Romney accuses Obama of redistributionism

[Casino67]

WashingtonPost:

 

 

By Editorial Board, Published: September 21

 

 

GOING WITH THE best-defense-is-a-good-offense approach, the Romney campaign is accusing President Obama of being a — gasp! —redistributionist. In a rather pale replay of 2008’s Joe the Plumberspread-the-wealth debate, the GOP dredged up a

.

In it, Mr. Obama, then a state senator, said, “I think the trick is figuring out, how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution, because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level, to make sure that everybody’s got a shot.

 

 

Mitt Romney and his campaign seized on the clip as ominous evidence of Mr. Obama’s Europsocialist tendencies. “I know there are some who believe that, if you simply take from some and give to others, then we’ll all be better off. It’s known as redistribution. It’s never been a characteristic of America,” Mr. Romney said.

 

 

The campaign apparently thinks that voters will find “redistribution” a scary word. But does Mr. Romney really disagree with the belief that part of government’s role is, in Mr. Obama’s words, to help “make sure that everybody’s got a shot”? To tax is to redistribute. To govern is to redistribute. Benefits from government spending flow in different amounts to different individuals and different states. Unless Mr. Romney envisions government stripped down to the role of providing for the national defense and building a road or two, and it is clear that he doesn’t, it is hard to imagine a world in which government does not play some redistributionist role.

 

"Editorials represent the views of The Washington Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of the editorial board. News reporters and editors never contribute to board discussions, and editorial board members don’t have any role in news coverage."

.