In
this week's duel of "gotcha" recordings, Mitt Romney sounds callous
toward those who have grown dependent on government programs. But
President Obama may have more to fear from the latest reminder that he
"believes in redistribution" of wealth.
After all, it was around this point in the 2008 campaign that a confident and cruising Obama campaign was put on the defensive after its candidate gave a revealing answer to a question posed by Joe (the Plumber) Wurzelbacher. "When you spread the wealth around," candidate Obama opined, "it's good for everybody."
Would a President Obama be as hostile to American free enterprise as those words suggested? We're nearly four years into the process of finding out. In retrospect, Americans would have been wise to look past his inspiring (but vague) calls for "hope and change" and study instead candidate Obama's economic philosophy. Recall that in a Democratic Party debate, Obama had expressed preference for hikes in capital gains tax rates "for purposes of fairness," even if the hike had the effect of reducing tax revenues.
Now we see the consequences of a philosophy that prizes arbitrary notions of fairness over pragmatic concerns about what works. Facing persistent high unemployment and ballooning deficits, we have learned that public policies that aim to "spread wealth" are not conducive to "creating wealth," and our nation desperately needs the latter.
After all, it was around this point in the 2008 campaign that a confident and cruising Obama campaign was put on the defensive after its candidate gave a revealing answer to a question posed by Joe (the Plumber) Wurzelbacher. "When you spread the wealth around," candidate Obama opined, "it's good for everybody."
Would a President Obama be as hostile to American free enterprise as those words suggested? We're nearly four years into the process of finding out. In retrospect, Americans would have been wise to look past his inspiring (but vague) calls for "hope and change" and study instead candidate Obama's economic philosophy. Recall that in a Democratic Party debate, Obama had expressed preference for hikes in capital gains tax rates "for purposes of fairness," even if the hike had the effect of reducing tax revenues.
Now we see the consequences of a philosophy that prizes arbitrary notions of fairness over pragmatic concerns about what works. Facing persistent high unemployment and ballooning deficits, we have learned that public policies that aim to "spread wealth" are not conducive to "creating wealth," and our nation desperately needs the latter.
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