While I have long thought Barack Obama to be very far left, I was struck by this story, as recounted by the New York Post:
"It’s not that I want to punish your success," Obama told him. "I want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they’ve got a chance for success, too.
Then, Obama explained his trickle-up theory of economics.
"My attitude is that if the economy’s good for folks from the bottom up, it’s gonna be good for everybody. I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody."
Combine that with Obama’s unprecedented breathtaking new welfare proposals dressed up as tax cuts, which eviscerate the 1996 Welfare Reforms by creating cash transfers without work or training requirements.
My suspicious political lizard brain sees a pattern. Barack Obama thinks he has this election in the bag. So after months of running to the center on issues, such as it was, he is starting to talk about an agenda that is closer to his ideological heart. On November 5th, he can claim that he won on redistribution, pointing to this tax plan, these quotes, and some more speeches that he will give in the next three weeks.
And then he will have the political excuse to push it through Congress.