Democratic Congressman is already floating the idea.

A wide range of sweeping changes to the 401(k) system were proposed Tuesday at a hearing on how the market crisis has devastated retirement savings plans.

Chief among them was eliminating $80 billion in tax savings for higher-income people enrolled in 401(k) retirement savings plans.

This was suggested by the chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor.

“With respect to the 401(k), it appears to be a plan that is not really well-devised for the changes in the market,” Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., said.

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So this is not merely speculation.....

The savers are now financing the $700 billion bailout along with those who spent -- and may be forced to foot an even bigger bill as the baby boomers retire, says Wilcox, a former economist for the Securities and Exchange Commission who blogs here.

"If lots of people don't save and end up upon retirement being poorer than they would like to be, there will certainly be pressure to impose taxes on working people to more richly fund the retirements of individuals who have not saved," he says. "You'll see political pressure for wealth transfer -- and if you have saved responsibly, you'll be paying for people who have not."

Wilcox argues that savers who are dutifully contributing to their 401(k) plans face a real risk, because they won't pay taxes on the money until they retire. "It's easy for me to imagine 10 years from now a political candidate saying, ‘We have all these people with $3 million in their 401(k) plans and we need to impose taxes on those people and shore up Social Security for people who didn't have access to these 401(k)s,'" he says. "It's a big fat target for politicians." (And another disincentive to saving.)