President signs order creating ‘MyRA’ plan

Retirement, wages at forefront as post-address tour kicks off at Pa. steel mill

President Obama speaks to a crowd of about 1,000 during his visit to U.S. Steel’s Irvin plant in West Mifflin, Pa. He reiterated his call to make this a year of action.

WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. — President Obama reminded Congress on Tuesday night that he has a pen, and he wielded it on Wednesday as he came to U.S. Steel’s Irvin plant to sign an order establishing a plan for retirement savings.

The campaign-style appearance before an invited crowd of more than 1,000 plant workers and supporters was Part I of a series of post-State of the Union appearances by the Democratic President intended to thaw the policy impasse in Washington and restore the administration’s momentum in the face of Republican resistance and his own lagging poll numbers.

After a brief tour of the sprawling West Mifflin plant, Mr. Obama renewed the appeals for progress he made before a joint session of Congress the night before. He closed by signing an order directing his Treasury secretary to establish rules for a new retirement plan, designed to make it easier for workers with modest incomes to begin saving.

After a flight from Maryland, where he had touted his call for a higher minimum wage, he arrived at the plant and was greeted by Mario Longhi, the U.S. Steel president and chief executive officer; United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard, and Anthony Bridge, the firm’s vice president of engineering, research, and development.

Sporting a white hardhat with his name on the front, the President then headed on a brief plant tour led by Amy Smith-Yoder, the plant manager, and Kevin McKelvey, the president of USW Local 2227.

They led him past a cold reducing mill, a large bank of machines that pare the thickness of steel sheets destined for products such as home appliances.

Over the din of the machinery, Mr. Obama chatted with a handful of steelworkers before heading back to a makeshift stage where plant employees in orange and white hardhats formed a backdrop along with a massive red generator rotor and large gleaming rolls of steel.

To his left was a banner proclaiming “Opportunity For All” that hung from a crane spanning the cavernous unheated mill floor.

The President’s speech reprised highlights of his address Tuesday night with renewed vows to make this a year of action, with or without the cooperation of his congressional adversaries.

“I don’t know what their plans are, but I choose a year of action,” he said, adding, “The truth is the middle class has been taking it on the chin since way before the financial crisis hit.”

To remedy that, Mr. Obama urged lawmakers to pass a minimum-wage increase, a call he had repeated earlier in the day at a stop at a Costco store in Lanham, Md., a Washington suburb, while pointing to his executive order raising the wage floor for federal contractors to the level he would like Congress to approve for all workers — $10.10 an hour.

He ended his speech moving to a desk by the podium where he signed an order establishing the new retirement vehicle that he had promoted in his speech.

The idea is to offer a “starter” account to let people start saving even if they can’t afford the large initial investment often needed for a private, commercial retirement account.

Dubbed “MyRA,” the program will operate like a Roth IRA, so contributions to the plan will be made with after-tax dollars. That means account-holders could withdraw the funds at any time without paying additional taxes.

“And it’s simple,” Mr. Obama said. “Workers can contribute through automatic deductions from their paychecks, just like those of you who have an employer-sponsored pension fund can do. They can keep the same account even if they change jobs. ... It’s safe; these account balances will never go down in value. They’re backed by the full faith and credit of the American government.”

Along with his pitch for the new savings plan, Mr. Obama renewed his argument for the health-care act whose troubled launch battered his popularity.

“And if you know somebody who isn’t covered,” he said, “call them up, sit them down, help them get covered at healthcare.gov by March 31st.”

The Block News Alliance consists of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. James O’Toole is a reporter for the Post-Gazette.

Contact James O’Toole at: jotoole@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1562.