Obama Wants to “Spread the Wealth Opportunity”
[Guest post by DRJ]
Last week Barack Obama told Joe the Plumber he wants to “spread the wealth” to more Americans, but this week Obama has reformulated his pitch. Now Obama wants to “spread the opportunity:”
“On taxes, McCain launched a new attack over the weekend, saying Obama’s plan to provide a $500 tax credit would include even those who pay no taxes and “convert the IRS into a giant welfare agency, redistributing massive amounts of wealth at the direction of politicians in Washington.” McCain has accused Obama of favoring socialistic tax redistribution policies.
Obama’s response at the news conference did not address the $500 tax break. Instead, he said that overall, he wants to reverse the cuts that went to the wealthiest Americans when Bush’s plan was enacted in 2001 and use the revenue to give tax cuts to workers who make less than $250,000 a year.
“That does involve us spreading around opportunity and it means that for people like myself, making a lot more than $250,000 a year, paying a little bit more so that the waitress who is surviving on minimum wage can put a roof over her head,” Obama said.”
Like the lawyer he is, it took Obama a week (*) to come up with a superficial one-word change while leaving the substance the same.
UPDATE: Commenter Kirk points out a YouTube link from October 19 that shows Obama changed his rhetoric in 5 days instead of a week.
— DRJ
So now equality of opportunity is no longer a goal of America? He would do better to just admit that he had a brief moment of candor when he actually expressed his collectivist ideals.
JD (c69925) — 10/22/2008 @ 11:09 amMore equality for me, but not for thee.
JD (c69925) — 10/22/2008 @ 11:09 amA lawyer would not have taken a week to come up with a different word.
A politician might not do it at all… unless the polling told him to do it.
Karl (f07e38) — 10/22/2008 @ 11:13 amFor over thirty years, the Left has made Equality of Outcome a more important goal than Equality of Opportunity.
Another Drew (d7f986) — 10/22/2008 @ 11:14 amThis allows them to advance AA, since not everyone has equal opportunity in their eyes, and so the playing field must be tilted to overcome the inequality that they always perceive.
On one hand, who can argue with wanting to see more people have an opportunity to succeed? And if ‘spreading around opportunity’ means more people having a chance to succeed, that’s great.
Unfortunately, to the left, the failure of some to succeed is taken as a sign that they didn’t have an real opportunity, so they manipulate and distort the process in order to make sure the ‘right’ people succeed. It happens in schools, where bad grades are dealt with by lowering the standards, and where not having the right mix of entering students is dealt with by manipulating the entrance standards. And it happens in employment, where the failure to have the right mix and number of non-whites on the payroll is deemed to be either a sign of either hidden discrimination or that the standards are wrong, both of which necessitate government intervention.
Furthermore, I would prefer to ‘spread the opportunity’ by having the government get out of trying to manipulate the process, while Obama is sure to favor even more government involvement in order to do so.
steve sturm (369bc6) — 10/22/2008 @ 11:17 amI actually have the video where Obama changed his tone from “wealth” to “oppurtunity” back on the 19th. But I agree with you, it is very nuanced indeed.
Obama: I don’t call it socialism, I call it oppurtunity
Kirk (e8a5f6) — 10/22/2008 @ 11:18 amAnd any chance of the media asking Obama just how much money is he planning on giving her each month through his income redistribution? Enough to pay the $500 a month rent and utilities?
steve sturm (369bc6) — 10/22/2008 @ 11:20 amJust a Freudian slip.
jim Rhoads aka vnjagvet (d3d48a) — 10/22/2008 @ 11:30 amKirk,
Thanks for the link. So it only took 5 days instead of 7? I guess that’s good, and I’ll update the post to note your link.
DRJ (c953ab) — 10/22/2008 @ 11:49 amDoes anyone remember the name of one of the bills that hastened the onset of the strike in Atlas Shrugged?
I believe it was the Equilization of Opportunity Bill
Dr. K (f196bc) — 10/22/2008 @ 12:20 pmObama changes everything and doesn’t stick to anything. He is just a leftist lizard that changes his stance as it suits the moment, kind of like one of those…what’s the word I’m looking for?…an elitist illuminati liar posing as a breath of fresh air for America.
Jeff (86606e) — 10/22/2008 @ 12:46 pm“That does involve us spreading around opportunity and it means that for people like myself, making a lot more than $250,000 a year, paying a little bit more so that the waitress who is surviving on minimum wage can put a roof over her head,” Obama said.”
Let’s see; with minimum wage at $7, working full-time the entire year would net that waitress $20,000 gross.
If you figure that housing costs should be no more than 30% of your gross, that means the max that waitress could pay for housing is $6,000 per year, or $500 per month.
With the median home price in the United States being $225,000, that equates, on a thirty-year fixed mortgage at 6% interest, to a monthly payment of $1,348 per month, plus taxes and fees — let’s say $1,500.
According to Obama, other Americans should be forced to subsidize this waitress’s salary to the tune of double what she makes each month.
I have a better idea. If that’s what Barack Obama wants to do, he can spend his own money doing it. Given that the Obamamessiah hauls in a cool $4m per year, one would think that he could find an additional $40k per year to give to some poor waitress to buy a home — and that he would be doing it already.
But no; Barack Obama doesn’t care about giving anyone money unless it can be used to purchase votes. If he gave that waitress that money, he can’t control her behavior; however, if he makes her dependent on welfare, she’s a slave to whatever government demand he wants to make of her by force of law.
North Dallas Thirty (efe6ff) — 10/22/2008 @ 1:09 pmAre we now supposed to believe that working Americans who make less than $250,00 per year and currently pay federal income taxes make up 95 % of Americans?
PhuBaiPhat (a9592a) — 10/22/2008 @ 1:25 pmOne might note how well Obama looks out for his relatives still stuck in Kenya. If his blood relative can live on $1 a month, why do you Rethuglicans want to oppress the poor people in your own country?
In others news isn’t it grand how Se, Bingaman is heralding the return of the Fairness Doctrine? Surely this shows that libtards really do care about Free Speech? Imagine the LATs fair and balanced? CNN actually sharing political opinions equally between GOP and dhimmies?
So AP poll says the POTUS race is suddenly tied? What’s up with that? Can people really be that racist to oppose the inevitable? I thought it was all over and Obama was guaranteed a landslide victory, padded by his friends at ACORN getting out the deceased and criminal/illegals vote?
BTw, what was up with the sedo.com crapola that kept sending me to sedo instead of patterico? Or was that just some anomaly?
madmax333 (0c6cfc) — 10/22/2008 @ 1:38 pmSo Baracky is going for the Trifecta – redistribution of wealth, equality of outcome, and inequality of opportunity.
JD (c69925) — 10/22/2008 @ 1:39 pmObama is now bringing out octogenarian Volcker, in a lame effort to burnish his economic cred – too late, Messiah.
Dmac (e30284) — 10/22/2008 @ 1:49 pm#12 I do think that many people are paying well in excess of 30% for housing costs. And if you are figuring a 40 hour workd week for that waitress, $7 an hour translates to $14,560 a year gross. Maybe more people could live like some of the undocumented Central Americans workers in my area, thirty people to a rentals unit? Don’t know what the figures are now, but there was a time when Soviet citizens often had 30 square feet per person and shared bathrooms en masse. Of course the elite, as usual, did much better. Note how much Obama and Wright managed to squirrel away, all the while fighting for the poor of Chicago. How did that Housing Program work out? Hear the developers made out like the bandits they are; the actual consumers of run-down projects, not so well. But they do have a very expensive gazebo in a small park, eh?
madmax333 (0c6cfc) — 10/22/2008 @ 1:57 pmCannot wait for the statues of His Eminence Obama to be built. Hope he shows Bobby Byrd how it should be done right.
“If that’s what Barack Obama wants to do, he can spend his own money doing it.”
Max – He’s a politician. We’re supposed to do what he says, not do what he does. He’s trying to get everyone to ignore the fact that he’s got a step brother living in a hovel in Kenya who he doesn’t share his own wealth to take care of. You are NOT allowed to look behind the carefully crafted Obama media curtain!
daleyrocks (d9ec17) — 10/22/2008 @ 2:40 pmSo, is Obama a big tipper? A waiter or waitress can actually be more in control of money recieved than many people who get a set salary, as anyone who’s ever worn a short skirt can affirm.
And why am I supposed to help out someone with a job, albeit a minimum wage job? Are the Feds making sure every one gets the same pay check every week?
Maybe she can get a room mate.
Kate (e45cd6) — 10/22/2008 @ 3:11 pmAs evidenced by his enormous *cough* *cough* charitable donations listed on his tax returns.
rls (14b9d3) — 10/22/2008 @ 5:12 pmBy George, Kenya believe he went there?
Dave (d51df8) — 10/22/2008 @ 5:47 pmIt would be awesome if the mainstream media were curious enough about Obama to ask him to explain the difference in “spreading the wealth” versus “spreading the opportunity.” Yeah, that would be awesome…
peter jackson (ed5c6f) — 10/22/2008 @ 9:04 pmGood Allah, Peter. It is racist to even suggest that.
JD (6248dc) — 10/22/2008 @ 9:08 pm— BTw, what was up with the sedo.com crapola that kept sending me to sedo instead of patterico? Or was that just some anomaly? —
cboldt (3d73dd) — 10/23/2008 @ 5:55 am.
Name servers that cough up 70.32.75.225 will deliver the correct page, but some Domain Name servers are delivering the address 82.98.86.173
.
It’ll work out in time. My DNS is still delivering the wrong address. I manually put the correct address in a local look-up table for now.
I imagine that once you dilute the “uh” and “aaaaaaaaaannnd” out of the answer, it boils down to:
*spreading the wealth = higher taxes
CW Desiato (614aa7) — 10/23/2008 @ 6:06 am*spreading the opportunity = increasing the size of gummint
That’s just wrong.
It’s as if he thinks we’re all dopes and don’t know what he’s doing.
Karen (3fc29e) — 10/23/2008 @ 8:59 amSarah Palin said in her speech on Monday the 20th in Loveland that the McCain campaign wants to spread the opportunity instead of spreading the wealth. I can’t find any vid of her speaking prior to the 19th that includes that, though, so I’m not sure where it originated.
Alice H (079f1c) — 10/23/2008 @ 11:06 am