Throughout my almost 30-year career, I’ve had the opportunity to serve our government in several roles and capacities — from the White House to Afghanistan to my home state of North Carolina. My unique experiences across campaigns guide my work with clients today.
While I still enjoy the thrill of a political campaign — and look forward to the America First reforms to the current system championed by President-elect Donald Trump and his administration — I don’t think I’m alone when I say I look forward to retirement every day.
I’m fortunate my career has afforded me a stable retirement fund, thanks to having access to a generous retirement savings vehicle through my employers. Like most 20-somethings, I wasn’t thinking about retirement when I started my first job. I was tempted to skip contributing to a retirement account when my direct supervisor looked at me and told me I’d be a fool not to max it out.
Given that job was on Capitol Hill, this workplace retirement fund program was the highly successful Thrift Savings Plan offered to federal workers. The program paid big dividends for my financial security.
Since then, I’ve worked several other jobs, but I know firsthand that not everyone has this luxury.
My dad had a blue-collar job, and he came from the generation where it seemed like everyone had a pension. But when he lost that job, my folks had to scrape together their life savings to start a small, family-owned business.
They worked hard to make ends meet, and they embody the spirit of working-class Americans. They ran a successful business, but they did not have a retirement benefit program with that business.
Today, more than 50 million Americans, many of whom are working in small businesses like my parents, don’t have access to employer-sponsored retirement plans. That’s millions of Americans who, despite working tirelessly to provide for themselves and their families, are vulnerable to economic decline and financial uncertainty later in life.
Even more troubling is that less than 1% of the $200 billion in annual tax benefits for retirement savings goes to the bottom 20% of income earners. For households nearing retirement age, the outlook is bleak, with only one in 10 low-income families having any savings at all.
This data is particularly alarming in North Carolina, where, as of 2023, 12.8% of the total population and 10.9% of North Carolinians 65 years or older live below the poverty line.
Luckily, there is a solution in Congress to address this alarming gap in our retirement system. A bipartisan group of senators, including North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, has introduced the Retirement Savings for Americans Act (RSAA).
The bill would create a retirement program modeled after the Thrift Savings Plan for any worker who does not have access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan. As a former TSP beneficiary, I know the positive difference this sort of plan can make.
The legislation would also provide low- and moderate-income earners with a government match of up to 5% of their income. A worker earning $30,000 a year who contributes 5% of their income over 40 years with the government match could retire with up to $600,000 in savings.
You really see the impact of compounding interest when you’re 52 and have been saving for decades; it doesn’t take much to start at 22 to build a significant nest egg over the course of your career.
This bill has received bipartisan support in the House and Senate. Policymakers recognize how important it is to give workers a stake in our free market system, and avenues to both build wealth for retirement and to pass it on to the next generation.
The time for this bill is now. President-elect Trump, his incoming administration and our legislators must work together to protect the working class and the American Dream — which includes a stable, prosperous and well-deserved retirement.
Jonathan Felts is a Republican political consultant who served as senior adviser to U.S. Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Rep.-elect Addison McDowell (N.C.-6) and Rep.-elect Brad Knott (N.C.-13
