President Obama’s Osawatomie, Kansas, speech on income inequality was universally lauded on the progressive left. Since Obama has no record of job creation to run on, diverting voters attention to income inequality, which is actually down since the 1990s, is the only way Obama has a chance of being reelected. So now that Mitt Romney is using Obama’s class warfare theme against him, progressive aren’t happy. Here is what Romney is saying on the stump:
In an entitlement society, everyone receives the same or similar rewards, regardless of education, effort, and willingness to take risk. That which is earned by some is redistributed to the others. And the only people who truly enjoy any real rewards are those who do the redistributing—the government.
The truth is that everyone may get the same rewards, but virtually everyone will be worse off.
The Washington Post‘s Greg Sargent and The Daily Beast‘s Andrew Sullivan both call Romney a ‘liar’ for pointing out that Obama wants to prioritise redistribution over economic growth. New York Magazine‘s Jonathan Chait calls Romney’s rhetoric, “Glenn Beck–level insane,” and The Washington Monthly‘s Steven Benen says Romney is either a “craven con man” or “deranged.”
