Opinion: Spreading the Wealth Around? Don’t Spread that Phrase Around
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Last night’s presidential debate made Joe the Plumber famous. His name was invoked well over twenty times by both candidates. Now it’s quite possible that Joe Wurzelbacher could actually win the election for McCain.
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Last weekend Obama told Joe the plumber in Ohio that income redistribution is good. Obama was fielding some questions from the crowd and Joe had some pretty tough ones for Obama. Unfortunately for Obama, his remarks were caught on camera.
According to Fox News this is what Joe asked and what Obama answered.
"Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?" the plumber asked, complaining that he was being taxed "more and more for fulfilling the American dream."
"It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success too," Obama responded. "My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody ... I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."
“I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."
“I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."
“I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."
Really? One commentator on Fox quipped that the first time anyone ever heard that phrase, “it came from Karl Marx.” Spreading the wealth around is basic Marxist Income Redistribution 101.
Well apparently this morning the NBC Today show, which seems to take its marching orders from the Obama campaign, didn’t think the public really needed to hear that phrase. They showed portions of the clip three different times, but somehow that little phrase of Obama’s just didn’t make the cut.
Doesn’t spreading the wealth around sound like a nice thing to do for everybody? People who can afford more should pay more, right? The problem with kindly income redistribution phraseology is that it has such a nice ring to it even though it’s a sweet-sounding dose of economic suicide.
Unfortunately, the reality of income redistribution is that it kills work incentive. More importantly, it kills job creation incentive. The people most likely to vote for income redistribution schemes are those who think a little extra $$$ might just come their way. For example, if Obama’s tax cut plan for 95% of Americans includes the 1/3 of all Americans that don’t pay any taxes at all, then those folks should be getting checks from the IRS. That’s something for nothing! Not bad work if you can get it, right? But in reality somebody always has to pay.
Meanwhile, those folks who can afford more, the nations’ small business employers like Joe the Plumber, have no incentive to create more jobs. Tax cuts for 95% of Americans won’t hold much water if there are no jobs!
This month Chief Executive Magazine polled 751 CEO’s. Like them or not, CEO’s are our nation’s job creators. They prefer John McCain to Barack Obama 4-to-1.
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