A consortium of pension-focused trade groups sent out an SOS to Congress to protect retirement savings tax breaks as House and Senate leaders promise to unveil tax reform packages by year-end and the December 13 deadline for a budget deal nears.

This salvo came Thursday in the form of the announcement by the Coalition to Protect Retirement of a new grassroots lobbying campaign and a survey pointedly showing 68 percent of adults said they would be less likely to support an incumbent for re-election who voted to eliminate or reduce tax deferrals on retirement savings.

In addition, the study showed 95 percent of adults with 401Ks and  IRAs and 87 percent of all Americans don’t want these investment vehicles to become an immediate source of new revenue to reduce the federal deficit.

The coalition warned that a short-term infusion of funds from taxing IRAs and the like could lead to worse problems for federal spending down the road.

“If Congress reduces the benefits of offering and contributing to retirement savings, fewer people will save. The result: more of tomorrow’s retirees will need to turn to the government for help, and that will mean more federal spending,” said Brian Graff, chief executive officer and executive director of the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries (Asppa).

Sixty-eight percent of adults said they would be less likely to vote for an incumbent senator or representative if he or she voted to eliminate or reduce tax deferrals on retirement savings.

The coalition is composed of the Asppa, the American Benefits Council, American Council of Life Insurers, The ERISA Industry Committee, ESOP Association, Insured Retirement Institute, Investment Company Institute, Plan Sponsor Council of America, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, and the Society for Human Resource Management.

An estimated 67 million Americans participate in private sector defined contribution plans.

The survey was conducted from October 14 to 16 of 1,014 Americans 18 and over.