Republican vice presidential candidate, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), speaks during a campaign rally at Christopher Newport University September 18, 2012 in Newport News, Virginia.
(Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Alan: Yes. I also believe in re-distribution. And here's why... Back in the day when corporate management kept a much smaller percentage of company profits for themselves, far more Americans belonged to The Middle Class. By belonging to the Middle Class, "everyday Americans" had enough purchasing power to nourish capitalist consumerism, thereby propelling prosperity. This is no longer true. As long as America's increasingly wealthy - and increasingly isolated - "ruling class" sequester an outsized proportion of resources that they tend to "sit on" -- without profitably re-investing those resources in the U.S. economy -- failure to re-distribute America's resources will result in the effective demise of the Middle Class. By extension, we will experience the demise of America's Democratic traditions as commonly understood. Move over Democracy. Welcome Plutocracy.
(CBS News) DANVILLE, Va. - Rolling out a new, post-crisis theme on the campaign trail Wednesday, vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan described President Obama as intent on redistributing wealth from rich to poor in America rather than creating more wealth through a robust economy.
The theme echoed one floated Tuesday afternoon by presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Fox News as he attempted to control the damage from a secretly recorded video that showed him making disparaging remarks at a fundraiser about people who don't pay income tax and who rely on government programs.
"President Obama said that he believes in redistribution," Ryan said at a campaign rally, in a reference to remarks the president made in 1998. "Mitt Romney and I are not running to redistribute the wealth, Mitt Romney and I are running to help Americans create wealth. Efforts that promote hard work and personal responsibility over government dependency are what have made this economy the envy of the world."
During an event at Loyola University in October, 1998, Obama, then an Illinois state senator, said, "I actually believe in redistribution at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody's got a shot." Romney cited the 14-year-old comment by Obama during an appearance on the Neil Cavuto show.
"President Obama may think government should 'facilitate some redistribution,' but the results of his policies speak for themselves," wrote Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul in a statement. "Small businesses lack the confidence they need to expand and hire new workers, and the president's looming tax hikes are threatening to destroy another 700,000 jobs."
Surrogates for the Romney campaign also held events in 13 states to press the theme of wealth redistribution and to try to switch the focus back to the economy after a video at a $50,000-a-head fundraiser in Boca Raton, Fla., upended Romney's campaign this week. Romney is heard dismissing all of Obama's supporters as people who are dependent on government, pay no income tax and believe they are victims.
The events took place in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Meanwhile, the Obama campaign is fighting the redistribution charge with a counter attack that Romney's tax plan will redistribute wealth to the wealthiest Americans by raising taxes on the middle class.
Obama campaign spokesman Danny Kanner said, "While President Obama cut taxes for the typical middle-class family by $3,600 over his first term, the Romney-Ryan plan would actually raise taxes on the middle class by cutting deductions like those for mortgage interest and charitable contributions in order to cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires. And they'd make deep cuts to 'handouts,' like student financial aid while turning Medicare into a voucher program, increasing health care costs for seniors - the same group Mitt Romney disparages in private."
Obama's charge is based on an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center that evaluated the Romney tax plan with information available on the candidate's website, though it had to make some estimates as well.
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