That’s President Obama’s description of his economic team’s philosophy in this fascinating interview with the Times‘s David Leonhardt. Run, don’t walk, to read it. Two takeaways. In the first, Obama describes his touchstone for economic policy:
[D]oes it allow the average American to find good employment and see their incomes rise; that we can’t just look at things in the aggregate, we do want to grow the pie, but we want to make sure that prosperity is spread across the spectrum of regions and occupations and genders and races; and that economic policy should focus on growing the pie, but it also has to make sure that everybody has got opportunity in that system.
This is a president concerned with distributive justice to a great degree. And big government is the means by which he can try to achieve his desired distributional outcomes. In the second takeaway, Obama relates the heartbreaking story of his grandmother’s final days:
Stay informed.Stay ahead.
Join Washington Examiner for unlimited access to the news, analysis, and commentary that matter most.
See Options
Already a member? Log in
Already a print subscriber? Click here to login/register your account
