President Obama famously told Joe the Plumber in 2008 that his tax plan was designed to “spread the wealth around” an idea that Obama said was “good for everybody.” Since being sworn into office, Obama has lived up to that pledge, enacting a trillion dollar health care plan that The New York Times called “the federal government’s biggest attack on economic inequality since inequality began rising more than three decades ago.”
Well, The New York Times has even more good news for Obama this morning. According to IRS data, the share of income received by America’s richest 1 percent dropped from 23% in 2007 to 17% in 2009. Obama’s wealth redistribution plan is already a stunning success. But if everybody is now more equal, if the rich’s share of the wealth has fallen by a stunning 17% in just two years, then why hasn’t that been “good for everybody” as Obama told Joe the Plumber it would be?
