The “Rich” Should Pay More Taxes
In an April 13, 2011 speech on the topic of debt reduction,
President Obama said: “In the last decade, the average income of the bottom 90
percent of all working Americans actually declined. Meanwhile, the top 1
percent saw their income rise by an average of more than a quarter of a million
dollars each. That's who needs to pay less taxes?... There's nothing serious
about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars
on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.”
Obama's contention that tax hikes on the wealthy would have any
meaningful effect on the U.S. budget is unfounded. As of 2012, even if the IRS
were to take, from every high earner, fully 100% of whatever income they earned
in excess of $1 million, the government's take would be just $616 billion—not even
half of the country's annual deficit. In other words, the total national debt
would continue to spiral out of control. Further, the proposal itself is
absurd, since the wealthy would no longer continue to work or invest their
money if their income were to be taxed at a 100% rate.
Despite His Rhetoric against “Greed,” Obama Rewards Big Donors
with Jobs, Stimulus Money, and Government Contracts
On June 15, 2011, the Center for Public Integrity reported:
“More than two years after President Obama took office vowing to
banish 'special interests' from his administration, nearly 200 of his biggest
donors have landed plum government jobs and advisory posts, won federal
contracts worth millions of dollars for their business interests or attended
numerous elite White House meetings and social events.... These 'bundlers'
raised at least $50,000 and sometimes more than $500,000 in campaign donations
for Obama’s campaign.... As a candidate, Obama spoke passionately about
diminishing the clout of moneyed interests and making the White House more
accessible to everyday Americans. In kicking off his presidential run on Feb.
10, 2007, he blasted 'the cynics, the lobbyists, the special interests,' who he
said had 'turned our government into a game only they can afford to play.'”
All told, as of June 2011, some 184 of 556 (33%) Obama bundlers
or their spouses had joined the administration in some role. But the
percentages are much higher for the big-dollar bundlers.
Of those bundlers who collected more than $500,000 for Obama,
fully 80% had taken “key administration posts,” as defined by the White House.
Of the 24 ambassador nominees who were bundlers, 14 had raised
more than $500,000 for Obama.
Campaign bundlers and their family members accounted for more
than 3,000 White House meetings and visits. Half of them had raised at least
$200,000 for Obama.
At least 19 bundlers had ties to businesses poised to profit
from government spending to promote the President's agendas in such fields as
“clean energy” and telecommunications. One of these was the Oklahoma
billionaire investor George Kaiser, who was a big financial backer of Solyndra,
the now-defunct Silicon Valley solar plant that in March 2009 won a $535
million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.
Obama Says the “Occupy Wall Street” Movement Reflects Americans'
Frustrations
At an October 6, 2011 press conference, President Obama
congratulated the anti-capitalist Occupy Wall Street activists for
“express[ing] the frustrations that the American people feel … about how our
financial system works”; for reminding him “what we are still fighting for”;
for “inspir[ing]” him; and for being “the reason why I ran for this office in
the first place.”
Obama Calls for Tax Hikes on “Millionaires,” “Billionaires,” and
“Corporate Jet Owners”
On June 29, 2011, President Obama called on Republicans to drop
their opposition to tax increases for those earning $250,000 or more, saying
that because “everybody else” was sacrificing their “sacred cows” for deficit
reduction, GOP lawmakers should be willing to follow suit. He made six mentions
of eliminating a tax loophole for corporate jets, suggesting that insufficient
taxes on such jets had the effect of depriving student-loan funds or food-safety
funds of their needed revenues. For example:
“Ask Republican constituents if they're willing to compromise
their kids' safety so some corporate jet owner continues to get a tax break.”
“The tax cuts I'm proposing we get rid of are tax breaks for
millionaires and billionaires, tax breaks for oil companies and hedge fund
managers and corporate jet owner.”
“I think it's only fair to ask an oil company or a corporate jet
owner that has done so well to give up that tax break that no other business
enjoys.” (In fact, Obama's plan proposed an end to tax breaks for anyone
earning $250,000 or more.)
As The Daily Caller subsequently pointed out, eliminating tax
breaks for corporate jet owners would result in a mere $3 billion in new tax
revenues over a ten-year period. The U.S. budget deficit for 2011 alone was
$1.3 trillion. Projected over a decade, that annual figure would result,
cumulatively, in $13 trillion of new debt. Thus the $3 billion in revenues
would decrease the budget deficit for that period by just one-fortieth of 1%.
In other words, Obama's proposal was not a serious attempt to address the
deficit. It was intended solely to stir class resentments against wealthy
people who were presumably exploiting everyone else.
Obama Again Calls for Tax Hikes on High Earners
At a July 11, 2011 press conference, President Obama said: “And
I do not want, and I will not accept, a deal in which I am asked to do nothing,
in fact, I’m able to keep hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income
that I don’t need, while a parent out there who is struggling to figure out how
to send their kid to college suddenly finds that they’ve got a couple thousand
dollars less in grants or student loans.”
Obama Denounces the Wealthy, the “Greed” of Bankers,
“Inequality,” and Free Markets
On December 6, 2011, President Obama delivered a speech in
Osawatomie, Kansas, where he said:
“Fewer and fewer of the folks who contributed to the success of
our economy actually benefited from that success.”
“Those at the very top grew wealthier from their incomes and
their investments—wealthier than ever before, [but] everybody else struggled
with costs that were growing and paychecks that weren't.”
The financial crisis of 2008 was caused by “the breathtaking
greed” of “banks and investors” as well as “irresponsibility all across the
system.”
“'You're on your own' economics … results in a prosperity that's
enjoyed by fewer and fewer of our citizens.”
“The typical CEO who used to earn about 30 times more than his
or her worker now earns 110 times more,” and “this kind of inequality—a level
that we haven't seen since the Great Depression—hurts us all.”
There will be insufficient money to fund “the investments we
need in things like education” if we “keep in place the tax breaks for the
wealthiest Americans in our country.”
“Today, thanks to loopholes and shelters, a quarter of all
millionaires now pay lower tax rates than millions of you, millions of
middle-class families.”
“Some billionaires have a tax rate as low as 1% ... the height
of unfairness.”
Obama Again Denounces Inequality, the Wealthy, and Tax Breaks
In an April 3, 2012 speech at an Associated Press luncheon,
President Obama said:
“Can we succeed as a country where a shrinking number of people
do exceedingly well, while a growing number struggle to get by?”
“What drags down our entire economy is when there’s an
ever-widening chasm between the ultra-rich and everybody else...”
“Research has shown that countries with less inequality tend to
have stronger and steadier economic growth over the long run.”
“Meanwhile, these [Republicans'] proposed tax breaks would come
on top of more than a trillion dollars in tax giveaways for people making more
than $250,000 a year.”
“We're told that when the wealthy become even wealthier, and
corporations are allowed to maximize their profits by whatever means necessary,
it's good for America, and that their success will automatically translate into
more jobs and prosperity for everybody else.”
“At the beginning of the last decade, the wealthiest Americans
received a huge tax cut in 2001 and another huge tax cut in 2003. We were promised that these tax cuts would
lead to faster job growth. They did not. The wealthy got wealthier—we would
expect that. The income of the top 1 percent has grown by more than 275 percent
over the last few decades, to an average of $1.3 million a year. But prosperity sure didn't trickle down.”
“You'd think they'd [Republicans] say, you know what, maybe …
just maybe, at a time of growing debt and widening inequality, we should hold
off on giving the wealthiest Americans another round of big tax cuts.”
“If we're serious about paying down our debt, we can't afford to
spend trillions more on tax cuts for folks like me, for wealthy Americans who
don't need them and weren't even asking for them, and that the country cannot
afford.”
“At a time when the share of national income flowing to the top
1 percent of people in this country has climbed to levels last seen in the
1920s, those same folks are paying taxes at one of the lowest rates in 50
years.... That is not fair. It is not right.”
“You Didn't Build That”: Obama Disparages Entrepreneurs and
Praises Government
On July 13, 2012, Obama minimized the achievements of
entrepreneurs, and emphasized the notion that government was the key to a
thriving economy:
“Look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your
own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think,
'well, it must be because I was just so smart.' There are a lot of smart people
out there. 'It must be because I worked harder than everybody else.' Let me
tell you something—there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. If
you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help.... Somebody invested
in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that. Somebody
else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government
research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off
the Internet.”
Obama Calls for “An America in Which Prosperity Is Shared”
On August 12, 2012, Obama asked: “Do we go forward toward a new
vision of an America in which prosperity is shared, or do we go backward to the
same policies that got us into this mess in the first place? I believe we have
to go forward.”
“Everybody's Getting a Fair Share”
During the closing statement of his October 3, 2012 presidential
debate with Mitt Romney, Obama said that he sought to create an America where
“everybody's getting a fair shot, and everybody's getting a fair share.” He
then quickly corrected himself: “everybody's doing a fair share, and
everybody's playing by the same rules.”
Obama Gives an Indication That Taxes Will Ultimately Be Raised
on most Americans, Not Just the Wealthy (though the latter will be targeted
first)
On December 6, 2012,
Obama, calling for a tax hike on the top 2% of earners, said: "We’re going
to have to strengthen our entitlement programs so that they’re there for future
generations. Everybody is going to have to share in some sacrifice, but it
starts with folks who are in the best position to sacrifice, who are in the
best position to do a little bit more to step up."
“A Shrinking Few Do Very Well and a Growing Many Barely Make It”
During his second inaugural address as president on January 21,
2013, the newly re-elected Obama emphasized his belief that capitalist America
had become a place of widespread inequity and injustice: “[O]ur country cannot
succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it”;
“We do not believe that in this country freedom is reserved for the lucky, or
happiness for the few.”
Obama Says Republicans Only Care About Cutting Taxes for the
Rich
In February 2013, President Obama told an audience of black broadcasters:
"My sense is that their [Republicans'] basic view is that nothing is
important enough to raise taxes on wealthy individuals or corporations ...
That's the thing that binds their party together at this point."
Obama's Weekly Address Emphasizes Class Warfare
During his weekly address to the American people on February 23,
2013, Obama addressed the looming "sequestration" budget cuts that
were scheduled to take effect in a few days:
He said it was important to "close wasteful tax loopholes
for the well-off and well-connected."
"... Republicans in Congress have decided that instead of
compromising—instead of asking anything of the wealthiest Americans—they would
rather let these [budget] cuts fall squarely on the middle class."
"Are Republicans in Congress really willing to let these
cuts fall on our kids’ schools and mental health care just to protect tax
loopholes for corporate jet owners? Are they really willing to slash military
health care and the border patrol just because they refuse to eliminate tax
breaks for big oil companies? Are they seriously prepared to inflict more pain
on the middle class because they refuse to ask anything more of those at the
very top?
"[M]y plan [has] got tough cuts, tough reforms, and asks
more of the wealthiest Americans."
Obama Say "The Wealthiest and Most Powerful" Are Not
Paying Enough in Taxes
On February 28, 2013, Obama stated that America cannot
"just cut our way to prosperity" while "asking nothing more from
the wealthiest and most powerful."
Obama Seeks to Cap Americans' Tax-Sheltered Retirement Savings
In April 2013, President Obama unveiled his budget for fiscal
2014. This budget proposed, for the first time ever, to cap the amount of money
Americans could save in tax-sheltered 401K retirement plans -- because some
people were accumulating "substantially more than is needed to fund
reasonable levels of retirement saving." Specifically, the president
sought to "limit an individual's total balance across tax-preferred
accounts to an amount sufficient to finance an annuity of not more than
$205,000 per year in retirement, or about $3 million for someone retiring in
2013."
Obama Tells College Grads that the Traditional U.S. Economic
System Is Rigged Against Them
In his speech at Ohio State University's 2013 Commencement,
Obama urged the graduates to "reject a country in which only a lucky few
prosper," and where the "well-connected" get "special
treatment that you don't get."
"Winner-Take-All Economy" and "Growing
Inequality"
On July 24, 2013, President Obama made the following remarks on
the economy at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois:
"Used to be that as companies did better, as profits went
higher, workers also got a better deal.... [T]he income of the top 1 percent
nearly quadrupled from 1979 to 2007, but the typical family's incomes barely
budged. Even though our businesses are creating new jobs and have broken record
profits, nearly all the income gains of the past 10 years have continued to
flow to the top 1 percent. The average CEO has gotten a raise of nearly 40
percent since 2009."
"[T]he trend of a winner-take-all economy where a few are
doing better and better and better while everybody else just treads water -- those
trends have been made worse by the recession. And that's a problem."
"This growing inequality not just of result, inequality of
opportunity, this growing inequality -- it's not just morally wrong; it's bad
economics ..."
"It's time for the minimum wage to go up. We're not a
people who allow chance of birth to decide life's biggest winners or
losers."
Obama Speaks about America's Economic Injustice
On August 28, 2013—the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King
Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech—Obama spoke about America's economic inequity and
the role that government could play in curbing it via wealth redistribution:
“Even as corporate profits soar, even as the pay of a fortunate
few explodes, inequality has steadily risen over the decades. Upward mobility
has become harder. In too many communities across this country in cities and
suburbs and rural hamlets, the shadow of poverty casts a pall over our youth,
their lives a fortress of substandard schools and diminished prospects,
inadequate health care and perennial violence....
“The test was not and never has been whether the doors of
opportunity are cracked a bit wider for a few. It was whether our economic
system provides a fair shot for the many …
“Entrenched interests—those who benefit from an unjust status
quo resisted any government efforts to give working families a fair deal,
marshaling an army of lobbyists and opinion makers to argue that minimum wage
increases or stronger labor laws or taxes on the wealthy who could afford it
just to fund crumbling schools—that all these things violated sound economic
principles.
“We'd be told that growing inequality was the price for a
growing economy, a measure of the free market—that greed was good and compassion
ineffective, and those without jobs or health care had only themselves to
blame.
“And then there were those elected officials who found it useful
to practice the old politics of division, doing their best to convince
middle-class Americans of a great untruth, that government was somehow itself
to blame for their growing economic insecurity—that distant bureaucrats were
taking their hard-earned dollars to benefit the welfare cheat or the illegal
immigrant....
“We can continue down our current path in which the gears of
this great democracy grind to a halt and our children accept a life of lower
expectations, where politics is a zero-sum game, where a few do very well while
struggling families of every race fight over a shrinking economic pie....
“And with that courage, we can stand together for good jobs and
just wages. With that courage, we can stand together for the right to health
care in the richest nation on earth for every person. With that courage, we can
stand together for the right of every child, from the corners of Anacostia to
the hills of Appalachia, to get an education that stirs the mind and captures
the spirit and prepares them for the world that awaits them. With that courage,
we can feed the hungry and house the homeless and transform bleak wastelands of
poverty into fields of commerce and promise.”
Obama Calls for More Economic Equality and More Government
Control of the Economy
In a December 4, 2013 speech on the U.S. economy, President
Obama made the following remarks to his Center for American Progress audience:
"[I]n their own daily battles, to make ends meet, to pay
for college, buy a home, save for retirement, [people have] the nagging sense
that no matter how hard they work, the deck is stacked against them."
"[There] is a dangerous and growing inequality and lack of
upward mobility that has jeopardized middle-class America’s basic bargain that
if you work hard, you have a chance to get ahead. I believe this is the
defining challenge of our time: making sure our economy works for every working
American. That’s why I ran for president. It was the center of last year’s
campaign. It drives everything I do in this office."
"When millions lived in poverty, FDR fought for Social
Security and insurance for the unemployment and a minimum wage. When millions
died without health insurance, LBJ fought for Medicare and Medicaid. Together
we forged a new deal, declared a war on poverty and a great society, we built a
ladder of opportunity to climb and stretched out a safety net beneath so that
if we fell, it wouldn’t be too far and we could bounce back. And as a result,
America built the largest middle class the world has ever known."
"[S]tarting in the late '70s ... [t]echnology made it
easier for companies to do more with less, eliminating certain job occupations.
A more competitive world led companies [to] ship jobs [overseas]. And as good
manufacturing jobs automated or headed offshore, workers lost their leverage;
jobs paid less and offered fewer benefits.... [B]usinesses lobbied Washington
to weaken unions and the value of the minimum wage. As the trickle-down
ideology became more prominent, taxes were slashed for the wealthiest while
investments in things that make us all richer, like schools and infrastructure,
were allowed to wither."
"And the result is an economy that’s become profoundly
unequal and families that are more insecure.... Since 1979 our economy has more
than doubled in size, but most of the growth has flowed to a fortunate few. The
top 10 percent no longer takes in one-third of our income; it now takes half.
Whereas in the past, the average CEO made about 20 to 30 times the income of
the average worker, today’s CEO now makes 273 times more. And meanwhile, a
family in the top 1 percent has a net worth 288 times higher than the typical
family, which is a record for this country. So the basic bargain at the heart
of our economy has frayed. In fact, this trend towards growing inequality is
not unique to America’s market economy; across the developed world, inequality
has increased.... But this increasing inequality is most pronounced in our
country, and it challenges the very essence of who we are as a people."
"The problem is that alongside increased inequality, we’ve
seen diminished levels of upward mobility in recent years. A child born in the
top 20 percent has about a 2-in-3 chance of staying at or near the top. A child
born into the bottom 20 percent has a less than 1-in-20 shot at making it to
the top. He’s 10 times likelier to stay where he is. In fact, statistics show not
only that our levels of income inequality rank near countries like Jamaica and
Argentina, but that it is harder today for a child born here in America to
improve her station in life than it is for children in most of our wealthy
allies, countries like Canada or Germany or France. They have greater mobility
than we do, not less."
"[T]he idea that a child may never be able to escape that
poverty because she lacks a decent education or health care or a community that
views her future as their own -- that should offend all of us. And it should
compel us to action."
"And greater inequality is associated with less mobility
between generations. That means it’s not just temporary. The effects last. It
creates a vicious cycle. For example, by the time she turns three years old, a
child born into a low-income home hears 30 million fewer words than a child
from a well-off family, which means by the time she starts school, she’s
already behind. And that deficit can compound itself over time."
"The opportunity gap in America is now as much about class
as it is about race. And that gap is growing. So if we’re going to take on
growing inequality and try to improve upward mobility for all people, we’ve got
to move beyond the false notion that this is an issue exclusively of minority
concern. And we have to reject a politics that suggests any effort to address
it in a meaningful way somehow pits the interests of a deserving middle class
against those of an undeserving poor in search of handouts."
"[W]e need to set aside the belief that government cannot
do anything about reducing inequality.... Investments in education, laws
establishing collective bargaining and a minimum wage -- these all contributed
to rising standards of living for massive numbers of Americans."
"And [we should make] high-quality pre-school available to
every child in America. We know that kids in these programs grow up are
likelier to get more education, earn higher wages, form more stable families of
their own. It starts a virtuous cycle, not a vicious one. And we should invest
in that. We should give all of our children that chance."
"Now, we all know the arguments that have been used against
the higher minimum wage. Some say it actually hurts low- wage workers; business
will be less likely to hire them. There’s no solid evidence that a higher
minimum wage costs jobs, and research shows it raises incomes for low-wage
workers and boosts short-term economic growth. Others argue that if we raise
the minimum wage, companies will just pass those costs on to consumers, but a
growing chorus of businesses small and large argue differently ... A broad
majority of Americans agree we should raise the minimum wage.... I agree with
those voters. I agree with those voters and I’m going to keep pushing until we
get a higher minimum wage for hardworking Americans across the entire
country."
"[W]e still need targeted programs for the communities and
workers that have been hit hardest by economic change in the Great
Recession.... There are communities that just aren’t generating enough jobs
anymore. So we’ve put new forward new plans to help these communities and their
residents ... not [with] handouts, but a hand up."
Obama Derides "Tax Loopholes for the Very Very
Fortunate"
During a White House speech on June 9, 2014, President Obama
criticized congressional Republicans for refusing to close tax loopholes for
high earners as a way to pay for his initiative to limit student-loan interest
payments to 10% of a person's annual income. Said Obama:
"It would be scandalous if we allowed those kinds of tax
loopholes for the very, very fortunate to survive while students are having
trouble just getting started in their lives. If you're a big oil company
they'll go to bat for you. If you're a student, good luck. Some of these
Republicans in Congress seem to believe that just because some of the young
people behind me [i.e., college students in attendance] need some help, that
they're not trying hard enough."
Further, Obama blasted lawmakers who "pay lip service to
the next generation and then abandon them when it counts." He also urged
voters to be aware of "who it is that's fighting for you and your kids and
who it is that's not."
Radio broadcaster Mark Levin pointed out Obama's hypocrisy by
noting that America's national debt had already grown by approximately $7
trillion under Obama's watch -- a fact that would impose a massive financial
burden on "the next generation" for many decades to come.
Obama Says Republicans Favor "Billionaires" over the
"Middle Class"
In early October 2014, the Obama Administration disseminated a
fundraising email wherein the president said: "If the Republicans win [the
midterm elections], we know who they’ll be fighting for. Once again, the
interests of billionaires will come before the needs of the middle class."
Obama Calls for Government to Enforce Wealth Redistribution and
"Inclusive Capitalism"
In a January 23, 2015 interview with Ezra Klein of Vox,
President Obama said that traditional market forces that historically
redistributed income were failing, and that the time for government to take on
that role had thus arrived. At one point in the interview, Klein asked: “To
focus a bit on that long-term question, does that put us in a place where redistribution
becomes, in a sense, a positive good in and of itself? Do we need the
government playing the role not of powering the growth engine — which is a lot
of what had to be done after the financial crisis — but of making sure that
while that growth engine is running, it is ensuring that enough of the gains
and prosperity is shared so that the political support for that fundamental
economic model remains strong?
Obama replied:
"That's always been the case. I don't think that's entirely
new. The fact of the matter is that relative to our post-war history, taxes now
are not particularly high or particularly progressive compared to what they
were, say, in the late '50s or the '60s. 5 And there's always been this notion
that for a country to thrive there are some things, as Lincoln says, that we
can do better together than we can do for ourselves. And whether that's
building roads, or setting up effective power grids, or making sure that we've
got high-quality public education — that teachers are paid enough — the market
will not cover those things. And we've got to do them together. Basic research
falls in that category. So that's always been true.
"I think that part of what's changed is that a lot of that
burden for making sure that the pie was broadly shared took place before
government even got involved. 6 If you had stronger unions, you had higher
wages. If you had a corporate culture that felt a sense of place and commitment
so that the CEO was in Pittsburgh or was in Detroit and felt obliged, partly because
of social pressure but partly because they felt a real affinity toward the
community, to re-invest in that community and to be seen as a good corporate
citizen. Today what you have is quarterly earning reports, compensation levels
for CEOs that are tied directly to those quarterly earnings. You've got
international capital that is demanding maximizing short-term profits. And so
what happens is that a lot of the distributional questions that used to be
handled in the marketplace through decent wages or health care or defined
benefit pension plans — those things all are eliminated. And the average
employee, the average worker, doesn't feel any benefit.
"So part of our job is, what can government do directly
through tax policy? What we've proposed, for example, in terms of capital gains
— that would make a big difference in our capacity to give a tax break to a
working mom for child care. And that's smart policy, and there's no evidence
that would hurt the incentives of folks at Google or Microsoft or Uber not to
invent what they invent or not to provide services they provide. It just means
that instead of $20 billion, maybe they've got 18, right? But it does mean that
Mom can go to work without worrying that her kid's not in a safe place.
"We also still have to focus on the front end. Which is
even before taxes are paid, are there ways that we can increase the bargaining
power: making sure that an employee has some measurable increases in their
incomes and their wealth and their security as a consequence of an economy
that's improving. And that's where issues like labor laws make a difference.
That's where say in shareholder meetings and trying to change the culture in
terms of compensation at the corporate level could make a difference. And
there's been some interesting conversations globally around issues like
inclusive capitalism and how we can make it work for everybody."
Obama also said that policymakers must “make sure” that “folks
at the very top are doing enough of their fair share,” and he disparaged the
“winner-take-all aspect of this modern economy” and the need to be “investing
enough in the common good.”
DIVIDING AMERICANS BY RACE & ETHNICITY
(Return to Table of Contents)
Obama Characterizes America As “Mean-Spirited,” Where Race is
Concerned
In an interview published by the Daily Herald on March 3, 1990,
Harvard Law School student Barack Obama said: “There's certainly racism here
[at Harvard Law School]. There are certain burdens that are placed [on blacks],
more emotionally at this point than concretely.... Hopefully, more and more
people will begin to feel their story is somehow part of this larger story of
how we're going to reshape America in a way that is less mean-spirited and more
generous. I mean, I really hope to be part of a transformation of this
country.”
Obama Supports Professor Derrick Bell, Godfather of “Critical
Race Theory”
In 1991, Obama, who was then president of the Harvard Law Review
and a well-known figure on the Harvard campus, spoke at a rally in support of
Professor Derrick Bell, encouraging his fellow students to “open up your hearts
and minds to the words” of that individual, whom Obama described as someone who
spoke “the truth.”
Professor Bell was the godfather of Critical Race Theory, which
contends that America is permanently racist to its core, and that consequently
the nation's legal structures are, by definition, racist and invalid. It also
holds that because racism is so deeply ingrained in the American character,
traditional American ideals such as meritocracy, equal opportunity, and
colorblind justice are essentially nothing more than empty slogans that fail to
properly combat—or to even acknowledge the existence of—the immense structural inequities
that pervade American society and work against black people. Thus, according to
critical race theorists, racial preferences (favoring blacks) in employment and
higher education are not only permissible but necessary as a means of
countering the permanent bigotry of white people who, as Bell put it, seek to
“achieve a measure of social stability through their unspoken pact to keep
blacks on the bottom.”
Bell, who died in 2011, also made a host of racially charged
statements during approximately the same period as when Obama hailed his
articulation of “the truth.” Below are several examples.
What Derrick Bell Said About Race
“The racism that made slavery feasible is far from dead.”
“Few whites are ready to actively promote civil rights for
blacks.”
“Discrimination in the workplace is as vicious (if less obvious)
than it was when employers posted signs 'no negras need apply.'”
“It has begun to seem that blacks, particularly black men, who
lack at least two college degrees, are not hired in any position above the most
menial.”
“We rise and fall less as a result of our efforts than in
response to the needs of a white society that condemns all blacks to quasi
citizenship as surely as it segregated our parents.”
“Slavery is, as an example of what white America has done, a
constant reminder of what white America might do.”
“Black people will never gain full equality in this country.…
African Americans must confront and conquer the otherwise deadening reality of
our permanent subordinate status.”
“Tolerated in good times, despised when things go wrong, as a
people we [blacks] are scapegoated and sacrificed as distraction or catalyst
for compromise to facilitate resolution of political differences or relieve
economic adversity.”
“The fact that, as victims, we suffer racism's harm but, as a
people, [we] cannot share the responsibility for that harm, may be the crucial
component in a definition of what it is to be black in America.”
Racism remains “an integral, permanent, and indestructible
component of this society.”
In his 1992 book, Faces at the Bottom of the Well, Bell
described Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, a notorious racist and
anti-Semite, as “smart and superarticulate,” calling him “perhaps the best
living example of a black man ready, willing and able to ‘tell it like it is’
regarding who is responsible for racism in this country.” In an interview that
same year, Bell elaborated: “I see Louis Farrakhan as a great hero for the
people.”
Also in 1992, Bell again articulated to his low regard for white
people: “I’ve accepted that as my motto—I liv[e] to harass white folk.”
In a New York Observer interview published on October 10, 1994,
Bell denounced “all the Jewish neoconservative racists who are undermining
blacks in every way they can.” The same interview began with Bell stating: “We
should really appreciate the Louis Farrakhans and the Khalid Muhammads while
we’ve got them.” (Khalid Muhammad was a Farrakhan ally who referred to Jews as
“bloodsuckers” and offspring of “the devil.”)
Professor Obama Teaches about America's “Institutional Racism”
Twelve times between 1992 and 2004, Obama taught the course
“Current Issues in Racism and the Law” at the University of Chicago Law School.
The course summary, likely authored by Obama himself, told students they would
examine “current problems in American race relations and the role the law has
played in structuring the race debate”; how the legal system was affected by
“the continued prevalence of racism in society”; “how the legal system has
dealt with particular incidents of racism”; and “the comparative merits of
litigation, legislation, and market solutions to the problems of institutional
racism in American society.” The influence of Derrick Bell's ideas was
unmistakable.
Obama's Relationship with Jeremiah Wright, Who Views America As
a Racist Country
For two decades, Jeremiah Wright was Barack Obama's pastor and
spiritual mentor in Chicago. So great was Obama’s regard for Wright, that Obama
selected him not only to perform his wedding to Michelle Robinson in 1992, but
also to baptize his two daughters later on. Wright's many writings, public
statements, and sermons reflect his conviction that America has historically
been an evil nation, infested with racism, prejudice, and injustices that have
created a living hell for nonwhite people domestically and abroad.
What Obama's Longtime Mentor, Jeremiah Wright, Has Said
“Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is
still run!”
“We [Americans] believe in white supremacy and black inferiority
and believe it more than we believe in God.”
“America is the #1 killer in the world.”
“We do not care if poor black and brown children cannot read and
kill each other senselessly.”
“We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure
that Third World people live in grinding poverty.”
“In the 21st century, white America got a wake-up call after
9/11/01. White America and the western world came to realize that people of
color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just ‘disappeared’ as the
Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns.”
“We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more
than the thousands [who died on 9/11] in New York and the Pentagon, and we
never batted an eye. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians
and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have
done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's
chickens are coming home to roost.”
“The government gives [black people] the drugs, builds bigger
prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless
America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing
innocent people! God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human!
God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme!”
Obama Tries to Keep Jeremiah Wright Quiet until after Election
Day 2008
Soon after the Wright controversy became public—and threatened
to derail Obama's presidential campaign—the pastor was interviewed by author
Edward Klein. Wright told Klein that “one of Barack’s closest friends” had sent
him (Wright) an e-mail offering him $150,000 “not to preach at all until the
November presidential election.” Wright elaborated: “Barack said he wanted to
meet me in secret, in a secure place.... So we met in the living room of the
parsonage of Trinity United Church of Christ ... just Barack and me.... And one
of the first things Barack said was, ‘I really wish you wouldn’t do any more
public speaking until after the November election.... It’s gonna hurt the
campaign if you do that.’” Wright replied, “I don’t see it that way. And
anyway, how am I supposed to support my family [if I stop preaching]?”
According to Wright, Obama then said: “I’m sorry you don’t see it the way I do.
Do you know what your problem is? You have to tell the truth.”
Obama Depicts Opponents of Affirmative Action As Racists
In an October 28, 1994 NPR interview, Obama discussed American
Enterprise Institute scholar Charles Murray’s controversial new book, The Bell
Curve, stating that: “[Murray is] interested in pushing a very particular
policy agenda, specifically the elimination of affirmative action and welfare
programs aimed at the poor. With one finger out to the political wind, Mr.
Murray has apparently decided that white America is ready for a return to good
old-fashioned racism so long as it’s artfully packaged and can admit for
exceptions like Colin Powell. It’s easy to see the basis for Mr. Murray’s
calculations.”
Obama Implies that Suburban Whites Are Racist
In a 1995 interview, Obama made reference to a hypothetical
“white executive living out in the suburbs, who doesn't want to pay taxes to
inner city children for them to go to school.”
Obama Says Racism Infests Corporate America, the
Criminal-Justice System, & Education
On January 21, 2002—Martin Luther King Day—then-Illinois state
senator Obama delivered a racially charged speech at a Chicago church, stating
that “Enron executives did to their employees” was akin to “what Bull Connor
did to black folks.” (Enron was an energy company that went bankrupt after its
massive engagement in accounting fraud had come to light in 2001, and left
20,000 employees suddenly jobless. Bull Connor was Birmingham, Alabama's
Commissioner of Public Safety in the 1960s, and became famous for using fire
hoses and police attack dogs against anti-segregation demonstrators in his
city.)
Lamenting the large number of African American males “caught up
in the criminal-justice system,” Obama said: “It’s hard to imagine that the
powerful in our society would tolerate the burgeoning prison industrial complex
if they imagined that the black men and Latino men that are being imprisoned
were something like their sons.”
Obama charged that having the public “education system … funded
by [local] property taxes” is “fundamentally unjust.” “So you have folks up in
Winnetka [Illinois], pupils who are getting five times as much money per
student as students in the South Side of Chicago,” he explained.
Obama Advocates Welfare State; Says Much Success Is Due to
“Blind Luck”
In 2005, then-U.S. Senator Obama delivered a speech wherein he
not only emphasized government's duty to expand the welfare state, but also
ascribed the success of many people to “blind luck.” Said Obama: “The fact is
that there is a major ideological battle taking place right now in this
country. And I think that we can win it if we can articulate it. Essentially,
the other side has an easier job, because their argument is essentially, what
is labeled 'The Ownership Society' …. says 'We're all in it by ourselves.' So
if you've got a healthcare problem, we're gonna set up a healthcare account,
we'll put $5,000 in it, and from that point on, you're on your own. You worry
about healthcare inflation. Retirement? Retirement account. Figure out how much
you can save. It doesn't matter that your wages haven't gone up in 4 or 5
years. It doesn't matter that you're being squeezed by all sorts of costs, from
$3 a gallon gasoline to the cost of higher education for your child. You figure
out how to save. There's a certain attractiveness in its simplicity [to] that
idea. And it's particularly attractive, I think, for those of us who are
successful, because it allows us to be self-congratulatory and say, in fact,
the cream rises to the top. … denying the role of blind luck that played in
getting everybody here, or the sacrifices of a generation of women doing
somebody else's laundry and looking after somebody else's children, to get you
here.”
