Barack Obama was never one to let his absolute and utter contempt for those with wealth be known to whoever would listen.
Headline-inducing phrases such as referring to those who work on Wall Street as “fat cats” and sarcastically telling business owners “You’ll still be able to ride on your corporate jet; you’re just going to have to pay a little more” were certainly fodder for the vast multitude that considered every utterance by Obama was considered a pearl of wisdom.
The Obama attacks on capitalism have been manifest, as illustrated by Human Events, just a handful of the particular Das Kapital-worthy Oba-gems;
- Spread wealth around: This famous utterance—“I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody”—to Joe the Plumber during the 2008 presidential race, remains the saying that most succinctly sums up Obama’s worldview, that of a community organizer, which is that accumulated wealth is to be reviled and rectified through redistribution. Nothing could be more antagonistic to entrepreneurship, free markets or business investment than to have the government seize the rewards of sound economic decisions in order to try and engineer social equality.
- Student-loan penalty for private sector: Obama laid out a new student loan program in his 2010 State of the Union address where those who choose a career in public service (working for the government) get special treatment over those who enter the private sector. “Let’s tell another 1 million students that when they graduate, they will be required to pay only 10% of their income on student loans, and all of their debt will be forgiven after 20 years, and forgiven after 10 years if they choose a career in public service.” Do we really need more incentives for government workers?
- Stop making money: It just pains the President when someone is successful in the financial world. During his campaign to pass the Dodd-Frank financial reform monstrosity, Obama let his true feelings show: “We’re not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that’s fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.”
- Leave corporate America: Michelle Obama, during the 2008 presidential race, described her and her husband’s philosophy on the superiority of public service over the business world: “We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we’re asking young people to do. Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse.” Because, you know, community activists are so much more valuable than corporate leaders.
In fact, the ex-president was quoted by the Reuters news agency the day before leaving office that other than looking forward to “some quiet time,” he also had every intention of remaining out of the spotlight.
But with that promise came the provision that he very well may go public “where I think our core values may be at stake.”
Thusly, according to Obama’s own criteria, “our” core values are now officially threatened. Never mind that he’s been somewhat busy windsurfing in the Caribbean with a billionaire or yachting in the South Pacific with all the beautiful people.
Despite all his heady, “I’m everyman” rhetoric for the past eight years, Barry and Mi-Mi don’t seem to have much of a problem signing a $65 million book deal.
And as far as those evil Wall Street monsters are concerned, Obama will give a one hour speech to those nogoodniks at Cantor-Fitzgerald for a cool $400,000
