the maximum workers could save was only $15,000. At that point the balance would be rolled over to a private-sector retirement account, perhaps a more traditional portfolio of stocks and bonds.

Mark Iwry, who built the program over nearly six years while he served as senior adviser to the Treasury secretary during the Obama administration, said it had been designed to have many uses over time. Besides being a safe way to introduce people to saving for retirement, it was expected to serve as a key investment option within some state-run retirement programs geared to the tens of millions of people without access to employer-sponsored plans that are in the process of being created.

The program was also seen as a place to direct a portion of a tax refund, and as a bucket of sorts that could be used to capture the small sums that are automatically rolled over by employers from larger 401(k) plans when workers change jobs.

The decision to cancel the myRA in its introductory phase reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of its purposes and potential as a long-term investment in working families economic security and financial independence, Mr. Iwry said. There are several legitimate ways to assess a programs costs and benefits prematurely is not one of them.

The closing of myRA is the latest step taken by the Trump administration to reverse Obama-era savings initiatives and investor protections. In his first month in office, President Trump requested the review of a rule that requires brokers to put their customers interest first when handling their retirement money. He later signed a joint resolution that reversed a rule that would have made it easier for states to create their own retirement savings programs.

Several states including California, Illinois and Oregon are moving ahead anyway. And while some states had plans to include myRA as a safe investment alternative, that will no longer be an option.

The program offers a really good solution, said Tobias Read, state treasurer of Oregon, which is running a pilot of its retirement savings plan this month and had expected to use myRA as its capital preservation alternative. Without it, we will be forced to look at other options, which frankly arent as good for that purpose.

On July 14, a group of Democrats in Congress wrote a letter to Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, asking that his department demonstrate its support for the myRA program.

Given that this administration has worked to reduce access to retirement plans for millions of Americans, the letter said, it is more critical than ever for the Treasury to strengthen one of their remaining options for retirement savings.

A version of this article appears in print on July 29, 2017, on Page B2 of the New York edition with the headline: Treasury Ends Obama-Era Retirement Savings Program.

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Treasury Ends Obama-Era Retirement Savings Plan - New York Times

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is accusing top political aides of President Obama of making hundreds of requests during the 2016 presidential raceto unmask the names of Americans in intelligence reports, including Trump transition officials.

Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), in a letter to Director of National Intelligence Dan CoatsDan CoatsIntelligence chairman accuses Obama aides of hundreds of unmasking requests Overnight Cybersecurity: Kushner says no collusion, improper contacts with Russia | House poised to vote on Russia sanctions | U.S., Japan to beef up cyber cooperation Trump intel chief: No agencies dispute Russian election meddling MORE, said the requests were made without specific justifications on why the information was needed.

The letter was provided to The Hill from a source in the intelligence community.

In March, Nunes disclosed that he had seen data suggesting Trump campaign and transition officials were having their names unmasked by departing officials in the Obama White House.

National Security Adviser Susan Rice and CIA Director John Brennan have acknowledged making such requests though they insisted the requests were for legitimate work reasons.

Nunes recused himself from his committees work on its investigation over Russias meddling in the 2016 campaignafter a controversy over his charges about Obama-era unmasking.

The chairman had reviewed intelligence reports on White House grounds that he said showed unmasking of Trump officials by Obama aides. Democrats accused him of working with the White House to make the disclosures.

InThursdaysletter, Nunes said the total requests for Americans names by Obama political aides numbered in the hundreds during Obamas last year in office and often lacked a specific intelligence community justification. He called the lack of proper justifications a serious deficiency.

His letter noted requests from senior government officials, unlike career intelligence analysts, made remarkably few individualized justifications for access to the U.S. names.

The committee has learned that one official, whose position had no apparent intelligence related function, made hundreds of unmasking requests during the final year of the Obama administration, Nunes wrote. Of those requests, only one offered a justification that was not boilerplate.

Sources familiar with the Nunes letter identified the official as then-U.N. Ambassador Samantha PowerSamantha PowerIntelligence chairman accuses Obama aides of hundreds of unmasking requests Overnight Cybersecurity: Facebook invests in group fighting election hacking | House panel advances DHS cyber revamp bill | Lawmakers mull cyber insurance for small businesses Former Obama UN ambassador to meet with Senate Intelligence panel: report MORE.

Power did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nunes also wrote that Obama-era officials sought the identities of Trump transition officials within intelligence reports.

Nunes said he intends to introduce legislation to address concerns about the unmasking process impacting Americans' privacy.

Ordinarily, Americans whose email or phone dataor conversations are intercepted by the National Security Agency without a warrant overseas are legally required to have their names redacted or masked with descriptions like U.S. person 1 to protect their identities in intelligence reports.

But beginning in 2011, Obama loosened the rules to make it easier for intelligence officials and his own political aides to request that the names be unmasked so they could better understand raw intelligence being gathered overseas.

The change has been criticized by liberal groups like the ACLU and conservatives like Nunes because of the privacy implications.

See the rest here:
Intelligence chairman accuses Obama aides of hundreds of unmasking requests - The Hill

Barack Obama on Friday credited supporters of the Affordable Care Act for saving his signature legislation from Republican-led efforts to dismantle it, while the former president acknowledged that the law can be improved.

Obamacare remains the law "because of everyone who mobilized, organized and made their voices heard," a spokesman for Obama said in a statement following the GOPs failed attempt to repeal parts of the legislation.

"President Obama has always said we should build on this law, just as members of both parties worked together to improve Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid over the years," Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis said. "President Obama still believes that it is possible for Congress to demonstrate the necessary bipartisanship and political courage to keep delivering on the promise of quality, affordable health insurance for every American."

GOP efforts to repeal parts of Obamacare fell short early Friday morning when three Republican senators, along with all Democrats, voted against it.

Democratic groups flooded the halls of the Capitol and GOP town hall events around the country to protest the GOPs repeal efforts.

"The Affordable Care Act has always been about something bigger than politics," Obama's statement said. "It's about the character of our country.... It's about the dreams protected, and the untold misery and ruin prevented."

Obama had remained largely on the sidelines during the debate over Obamacare this year.

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Obama Credits Supporters For Thwarting Health Care Repeal - NBCNews.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Friday gave companies an extra year to comply with an Obama-era regulation meant to crack down on corporations that try to minimize their U.S. tax bills by shifting profits abroad to countries with lower tax rates.

The regulation, known in corporate tax circles as the "385 rule," is intended to combat a tax-avoidance technique called earnings-stripping, in which multinational corporations transfer taxable income from a U.S. subsidiary to a foreign affiliate in the guise of tax-deductible interest payments on internal debt.

The rule, which Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is now reviewing as part of the Trump administration's push for deregulation, seeks to eliminate the incentive for earnings-stripping by reclassifying certain loans as equity under Section 385 of the U.S. tax code.

The change converts tax-deductible interest payments employed by the schemes into taxable stock dividends.

Finalized last October, the regulation required corporations to file documentation on their internal loans with the IRS by a January 2018 deadline. In a public notice issued on Friday, the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service pushed the deadline back to January 2019.

Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Bernard Orr

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US government delays Obama earnings-stripping rule deadline - Reuters

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has been diagnosed with a brain tumor called a primary glioblastoma. (AP photo)

A fake news story that claimed former President Barack Obama tweeted that he wanted U.S. Sen. John McCain to die from a brain tumor originally came from a parody website looking to troll conservatives.

The headline on a July 20, 2017, post on DailyThings.world read, "Barack Obama tweets sick attack on John McCain, says he should have died." Facebook users flagged the story here and on NewsFeedHunter.com as being potentially fabricated, in an effort to cut down on fake news.

The story included an image of a July 19 tweet from Obama that read, "John McCain is NOT a war hero. If there were any God in heaven, he would have died from that brain tumor." The post said Obama quickly deleted the tweet.

The story came on the heels of the announcement that McCain, R-Ariz., was diagnosed with a brain tumor called a primary glioblastoma. The American Brain Tumor Association said that a 2009 study showed almost 10 percent of patients may potentially live five years or longer. The 80-year-old is considering treatment options.

McCain returned to the U.S. Senate for votes on Republican health care reform, most recently casting a deciding vote against a last-ditch "skinny repeal" bill to end the Affordable Care Act.

But lets be clear: This story is completely fake.

There was no such tweet for Obama to delete. It was no doubt the product of any number of websites that allow you to create a fake tweet that appears to come from another account.

The only thing Obama tweeted on July 19 were words of encouragement for McCain, whom Obama defeated in the 2008 presidential election.

"John McCain is an American hero & one of the bravest fighters I've ever known. Cancer doesn't know what it's up against. Give it hell, John," Obama wrote.

There is no record of another tweet from Obamas account that day.

The fake story originated the same day on OurLandOfTheFree.com, a parody website with hidden registration information. It appears to be affiliated with a network of websites run by liberal trolls who run fake news sites in an attempt to fool conservatives.

The footer note on OurLandOfTheFree.com said that the site makes "no guarantee that what you read here is true. In fact, it most definitely is not." It echoes the warning on its About Us page.

Our ruling

Bloggers wrote, "Barack Obama tweets sick attack on John McCain, says he should have died."

The story and the tweet it described appeared on multiple outlets, but sprang from a website devoted to writing absurd stories about liberals in an attempt to fool conservatives. Obamas only tweet about McCains brain cancer was encouraging.

We rate this statement Pants on Fire!

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Fake tweet said Obama hoped McCain would die from brain tumor - PolitiFact (blog)