Romney Campaign Memo Highlights Obama's Redistribution Remark

In a memo released today, Mitt Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades explains how the contest for the presidency may unfold over the coming 48 days. “The different visions that Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have for America are becoming more sharply defined,” the memo begins.

“Mitt Romney’s vision for America is an opportunity society, where free people and free enterprise thrive and success is admired and emulated, not attacked,” Rhoades writes. “President Obama’s vision for America is a government-centered society, where government grows bigger and more active, occupying more of our everyday lives.”

Rhoades singles out a recently unearthed tape of then state Sen. Barack Obama explaining his view of the government’s role in relation to privately earned wealth.

“In a newly-unearthed set of remarks,” writes Rhoades, “we can hear Barack Obama in his own words advocating for government as a means to redistribute wealth:

“[T]he trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level to make sure everybody’s got a shot.”

That audio is from 1998, but came to light on YouTube yesterday.

President Obama has not denied making the remarks. The media has not asked him or his spokesman about them, or whether he still believes in the redistribution of wealth.

In the memo, Rhoades details what he says are President Obama’s many failures.

“We don’t have to look far to see the failure of President Obama’s approach. We can look at his record. First came the stimulus – and nearly a trillion dollars of government spending later, the unemployment rate is almost 3 percentage points higher than where President Obama projected it would be.

Then came Obamacare. Even though it has yet to take effect, businesses are already grappling with the new taxes, regulations, controls, and bureaucracies that are impeding hiring and adding to our uncertainty.

We are experiencing the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression. More Americans than ever before are in poverty or on food stamps. President Obama’s government-heavy policies have not worked, and we need a new direction.”

Rhoades then lays out how America under a President Romney would be different.

“Mitt Romney places his trust in the American people, not in government. His plan includes tax relief to spur growth and increase take-home pay, trade policies that allow American companies to compete and win, and a commitment to championing small business as the engine of our economic growth. Policies like these define what an opportunity society is all about.”

Rhoades concludes the memo, writing that in the next 48 days Gov. Romney will “describe the differences in these visions and what that difference means to our future.”