MSNBC panel baffled: What’s wrong with redistribution?

On Thursday’s panel discussion on MSNBC’s NOW, reporters and columnists from esteemed publications like the Chicago Sun-Times and the New York Times tackled a recently released video of President Barack Obama in 1998 advocating for programs that would augment the government’s redistributive powers.
The panel noted that Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign has pounced on the video, but they were nearly universally perplexed as to why anyone would view Obama’s comments about redistribution in a negative light. After all, they said, government’s most successful programs redistribute wealth in some degree. Some panel guests concluded by urging the president and his supporters to engage in a debate over the beneficence of an activist government. Conservatives who know that the debate over the proper role of government is one they most often win would likely agree. …
Perhaps the panelists should spend less time in the echo chamber and more time digesting polls. The most recent Gallup survey which showed that a majority of respondents – 54 percent, in fact – said that government is trying to do too much. Just 39 percent said that government should do more to solve the nation’s problems. Another clear majority, 51 percent, said that government has too much power. 8 percent said that they did not have enough power.
Read more: http://times247.com/articles/msnbc-panel-baffled-as-to-why-anyone-would-oppose-redistribution#ixzz27D4GdANM