Obama's Soak-the-Rich Rhetoric Requires Scrutiny
By Colleen Carroll Campbell
Posted: Friday, October 31, 2008


ARTICLE
St. Louis Post-Dispatch  
Publication Date: October 30, 2008

Last week, when Orlando-based news anchor Barbara West quoted Karl Marx's famous slogan -- "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" -- and asked Democratic Sen. Joe Biden to explain how Sen. Barack Obama's stated plan to "spread the wealth around" did not make him a Marxist, the vice-presidential nominee fired back: "Are you joking? Is this a joke?" West was not joking. But given the public thrashing she received afterward, she may wish she was.

Like Joe the Plumber, who was subjected to a full-frontal media assault after questioning Obama about his tax plan, West and her TV station found themselves blacklisted by the Obama campaign, blasted by Biden on the stump and denounced as biased by the same media establishment that twists itself into knots denying its own pro-Obama bias.

Amid the hubbub, Obama's campaign once again managed to dodge tough questions about Obama's economic philosophy. Those questions increasingly dog undecided voters and supporters who warmed early to Obama's helping-hand refrains but now wonder how much his handouts will cost them.

Obama's soak-the-rich rhetoric has endeared him to many voters seeking an economic savior. When times are tough, we want someone to promise us that life will be fair, that we'll get our fair share -- or more -- and someone else will foot the bill.

Obama has tapped into this desire, turning our economic loss into his political gain. He has done this not by touting a record of economic leadership -- his record is as thin on this issue as on most others -- or by pledging to shrink government's size, which his spendthrift plans would not allow. He has been careful not to use overtly socialist rhetoric, aside from his "spread the wealth" slip. Rather, Obama has promised that his tax hikes and spending sprees will be paid for by the nameless, faceless "rich." Obama's claims have met few challenges from journalists, even though most economists agree that hiking taxes on business owners and punishing economic success in a recession is a better way to grow unemployment lines than a healthy economy.

Nor have mainstream media outlets paid much attention to the startling radio clips that surfaced this week from Chicago public radio station WBEZ. In a 2001 interview, Obama criticized the Supreme Court because it "never entered into the issues of redistribution of wealth." He said the court led by liberal Chief Justice Earl Warren was insufficiently radical because, "It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution -- at least as it's been interpreted, and the Warren Court interpreted it in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties: [It] says what the states can't do to you, says what the federal government can't do to you, but it doesn't say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf." Obama said that it was one of the "tragedies" of the civil-rights movement that it did not focus on "the political and community organizing" that can bring about "redistributive change" and that, while it would be difficult to force the courts to mandate such change, "any three of us sitting here could come up with a rationale for bringing about economic change through the courts." Such comments make Obama's denials of his fondness for income redistribution and judicial activism tough to swallow.

America's free-enterprise system isn't perfect. But history shows that economies micromanaged by government bureaucrats bent on enforcing income equality are more likely to spread poverty than wealth by penalizing hard work and entrepreneurial spirit. Voters attracted to Obama's class-warfare rhetoric should remember that when Uncle Sam plays Robin Hood, it's not just the rich who get soaked.

-- Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television and radio host and St. Louis-based fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her website is www.colleen-campbell.com.