Parker: Obama's Fairness Obsession

Parker: Obama's Fairness Obsession
By Star Parker April 16, 2012 6:55 am


Give credit where credit is due. President Obama has laid out the core message of his reelection campaign. It is a message whose claims are blatantly false and whose point is irrelevant to what is of greatest challenges we face. Yet it appears to be working.

In his speech at Florida Atlantic University last Tuesday, the president discussed what he called "the defining issue of our time" -- namely, that America is not fair.

We suffer today, he says, from "a shrinking number of people who are doing really, really well, but a growing number who are struggling to get by." We are not a nation (the president never tells us if we ever were) where "everybody gets a fair shot and everybody does a fair share, and everybody plays by the same set of rules."

Excuse me for pointing out the irony of hearing from our nation's first black president the suggestion that America may no longer be a nation where dreams can be realized or where someone can come out of nowhere and make it.

Obama probably would explain his unlikely success in this unfair nation as the result of his being an exceptional and extraordinary individual. Which is why, by his thinking, we ordinary folk should turn our lives over to him to determine who should have what.

But if America is unfair today, it is because politicians and government have the power to do exactly what it is that Mr. Obama wants to do -- seize control of the wealth of some and redistribute it to whomever they choose. The Bible that I read every day calls this theft.

The president seeks to gain political support for this redistribution of wealth by tapping into the widespread dissatisfaction with our most disappointing economy. But is our economy under-performing because some have more than others, or because some succeed more than others?

At a time when Americans are looking for answers to restart our sputtering economy, our president chooses to use his time complaining about the wealthiest not paying sufficient taxes.

But according to the National Taxpayers Union, in 2009 the top 5 percent of income earners paid almost 60 percent of the funds raised by the federal income tax and the bottom 50 percent paid about 2 percent.

In the president's remarks in Florida, he defined fairness as everybody playing by "the same set of rules." Not only are the tax rules not fair by the president's definition, but in the name of alleged fairness he wants to make them even more unfair.

Of course, the president's real problem is that his policies have failed so he has to change the subject. He told us that the almost $900 billion in stimulus spending passed in 2009 would revive our economy and reduce unemployment to 6 percent. Three years later, unemployment stands at 8.2 percent.

There is no evidence that Obama has a clue about what why we are not on the path to recovery. But, unfortunately, he does have a clue about how to tap into the worst instincts of people in order to garner political support. Sadly, he hopes to reap the political dividends of inspiring blame and envy.

The fairness the president obsesses about has nothing to do with fairness, nor does it have anything to do with fixing our economy. If he really wants guidance on a fair and moral tax system, he might turn away from his campaign spin machine and look to his Bible. He can learn there that the 10 percent tithe on income applies to everyone.