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COMMENTARY
Mitt Romney, evidently eager to draw the press away from his own unauthorized footage problem, has alighted on the strategy of suggesting recently excavated audio of Barack Obama proves him to be radically in favor of some level of "redistribution" to help give people a fair shot. The audio's authenticity hasn't yet been verified, though Obama campaign staff have not challenged its accuracy.
That offending line allegedly comes from 14-year-old unearthed audio of then-Illinois State Senator Barack Obama speaking at Loyola University. Obama's purported endorsement of milquetoast New Democrat center-leftism was first broadcasted by the intrepid, caps lock enthusiast Matt Drudge. The scoop then spread to the Fox empire: Fox News' Fox & Friends, Fox News' Gretawire, and the website of Fox News valedictorian Glenn Beck. Presumably it was at this point that Mitt Romney, as loathe as he is to run a negative campaign, decided to weigh in.
"The president’s view is one of a larger government," Romney told—Guess who?—Fox News. "There’s a tape just came out today with the president saying he likes redistribution. I disagree."
That redistribution is wrong on its face has been a Republican truism for so long that it's easy to forget what that actually means. A totally non-redistributive government doesn't have a welfare-for-work policy; it has a no-safety-net-of-any-kind policy. No health care vouchers, no Medicare, no social security, no financial aid, nothing. And it's not just the safety net that goes away. Progressive taxation and tax credits are both forms of redistribution. So are corporate subsidies. In a completely non-redistributive state, the government collects money based on a flat tax and puts it towards, I guess, arming cops. Maybe the occasional road, or some new toner ink for the White House fax machine. But that's it.
To be fair, President Romney would probably not run a redistribution-free government in practice, even if his party controlled the Supreme Court and both houses of Congress. Florid rhetoric aside, Obama and Romney's redistributive philosophies are differentiated only by degrees. A candidate who was really opposed to all redistribution would not endorse, as Romney has, Medicare vouchers or welfare for work.
That the right is spinning news out of a moderate Democrat's preference for some level of redistribution tells us a few things. Firstly, it tells us that this campaign has gone on for far too long. Secondly, it tells us that the right wing is so deeply wedded to its vision of Obama as a radical that it will interpret pretty much any public statement he makes, no matter how innocuous, as proof of his radicalism. Thirdly, it tells us that the American right is so far out there that it can mistake Clintonian Democratic centrism for some kind of revolutionary Islamo-Communism.
Here's how Jon Chait paraphrases the offending "redistribution" line: "Obama asserts that he believes in redistribution, but only to a degree, and that it is necessary in order to provide greater opportunity to participate in the market, which is also one of the least radical justifications for redistribution."
That's exactly right, and the audio as it's been circulated doesn't plausibly support any other interpretation. The problem for Romney is this: that interpretation isn't a radical leftist idea. In fact, it is, or at least was, a center-right idea.
A genuinely left-wing president would not support redistribution on the basis that it provides people with "a shot" in life. A left-wing president would support redistribution on the grounds that no one should go hungry or homeless, particularly in a country with our wealth, period. To this hypothetical president, the idea that welfare should be used primarily as a means of coercing the poor into market participation—the idea behind former President Clinton's bipartisan "welfare for work" scheme—would be appalling.
President Obama sharply disagrees with that view, because he's not particularly left-wing. Mitt Romney disagrees with that view as well, but he takes his disagreement several steps further than the president; Romney repudiates any form of redistribution whatsoever.
That is not to suggest that, given the chance, Romney wouldn't happily dismantle yet more of our already shambolic welfare state. But his avowed contempt for redistribution isn't as far from Obama's grudging endorsement of it as either would like you think. Both frame their welfare policy as a road to a country where, if you are a productive market actor—i.e., "if you work hard and play by the rules," to borrow a tired phrase from the Democratic National Convention—you deserve some level of economic security. Neither has very much to say about the people who don't work hard enough, or stick to their rules.
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Fairly simple definition and it is EXACTLY how Obama feels about it today.
Redistrubution:
Economics . the theory, policy, or practice of lessening or reducing inequalities in income
through such measures asprogressive income taxation and antipoverty programs.
Journalism is dead
@Mary Louis, the Dictionary.com definition you quoted is different than the Webster definition of reallocation that the article is trying to establish. ANY use of tax revenue is a redistribution unless of course you side with the conservative right whose viewpoint is in agreement with the Dictionary.com definition of redistribution.
Taxation = redistribution.
journalism is dead. completely one sided.
so·cial·ism
1.political system of communal ownership: a political theory
or system in which the means of production and distribution are controlled by
the people and operated according to equity and fairness rather than market
principles
2.movement based on socialism: a political movement based on
principles of socialism, typically advocating an end to private property and to the exploitation of workers
3.stage
between capitalism and communism: in Marxist theory, the stage after the
proletarian revolution when a society is
changing from capitalism to communism, marked by pay distributed according
to work done rather than need
so·cial·ism
1.political system of communal ownership: a political theory or system in which the means of production and distribution are controlled by the people and operated according to equity and fairness rather than market principles
2.movement based on socialism: a political movement based on principles of socialism, typically advocating an end to private property and to the exploitation of workers
3.stage between capitalism and communism: in Marxist theory, the stage after the proletarian revolution when a society is changing from capitalism to communism, marked by pay distributed according to work done rather than need
If you are a real journalist cenk you would report on this
bomb shell of a story.
Newly published emails show the top spokeswoman at the U.S.
Justice Department regularly collaborating with the liberal advocacy group
Media Matters on stories that slam the administration's critics.
The emails, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act
requestand published by The Daily Caller, often show department public affairs
chief Tracy Schmaler communicating with Media Matters bloggers. Sometimes, the
emails were in response to inquiries. Other times, Schmaler was pitching ideas,
according to the Caller.
In a January 2012 email chain, Schmaler sent a Media Matters
writer lines from House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman
Darrell Issa's comments at a recent hearing. She reportedly underlined passages
where the California Republican tries to explain the difference between
Operation Fast and Furious and other anti-gunrunning operations under former
President George W. Bush.
Hours later, an article appeared on Media Matters' site
titled "Rep. Issa Ties Himself in Fast and Furious Knots."
Daily Caller editor Tucker Carlson, also a News contributor,
said the emails show "moment-to-moment coordination" between the
department and Media Matters.
"We received a massive amount of these communiques that
indicate direct coordination between the Obama Justice Department ... and Media
Matters to subvert news stories," he said Tuesday. "This proves
coordination."
Emails from late 2010 also reportedly showed Schmaler
sending Media Matters information to help challenge claims that the department
dealt lightly with New Black Panther members who allegedly intimidated voters
in Philadelphia in 2008.
Another March 12 email showed Schmaler pointing out
"false" statements made by Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips
in a News interview. Phillips called Operation Fast and Furious a
"political operation" -- pushing a claim that the administration let
guns walk across the Mexico border to build a case for gun control.
The Media Matters writer then wrote a blog slamming
Phillips' "right-wing conspiracy theory," and also sent the text to
Schmaler.
The
Daily Caller reported that throughout the exchanges, Media Matters staffers
were often sending to Schmaler the full text of what they wrote about the
department's critics.
At an October 19, 1998 conference at Loyola University,
Barack Obama spoke against "propaganda" that said government doesn't
work and the need to "pool resources and hence facilitate some
redistribution because I actually believe in redistribution."
How old was President Obama then? Romney said those "don't care for those 47%" things this year. You know I am so sick of this lies! He has become the pander of what you want to hear. He is a fish out of water. I want to see his income taxes for 12 years. Since Ryan had to give him 11 years of income taxes. This guy is so evil on how he disrespect our President. He is running on Lies and Hate. By the way we still have not even seen the 2nd income tax for last year. He is fried. Fried Chicken. He is the worst person on this earth. No compassion for human beings. Liar, Liar