Hitting Obama On "Redistributive Change"

By Daniel W. Reilly

(The Politico)  Add John Boehner to the list of Republicans pouncing on seven-year-old comments from Barack Obama, in which the Democratic nominee discusses “redistributive change” in the context of Supreme Court decisions.

Both Boehner and John McCain have been trying to pin the “socialist” label on Obama in the waning days of the campaign-suggesting that Obama wants to raise taxes to pay for expanded social welfare programs.

“As disturbing as Barack Obama’s comments about ‘redistribution of wealth’ are, what’s worse is that seven years later his rhetoric is the same,” Boehner said Monday in a statement.

“Obama still wants to ‘redistribute’ our tax dollars and ‘spread the wealth around,’ giving money to people who don’t pay taxes rather than growing our economy for everybody.”

The Obama campaign immediately pushed back, arguing that the Right is deliberately misinterpreting a narrow legal argument Obama was making about decades-old court cases.

“This is a fake news controversy drummed up by the all too common alliance of Fox News, the Drudge Report and John McCain,” said Obama spokesman Bill Burton.

“In this seven year old interview, Senator Obama did not say that the courts should get into the business of redistributing wealth at all.”