Retirement savings class?

Commentators on the political left and right agree about one thing: There are too many political disagreements in Washington, D.C. Of course, the best way to change that would be for lawmakers to find common ground and begin passing legislation virtually everyone can agree on.

Where to begin? How about a program backed by moderates, liberals and the conservative Heritage Foundation? That’s KidSave and would be created by a bill I introduced, HR 1041, the Social Security KidSave Accounts Act.

KidSave isn’t exactly a new idea. It has been around a few years and enjoys genuine bipartisan support. It was first proposed in 2000 by former Democratic Sens. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska and Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York. These liberal icons were joined by several conservative Republicans, including Sens. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley of Iowa. Former Louisiana Sen. John Breaux, a moderate Democrat, also was a staunch supporter.

This common-sense program would allow every American child regardless of parental income to save tens of thousands of dollars for retirement.

KidSave is a fairly simple legislative proposal. At birth, every child would get a $2,000 loan from the Social Security Administration. The initial amount would be linked to inflation, so it would increase slightly every year. The money would be deposited into an account that couldn’t be opened until the owner retires or dies.

This account would be managed by the Thrift Savings Plan, the same plan that federal employees — including those of us in Congress — use to manage our retirement funds. Right now there are three low-risk, low-cost options offered through the TSP: A government-bond fund, a corporate-bond fund and a stock index fund.

The child’s parents would decide into which fund to deposit the initial investment, and it would grow untapped for decades and decades. According to a study by the Heritage Foundation, the opportunity for growth is so great that, even if no money was ever added to the initial investment, that loan could still grow to $50,000 by the time the child reached retirement age.

Parents and grandparents could contribute additional money tax-free. They could add as much as $500 per year every year until the child reaches age 19 and that money could be diverted from their own retirement plans. That’s an additional $9,500, all of it compounded year after year until the child reaches retirement age.

This is one of those rare Washington programs with the power to change everyone’s outlook for the better.

Wealthy people have always taken advantage of long-term investments — indeed, families such as the Rockefellers and Kennedys have lived for decades off the money earned by their forefathers. Today, thousands of middle-class people open education accounts for newborn grandchildren.

But KidSave would allow all children, from all socioeconomic backgrounds, to enjoy the benefits of compound interest, to build a retirement nest egg at an early age.

Imagine an entire generation of working-class senior citizens with tens of thousands of dollars to spend as they wish. They would be virtually guaranteed a secure retirement and could spend their newfound wealth on themselves or share it with their children and grandchildren.

A portion of the money would be passed from generation to generation, either as gifts to grandchildren or through donations to churches or community groups. That would help build a more secure future for generations to come.

Best of all, KidSave is a loan from Social Security, not a gift or a new government entitlement. That’s one reason it enjoys such broad support. And it doesn’t cost taxpayers anything. When the account owner reaches age 30 — an age at which most people are well along in their working lives — the original loan would be repaid in five annual installments. The repayment amount would be linked to inflation, so an initial $2,000 loan would be returned to the government as, say, $3,500.

Lawmakers today may be deadlocked over how to reform Social Security, how to improve welfare and how to help our schools, to name just a few difficult issues.

But we could start on those if we would first set up common-sense programs that enjoy wide support. KidSave seems like a good place to start building a better future for all Americans.

Jerry Weller, Illinois Republican, is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee.