Watch the video, and decide for yourself (H/T Rocky Mountain Right):
Memo to media establishment: You can go back to writing about Sarah Palin’s wardrobe and digging up dirt on Joe The Plumber.
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Now that your blog appears to be accepting comments again…
Ben, perhaps you can explain what you think a socialist is. Are targeted tax cuts/credits socialist? Is government funded infrastructure, ala highways and roads, socialist? Are public schools socialist? is “social” security socialist? All of these are cases of wealth redistribution. Is this what you’re worried about? What are you worried will happen?
What exactly is the revelation here – that Barack Obama is worried about the effect on society of the record levels of income inequality? This isn’t a revelation – talking about that is how he’s gotten to the point he’s at now: winning the nomination, attracting record crowds and polling through the roof.
Larry Summers, an advisor and possible treasury secretary recently said the following:
“In the last 29 years, Summers said, “you’ll find that the share of income going from 80 to 99th percentiles has stayed the same. And those in top one percent have gained about $600 billion. Those in bottom 80 percent have lost about $600 billion.”
Summers then calculated that this overall transfer of wealth averaged out to an additional $500,000 per year in earnings for those in the top one percent, and an $8,000 loss every year for those in the bottom 80 percent.
“If the bottom 80 percent had kept pace and earned that $8,000 … their income growth would have been twice as high over the last generation as what we in fact observed. Think about this number: $600 billion a year. It is immense compared to any discussion of changing the tax system here or there,” Summers added.”
There’s your wealth redistribution. Under Republican policies, the rich have gotten richer, at the expense of the bottom 80%. The middle has gotten nothing. Are you that worried about the top 1%?
Moreover, in the interview Obama is making the *exact same* argument opponents of gay marriage and abortion make – that social change should not be brought about through the courts, but rather through legislation. And this concerns you?
I can’t fathom why folks are getting their panties in a knot over this – other than the obvious reason, they have nothing else to run on…
Ben, perhaps you can explain what you think a socialist is. Are targeted tax cuts/credits socialist? Is government funded infrastructure, ala highways and roads, socialist? Are public schools socialist? is “social” security socialist? Is the progressive income tax socialist? All of these are cases of wealth redistribution of one sort or another Is this what you’re worried about? What are you worried will happen?
I must have posted this 30 times in an attempt to get past the broken moderation software, and none of them appeared to work (displaying the “your comment awaiting moderation” note). Then oddly, these two appear, the second being an attempt to split up the first comment into pieces… Can you explain what’s going on with your moderation software Ben?