Obama say "I do think at a certain point you've made enough money"

"We’re not -- we're not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that's fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money. But, you know, part of the American way is, you know, you can just keep on making it if you're providing a good product or providing good service. We don't want people to stop, uh, fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow our economy." (President Obama, Quincy, Illinois 28 April 2010)

Spoken like a socialist millionaire*. Obama has a right to his opinion. He even has a right to his feelings, but does he have a right to make sure my wealth and yours is limited to what he feels is "enough"? No. But he doesn't understand that.

The president made $5,505.409 last year. The year before he made $2,736,107 -- he more than doubled his money in a year! To this I say, "Congratulations" and "So what?" Obama making gobs more money than me doesn't affect me in any way. He could make as much as Carlos Slim Helu (the world's richest person with $53.5 billion according to Forbes) and that would be great. A rich Obama does not make a poor me.

One man's hard-earned, legally acquired wealth doesn't take wealth away from someone else. Most of Obama's money comes from two best-selling books. Not only did he make money, but his publisher made money and everyone who worked on the project with him made money. His work is what spread the wealth around! And, judging by the sales numbers, a lot of people bought and enjoyed his work.

But look at the caveats in that one Obama paragraph: "success that's fairly earned" and "you can just keep making it if you're providing a good product or providing good service." What constitutes what's "fairly earned" or "if you're providing a good product"? Under capitalism, the markets decide and you and I are the markets. But in the socialist mind, Obama and the socialists like him decide how much and under what circumstances you and I are "fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow our economy."

What are my "core responsibilities?" And what "financial system" is he talking about: local, nation-wide, international? Service or manufacturing? Short-term or long? Risk adverse or risk agreeable? He doesn't say and I'd wager he himself doesn't understand what he's saying.

What is my financial responsibility? Easy. It's to my family and those I do business with. When a politician doesn't understand that, I get nervous. And I've been very nervous since the end of the Bush years.

Only a career pol can say "at a certain point you've made enough money." I'd rather Obama had the humbleness to say:

1) at a certain point, I have enough power.

2) at a certain point, the government is too big.

3) at a certain point, we tax too much and spend too much.

One thing Obama is not is humble. Instead, we have him telling students at a University of Michigan commencement, "If you’re a fan of Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh, try reading a few columns on the Huffington Post website. If we choose only to expose ourselves to opinions and viewpoints that are in line with our own, studies suggest that we will become more polarized, more set in our ways. But if we choose to actively seek out information that challenges our assumptions and our beliefs, perhaps we can begin to understand where the people who disagree with us are coming from." (1 May 2010) This is the same man who wants to regulate the internet and talk radio and has given exactly one interview on the only "conservative" news network, Fox.

On a flight from Ohio to Washington on Friday, Obama was asked whether his domestic policies suggested that he was a socialist, as some conservatives have implied. "The answer would be no," he said, laughing for a moment before defending his administration for "making some very tough choices" on the budget. "It was hard for me to believe that you were entirely serious about that socialist question," Obama said from the Oval Office.

He added, "We've actually been operating in a way that has been entirely consistent with free-market principles, and some of the same folks who are throwing the word socialist around can't say the same."

Obama has always sought to avoid being defined by labels, presenting himself as open to ideas from the left and the right. Asked to describe his philosophy in a word, he said, "No, I'm not going to engage in that." (Jeff Zeleny, 8 March 2009, New York Times)

*Socialist millionaire: someone who makes a great deal of cash working the capitalist system and then reviles and works to cripple or deconstruct that same system. Examples: George Soros, Hollywood.

Thomas J. Clement