A 2001 video of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama lamenting the Supreme Court’s unwillingness to examine the “redistribution of wealth” has surfaced just weeks after Obama discussed “wealth spreading” with an Ohio voter.
“The Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society,” Obama, then an Illinois State Senator, said in a radio interview. “And one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was, um, because the civil rights movement became so court focused. I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change. In some ways we still suffer from that.”
A caller then asks if the courts were the right place begin redistributing wealth. Obama instructs the caller that the courts aren't "very good at it" and it would be better to pursue legislative ways to redistribute wealth.
Obama has already taken a lot of heat from the GOP over his conversation with “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher. Wurzelbacher, a working class plumber, asked Obama about his tax plan and said it sounded “socialist.”
“When you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody,” Obama replied.
The Republicans redoubled their attacks on Obama after the 2001 interview went public.
"The American people continue to learn more about Barack Obama," said John McCain's Senior Policy Adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin in a statement Monday. "Now we know that the slogans 'change you can believe in' and 'change we need' are code words for Barack Obama's ultimate goal: 'redistributive change.'"
"No wonder he wants to appoint judges that legislate from the bench – as insurance in case a unified Democratic government under his control fails to meet his basic goal: taking money away from people who work for it and giving it to people who Barack Obama believes deserve it," Holtz-Eakin said. "Europeans call it socialism, Americans call it welfare, and Barack Obama calls it change."