Use It or Lose It

Most of us spend a lot of our cash on medical bills, no matter how good our insurance.

That’s why some companies have flexible spending accounts (search) that let you put aside some of your pre-tax earnings for medical bills. But there’s a big hitch. If you don’t use every penny in your account in a year, you lose the rest of it. Say you put aside $2,000 for the account and you only use $1,000 in a year … you’re out 1,000 bucks!

Senate Finance Chairman Charles Grassley (search) told the Wall Street Journal that he thinks the use-it-or-lose-it rule "doesn't pass the common-sense test, and it's hurt taxpayers for more than 20 years." He wants to let folks carry over the unused portion of their accounts to the next year.

Sen. Grassley asked the Treasury Department to change the use-it-or-lose-it-rule, but Treasury Secretary John Snow (search) wrote the senator, saying he doesn’t have the authority to change it. Sen. Grassley is confused. "If they wrote it, surely they have the power to change it." So, lawmakers and administration officials say they’re helpless to make a rule change that would let you keep your own money.

Kind of makes you wonder where the buck stops these days inside the Beltway.

And that’s the Asman Observer.

Watch David Asman on "FOX News Live" weekdays at noon ET.