Hillary's retirement idea interesting, but needs detail...

I ran across this proposal from Hillary Clinton's campaign for setting up 401(k) accounts for everyone and having the government match up to a $1000/year. She would pay for this by reinstating part of the estate tax. The cost would be about $20 to $25 Billion a year.

I don't have a problem with this on principle, but I do have a lot of concerns and questions. First, would you be able to draw money from the account before retirement. Many people do not understand investing, how will the government educate them. What investment options will be available? Will they be private programs or government run? If private will there be limits on fees? Will there be a pension option? Will there be an option to have professionals manage the money?

My biggest concern is that we will spend this sizable amount of money without real oversight and it will become a way for Wall Street to suck on the government teat. I worry about high fees that eat up contributions. I also worry about people getting lump sum distributions from their account the day they retire. If the point of the program is to stabilize retirement and I assume prop up Social Security, it should be designed as such. When public money is utilized, the public should get as much for their money as possible. The last concern I will bring up is general affordability. I think this is a laudable and useful idea, but can we afford it when we are running huge deficits and borrowing from Social Security to pay for things (and have huge unfunded liabilities in healthcare)?