Demo Rep. Charles Rangel calls for redistribution of America's wealth

President Obama seen smiling in approval...

(The Hill) — Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday called for the redistribution of America’s riches and hammered the wealthy for benefitting from a war effort fought by the poor and middle class.

Citing statistics that show 1 percent of Americans now own 42 percent of the nation’s wealth, the lawmaker representing Harlem said: “There is something wrong with that formula.”

Rangel offered no specific remedy for adjusting those figures during his comments on the House floor but argued further that the wealthiest 1 percent have the added benefit of not needing to get involved in military service.

“Why is it that we know, or that we can suspect, that in this war where we lost so many lives, that so many people have been wounded, that our brave men and women coming home will subject themselves with a lack of funds to deal with their physical or mental problems?” he asked. “Any yet we somehow know that that 1 percent was not involved in defending our great nation.”

Confirmed: Democrats support redistribution of wealth

 Howard Dean says the question is not whether wealth should be redistributed, but how much.



H/T Weasel Zippers.

Socialist Hillary Clinton Wants to "Equally Spread" the Wealth (full video)

Hillary Clinton spoke at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in Kyiv, Ukraine on July 2, 2010. She is concerned prosperity be "equally spread among people."

Hillary Clinton's comments starting at 11:10 of the video.

It's important, too, that we look at how to promote broadly-based prosperity. One of the problems in societies around the world today is that too much of the productivity of the economies are going to too few. Too few people, the political and economic elite, are realizing the vast majority of benefits from economic activity. It's true in my own country where, unfortunately, economic inequality is increasing. And it's true in Ukraine. It's true in Europe and Asia and Africa and South America. So part of the challenge of economic growth and prosperity is to make sure it gets down and equally spread among people. And we have to work towards spurring investment and long-term growth in Ukraine. And we have to work together to end corruption in both the public and the private sectors.

Text of remarks can be found here.