Video: Obama Treats Chamber of Commerce Like Joe the Plumber

This one goes out to everyone who is having buyer's remorse about voting for Obama despite his 'Joe the Plumber' moment on the 2008 campaign trail when he said, 'When you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody.' We conservatives couldn't believe that moment wasn't enough to wreck his campaign. The Kool-Aid was just too sweet. Here we are, little more than two years later and president Obama delivers the same line. What's different is he's directing it toward business leaders as practically an informal mandate while unemployment continues to climb.

If you're a business leader and Obama tells you it's your responsibility to share your profits with your employees, what would you do? Probably hire less employees. Profit sharing isn't a bad idea but it's a decision Obama has no business getting involved in. Again, the free market should be allowed to dictate the who and the how much. Mandating businesses share their profits with employees stifles the innovation and job growth Obama claims to want to stimulate because there's less money to invest in such things; it also ignores the benefits of meritocracy.

Via Freedom's Lighthouse



Now for a very relevant follow-up video. Far left socialist Howard Dean appeared on MSNBC with far left socialist Lawrence O'Donnell to discuss Obama's interview with Bill O'Reilly one day prior. The clip played was Obama's denial to O'Reilly that he advocates wealth re-distribution (see Chamber of Commerce video above). Then Dean actually says that it IS government's job to re-distribute wealth and that it's not a question of 'if' but of 'how much.'

Via Weasel Zippers

VIDEO: OBAMA HAS A JOE THE PLUMBER MOMENT

I had to watch the part in question twice just to make sure I got it right. The money lines come toward the end when Obama dismisses Merriam-Webster's definition of a word that he apparently thinks means something else - that word is, "tax". But start paying close attention at the 1:00 mark.

The underlying theme of this exchange is what I found interesting. George Stephanopoulos' question is about whether or not mandating that every person get health insurance would be a tax. In "Obama-speak", a tax is something you do but rarely admit to, which may be why he expresses disagreement with Merriam-Webster when he's calling for one.

In defense of his insistence that everyone should have health insurance, Obama says,

"We're not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you."

Uh, whatever happened to,

"When you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody"?

It would seem a bit inconsistent until you peel back enough layers. Obama told Joe the Plumber he wanted income redistribution. What he told Stephanopoulous is that he doesn't want income re-distribution while advocating a mandate that says everyone will have to pay into the system. The only thing missing there is the distribution part.

Obviously, he's learning that the majority of the American public sides with the fundamental belief expressed by JTP last year. Instead of heeding that advice, he appears to be trying to leverage it in order to impose the individual mandate (tax) while championing individual accountability.

On its face, Obama's analogy using car insurance is valid (everyone is required to have auto insurance so everyone should be required to have health insurance). However, two facts render it invalid.

One: he's saying that if you can't afford health insurance, you won't be penalized because it would be "piling on". As that relates to his auto insurance analogy, people who can't afford to insure their vehicle would still be allowed to drive.

Two: At least for now, the auto insurance industry is a private sector animal. You either buy insurance and drive or you don't. To use that industry in a comparison when you're arguring for a government option is apples and oranges.

The implication here is that everyone needs to be accountable not to themselves but to the government.

Be sure to watch all the way to the end as Obama gives Merriam-Webster the big smackdown. Oh, and if you run the Merriam-Webster website, don't be surprised if you get a call about the verbiage you use in your definitions.



h/t to GATEWAY PUNDIT