What Obama Means When He Talks About ‘Fairness’
Give more to the people that he believes deserve it and take from those he thinks have too much.
President Obama announced this month that his administration plans to close many of the “corporate loopholes” that enable companies to refrain from adding taxes to the government coffers.
One of the most significant of these “loopholes” is the ability of U.S. companies to indefinitely defer payment on taxes for revenues earned overseas. One Democratic talking head after another repeatedly used the word fairness in detailing why the government would risk making U.S. companies less competitive in a global marketplace by taxing revenues made outside of the United States. Julie Roginsky, a Democratic strategist, said the following on CNBC:
This isn’t a tax issue; this is a fairness issue. … There are people who are billionaires who are taking their money and putting it in tax free offshore accounts, and do you think that’s fair?
Roginsky asked Republican strategist Jack Burkman: “Do you think it’s fair to you and me who have to pay these taxes?” Each time a CNBC commentator asked if the White House is at all concerned about companies and wealthy individuals leaving the U.S. for places where their tax burden will remain low, Roginsky came back at them with the unfairness of current tax law.
This concept of fairness is pervasive in the Obama administration. Obama himself made that clear while still on the campaign trail. Charles Krauthammer pointed out in an April column that when “asked by Charlie Gibson during a campaign debate about his support for raising capital gains taxes — even if they caused a net revenue loss to the government — Obama stuck to the tax hike ‘for purposes of fairness.’”
Fairness is a concept at the heart of Barack Obama’s political philosophy. That philosophy, and his adherence to it, is undoubtedly one of the things that make him such a man of the people to his supporters.
The trouble with fairness is that it doesn’t exist.
According to Webster’s New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition, the general word fair “implies the treating of both or all sides alike, without reference to one’s own feelings or interests.” But in politics, all sides can’t be treated alike. Giving to one person or group requires either denying something to — or directly taking from — another.
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T.K. Farrow is a writer, a lawyer, and a former national television news producer.
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52 Comments
1. cannedjam:Its funny (sad) how Obama can give an entire speech (justifying his terror policies) about how this country is built on laws and how much he respects the constitution, and how we have made a mistake by hastily crafting a foreign policy, yet in the same brain can justify subverting established law, suspension of the constitution in the Chrysler bankruptcy, and a completely hasty and poorly thought out tax policy.
Where is the intellectual honesty? Where is the consistency in thought?
May 21, 2009 - 11:22 pm 2. ic:Utopia: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
Otopia: From each according to Obama’s ability to confiscate, to each according to Obama’s need to placate.
Dystopia: From each according to his inability to fight back, to each according to his need to dominate.
It’s a shame that we Americans give up so much freedom because of a lousy recession. The Chinese fought a bloody civil war before they gave in.
May 21, 2009 - 11:32 pm 3. SAF:#2: ic: Nice definitions.
Obama has been preaching this for years and he is completely consistent about income redistribution. If a person voted for Obama they are getting what they wanted. If this is all a surprise then they voted foolishly.
May 22, 2009 - 4:43 am 4. D-wah:There needs to be an official Obama Decoder Book–call it “The Unraveller”. When he gives these populist convoluted tele-speeches (really it’s the Axelrod/Imanuel Manipulation team just smogging us), as he gives these same, tired lying platitudes of what he says he believes or promises, you just quickly flip open to “Obama on the Constitution–What he really believes and has really done.” Or “Obama on our military…”–”on economics”-with definitions for code words like “social justice”–”fairness”–etc. It would be like heavy duty windshield wipers and an on-board navigational system for when you’re driving through a major BS blizzard.
May 22, 2009 - 4:56 am 5. Paul -Indiana:Neal Bortz [? spelling] thinks that this will result in some companies simply moving totally off-shore. Sounds good to me.
May 22, 2009 - 5:02 am 6. Tomp:obama is still a nine year old who had his ball stolen by the big boys.
May 22, 2009 - 5:25 am 7. Meryl:How is it possible for one man to simultaneously exhibit so much arrogance and so much insecurity?
It strikes me that many of those who voted for him were looking for a daddy to take care of them and they selected the worst of all types: someone who’s looking for a daddy to take care of him.
May 22, 2009 - 5:43 am 8. John Galt:Hussein’s “fairness” doctrine is nothing more than slavery reparations.
If one looks at the MSM and the Socialist Democratic party the majority of Hussein’s strongest supporters are women.
Many of these women talk about the fantasies that they have of stealing Barry away from Michelle for one glorious night.
These women have drunk Hussein’s Kool-Aid and turned him into a psychological Mac Daddy.
May 22, 2009 - 5:51 am 9. GCPSteve:#6 Tomp
While I agree with your comparison to BO as immature, you might want to revise your statement. It could sound like you are defending bullies who steal toys from smaler childern.
May 22, 2009 - 6:01 am 10. GCPSteve:OOOPS!
smaller children.
May 22, 2009 - 6:04 am 11. anton:6. Tomp:
An apt comparison, I would add that not only is he a whiny nine year old whose ball has been stolen, he is that prissy little brat that doesn’t have the wherewithal to try to take back himself. He wants the teacher to do it for him.
That is why he has all these dodge and switch lies (tax cuts for 95% of Americans, i.e. refunds for people that didn’t pay taxes in the first place) and uses the Forces of Government to undertake it by deceit. He wants to remian popular while he screws all to the wall.
May 22, 2009 - 7:03 am 12. goy:@6. Tomp: - obama is still a nine year old who had his ball stolen by the big boys.
This statement may be somewhat facetious, but from the standpoint of moral maturity – as separate from chronological, intellectual, sexual or emotional maturity – it’s 100% accurate. And it’s true of hard-core leftists (so-called “liberals”) in general, as demonstrated clinically by their consistent ideological choice of an incomplete moral value system.
This phenomenon has been observed in all cultures tested. It also appears to be consistent throughout history, and may very well be the clue to the fall aspect of the rise-and-fall of civilizations.
May 22, 2009 - 7:06 am 13. David Thomson:“The trouble with fairness is that it doesn’t exist.”
The concept of economic fairness is also premised on the mistaken notion of zero sum thinking. The pie is of limited size and there are only so many pieces to go around. That is simply idiotic. A growing economy guarantees a constantly growing pie. We should care less about Bill Gate’s wealth and instead focus on the improving living standards of the masses. And we all have gotten significantly wealthier over the last five decades!
May 22, 2009 - 7:07 am 14. anton:13. David Thomson:
Exactly! I have a very middle-class income but I have air-conditioning, a flat-panel TV and this cool robot vacuum. All these things were unavailable to the richest person on the planet just twenty years ago. As Reagan said “….a rising tide lifts all boats”
I think redistributionists see the world as a zero-sum game because they have never actually produced anything of value (note where one finds most of them, politics and acedemia) and thus can only imagmine that there is “taking from and giving to” instead of “making it yourself”.
May 22, 2009 - 7:55 am 15. wildman:Yes indeed, the messiah is all about fairness. He gets free housing. 24 hour a day security. A pair of 747’s at his beck and call. free meals. A medical plan that we can only dream about. Invited to the best parties. world wide travel. A free pass on every thing he does. A media that fawns over his every word and gesture. A wife who wears $500 dollar sneakers to a food bank??? Yup, from his perch high above the mundane concerns of the masses, Fairness needs to be equalized. His vision of fairness will only cost my family of 5 about $50,000 a year for as long as his term lasts, which i hope is short.
May 22, 2009 - 8:00 am 16. Banned by Huffpo:Ref # 2:
“It’s a shame that we Americans give up so much freedom because of a lousy recession. The Chinese fought a bloody civil war before they gave in.”
It ain’t over ’till it’s over.
May 22, 2009 - 8:07 am 17. anton:16. Banned by Huffpo:
“It ain’t over ’till it’s over.”
It hasn’t even started yet.
I would happily avoid the “bloody civil war” bit if at all possible. War is so darned noisy.
May 22, 2009 - 8:35 am 18. wayneepalmer:You guys misunderstand the left.
It isn’t really about saving the planet or being fair, not the way you think.
The only way to save the planet is if you remove most of mankind and his impact from it.
The biggest impediment to removing mankind is the traditional people of the United States.
The United States is evil and has its time in the sun at the expense of the rest of mankind and nature, has ruined much of the Earth, and is the only power that has the ability to remain a threat to the possible return to the Green Earth.
The United States must be destroyed as it is right now.
That way the rest of the animals will wipe themselves out after having gotten the justice they are due from the United States.
This is fair and it will return mankind to merely another animal scrabbling for food in the jungle – where he should have stayed.
Only the ENLIGHTENED will remain to enjoy the rewards from saving the Green Earth…for themselves.
May 22, 2009 - 10:02 am 19. David W. Lincoln:As long as words have the meaning what Obama wants them to have, with no regard to what is regarded as the conventional meaning, God only knows.
May 22, 2009 - 10:05 am 20. Phd:As someone far wiser once said, “fairness” is the bedrock and cornerstone of Communism, or Socialism,, or whatever “ism” is based on taking from some and giving to others so that all have the same, whatever that is. “Fairness” is a kindergarden playground concept based on envy, nothing more or less. 99.9% of folks grow out of it as they mature Some, including our President, have not.
May 22, 2009 - 11:16 am 21. Meryl:17.anton “I would happily avoid the “bloody civil war” bit if at all possible. War is so darned noisy.”
You’re right. And that’s a factor for those of us for whom noise can trigger headaches.
2 ic: those definitions are scary-amazing/right on. Doesn’t it freak you out to have such insight into this destructive fraud?
May 22, 2009 - 11:21 am 22. Khiri:#15 Wildman
Very well said!
The hypocrisy of the leaders on the left is astounding and those that follow them blindly cannot or will not see it.
May 22, 2009 - 11:34 am 23. Paul -Indiana:With a little luck some deserving Republicans will get seated in the Congress. The Democrats have more than their share.
May 22, 2009 - 11:39 am 24. William:I wonder what the Obamaniacs would do if these greedy rich guys would decide to stop issuing paychecks?
May 22, 2009 - 1:04 pm 25. trapper:We can achieve fairness by either pulling everyone down to the lowest level or by raising everyone up to the highest level. The former is the easy way and the Obama way. The latter is the American and conservative way. The former will destroy wealth and the “means of production” in the process of redistribution so the latter will become impossible. Just look at any socialist/communist country. The golden egg is soon gone and the goose too!
May 22, 2009 - 1:05 pm 26. So Cal Guy:Introductory Poly Sci course definition of “Politics” – distribution of advantages/disadvantages.
May 22, 2009 - 1:20 pm 27. "progressive"watch:T.K. Farrow has defined one word,fairness,in the Barak Obama lexicon of doublespeak,and defined it exactly right. Farrow would do us all a favor if he defined all the words in Barak’s Obamagauge.
May 22, 2009 - 1:36 pm 28. Saltherring:I am of the opinion that the Obamanites are perfectly content to drive business overseas or into the ground. Obama and his cohorts can then distribute the forfeited assets of such businesses to his primary dependents, err, constituents, which are lazy urbanites and illegal aliens. And then who needs businesses anyway? Industry just pollutes mother earth and competes for power and resources that rightly belong to the government, doesn’t it? And then those same businesses go and provide jobs and opportunity for common folks, allowing them some measure of pride, satisfaction and independence…not to mention food, a table to put it on and a roof to fit over the top. How can a government compete with that? Perhaps by impressing more and more of the profits earned by businesses and successful individuals, and awarding such profits to urban indolents, Obama can undo what 233 years of hard work and sacrifice have accomplished. Yes, he can realize his dream and destroy American capitalism.
May 22, 2009 - 1:42 pm 29. stuggo:The nation is going the way of California. Not a good scenario indeed.
May 22, 2009 - 4:18 pm 30. Mary in LA:The American Thinker has the text of a letter from a third-generation Dodge dealer whose dealership is about to be taken from him, with no compensation, and given to someone else.
May 22, 2009 - 6:00 pm 31. Mudpie:Fairness! That is all I hear when I visit
May 22, 2009 - 8:57 pm 32. Pastor of Muppets:France. I try to point out that the only thing fair in life is death. That isn’t even fair as it is very nasty for some and just not waking in the morning for others. But the French can’t
figure it either.
“An apt comparison, I would add that not only is he a whiny nine year old whose ball has been stolen, he is that prissy little brat that doesn’t have the wherewithal to try to take back himself. He wants the teacher to do it for him.”
Let me guess, you were a member of that pitiful group of children who dealt with their pathetic psychological weaknesses by delivering gang beatings to anyone they could.
What a moral compass!
May 22, 2009 - 9:54 pm 33. pappy:can anyone tell me why liberals think with the part of the brain that’s in their ass? all’s fair in love and war, but don’t mess with my money. his half majesty the king of jive and the tax cheating five are on a mission to drum socialism to the forefront here. it’s time for the taxpayers to start our own group.
May 22, 2009 - 10:55 pm 34. Allston:#18 Wayne:
Precisely. It’s effectively a murder/suicide, with us as the victims.
May 23, 2009 - 6:25 am 35. Meryl:I don’t think it’s fair to take money from people who work and give it to people who don’t work.
Isn’t it amazing that such a simple piece of logic (the world where most of us grew up) has become accepted evidence (in the world of da Bamster) of “my selfishness?”
A conservative flood fighter in the Fargo ND area was on the radio last week expressing his disgust at learning the reason for registrations of sandbag-fillers during the height of the flood in April.
These thousands of volunteers didn’t think much of “signing in”–UNTIL THEY LEARNED that the sign-in would be used by FEMA…TO BE SURE THAT EACH OF THEM GOT PAID LATER FOR THEIR VOLUNTEER WORK!!!!!!!!!!!! So under da Bamster–not only will volunteer work be MANDATORY, it will be REIMBURSED—with tax money, of course.
Needless to say, the word got around and the conservatives fighting the flood stopped signing in (the signing was NOT for any other reason…like you or I might think…liability or safety)
May 23, 2009 - 8:49 am 36. Blackwater:Yeah let’s give more money to the people that smoked weed, drank alcohol, played video games and fell asleep in class all through elementary school and highschool. Or who buys crack, watches TV instead of taking care of their kids and sleeps with anyone who has a pulse and doesn’t show up to work. Or the people who have the IQ of a 10 year old and spend their whole day listening to gangster rap music and stealing from people when they aren’t looking. Clearly those people deserve to be taken care of by all the rest of us normal people. The only government care I support for them is a nice stay in a prison for the rest of their lives so they’re segregated off from the rest of society.
May 23, 2009 - 10:05 am 37. Elegrese:Oh please! I am an Independent,voter, previously a Democrat, and if you really think that Barack Obama is a ‘liberal’, or even a Democrat, you have not kept yourself informed.
+ FISA
+ health care
+ trade reform
* exporting jobs (GM for exp)
+ paying back Wall Street for election
+ supports torture
+ no oversight
+ no regulation (not even food imports)
Now who does that sound like? You guys should be kissing his ring and change party registration if this keeps up.
Oh and the socialism jargon, give it a rest. Try unitary executive wanna be. Jebus -
May 23, 2009 - 10:33 am 38. Dave Goin:If we allow our countries (The West) to descend to the level of the socialist agenda, to weaken and destroy our ability to project power in the world and, yes, use that power to ensure that our interests are paramount then get we had better get ready to speak Chinese.
They are already in bed with 75% of the world looking for all resources. Wherever they go they corrupt local leaders and business which allows them to take resources at breakneck speed all the while using their own labor, as few local contractors and personnel as they can get away with. They generally leave a mess when they are through if they haven’t had an actual environmental disaster. See the Sidoarjo mudflow in East Java, Indonesia and at least 3-4 oilwell blowouts and fires here in South East Asia that I know of this past 2 years.
They are now building a blue water navy and anyone who thinks they will get along in the world without getting their way is either a damn fool or an active traitor to the West.
I for one would pray that whoever is in charge at that time has the guts to launch every nuke and biochemical weapon we have rather than live under the filthy communist Chinese.
May 23, 2009 - 12:00 pm 39. Gina:John Galt: “Many of these women talk about the fantasies that they have of stealing Barry away from Michelle for one glorious night.”
May 23, 2009 - 12:35 pm 40. Houdini:I suspect this is true. But I also suspect they would be disappointed. I think the O got his big brain from his father and his little brain from his mother.
I find it outrageous that fairness as defined by the left is to take from those that have earned more than others and to give those gains to those that possibly never have earned due to laziness, lack of ingenuity, or willingness to provide a service or good that others need or want. If those that earned their money and attained wealth by working long hours or more than one job, and made wise decisions about saving and sacrificing for their future should have most of their gains taken by the government and given to those that take it and use drugs or drink excessively or buy articles they want as soon as they get the money and are penniless the next day, then hell no it is not fair.
It is time for those that are responsible and work hard to say HELL NO NOT ANYMORE will I support this policy, and vote out the liberal socialist democrats that are infesting our federal government. Let your state make the laws and stop these federal mandates, vote for conservatives at the local state and federal levels. There is an opportunity to do just that next year, and if what happened in California in the last propositions is an indicator it might be the real start of seeing this actually happen, now they need to follow the course and get rid of most of their stupid liberal politicians starting with Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, et. al.
May 23, 2009 - 1:26 pm 41. Paul -Indiana:#39. Obambi has only produced girls, anyway. Does that qualify him as a girly-man?
May 23, 2009 - 6:54 pm 42. Meryl:39. Gina:
“John Galt: ‘Many of these women talk about the fantasies that they have of stealing Barry away from Michelle for one glorious night.’”
Yuck.
If I knew it was him knocking at my front door, I wouldn’t even answer except to tell him to go away.
May 23, 2009 - 7:25 pm 43. Well Educated Cad:Just “Atlas Shrugged” coming true!!!!!!!
May 23, 2009 - 10:12 pm 44. ic:40. Houdini: “The Democrats or liberals think that everybody is stupid and therefore they need somebody… to tell them how to behave themselves. The Republicans think everybody is lazy…” — Karl Hess
May 23, 2009 - 10:46 pm 45. David:Ask Joe the plumber and Sarah Palin about fairness.
May 24, 2009 - 7:03 am 46. Oscar Wao:That was just a preview of what is coming .
For the people that is.
TARP was the warm up of BIG BROTHER ,just wait till they get the ball rolling.
Why the people are allowing this and some even cheering it on is wrong on so may levels.
It is time for those that are responsible and work hard to say HELL NO NOT ANYMORE will I support this policy, and vote out the liberal socialist democrats that are infesting our federal government. Let your state make the laws and stop these federal mandates, vote for conservatives at the local state and federal levels. There is an opportunity to do just that next year, and if what happened in California in the last propositions is an indicator it might be the real start of seeing this actually happen, now they need to follow the course and get rid of most of their stupid liberal politicians starting with Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters,
Do you need a tissue to clean up? I don’t want to interrupt your masturbatory fantasy, but come 2010 local Republicans will most likely suffer even greater defeats. Almost every poll confirms that there are fewer and fewer people willing to identify as Republicans.
PRINCETON, NJ — The decline in Republican Party affiliation among Americans in recent years is well documented, but a Gallup analysis now shows that this movement away from the GOP has occurred among nearly every major demographic subgroup. Since the first year of George W. Bush’s presidency in 2001, the Republican Party has maintained its support only among frequent churchgoers, with conservatives and senior citizens showing minimal decline….
…So far in 2009, aggregated Gallup Poll data show the divide on leaned party identification is 53% Democratic and 39% Republican — a marked change from 2001, when the parties were evenly matched, according to an average of all of that year’s Gallup Polls. That represents a loss of five points for the Republicans and a gain of eight points for the Democrats….The parties were also evenly matched on basic party identification in 2001 (which does not take into account the partisan leanings of independents), with 32% identifying themselves as Republicans, 33% as Democrats, and 34% as independents. The 2009 data show the GOP losing five points since then, with identification increasing three points among both Democrats and independents….
As was shown earlier, the GOP’s loss in leaned support over this time is evident among nearly every subgroup. The losses are substantial among college graduates, which have shown a decline in GOP support of 10 points. (The losses are even greater — 13 points — among the subset of college graduates with postgraduate educations.) This may reflect in part Barack Obama’s strong appeal to educated voters, a major component of his winning coalitions in both the Democratic primaries and the general election….
Implications
The Republican Party clearly has lost a lot of support since 2001, the first year of George W. Bush’s administration. Most of the loss in support actually occurred beginning in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina and Bush’s nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court — both of which created major public relations problems for the administration — and amid declining support for the Iraq war. By the end of 2008, the party had its worst positioning against the Democrats in nearly two decades.
The GOP may have stemmed those losses for now, as it does not appear to have lost any more support since Obama took office. But as the analysis presented here shows, the losses the GOP has suffered have come among nearly all demographic groups apart from some of the most ardent Republican subgroups….
Read it and weep. That’s the Gallup poll mind you, not some fringe lefty group. The truth is in the tea leaves you little pant-crapping sissies. Your fear of your own shadow, worship of mendacity and craven support of xenophobic racist wars that have resulted in the death of thousands of Americans, has come back big time. No one wants anything to do with you or your discredited philosophy. The best that you can hope for is to continue to entertain people as Michael Steele holds national meetings on what to call Democrats.
May 24, 2009 - 9:52 am 47. E. Andrews:to 46. Oscar Wao: “…I don’t want to interrupt your masturbatory fantasy,” … “you little pant-crapping sissies …”
Why do liberals so frequently resort to gutter language, name-calling and SHOUTING? An educated person cannot have a satisfactory conversation with people consumed with hatred for those who disagree with with them. To paraphrase an old nursery rhyme, sticks and stones can break our bones, but names can never hurt us.
FYI, I’m so disgusted with most politicians I often vote only on local or state issues after thorough research.
May 24, 2009 - 1:58 pm 48. Marie Claude:31 Mudpie, umm you’ve attended soccer matches ! fairness isn’t in our vocabulary otherwise ! but magouilles, favoritisme …
May 25, 2009 - 10:24 am 49. Jim C:Tomp,
May 25, 2009 - 8:13 pm 50. Jim C:His ball wasn’t stolen. He was the last one picked and they never passed him the ball. Now, he’s gonna make sure that everyone who sucks gets the ball and gets a shot or two.
Oscar Wao is what’s wrong with the Democratic party..every thing is based upon fear and/or emotion and it’s all about gaining and keeping power. And when things get tough, abandon rational argument, start the name calling and try trashing a well known Republican (Bush, Cheney, Rush, Hannity, Steele, etc.)
Remember the tea party protestors? Dems didn’t like ‘em so they called them names such as tea baggers and racists. I guess the entire state of California is racist too. Not even Pelosi’s county voted for higher taxes.
May 25, 2009 - 8:22 pm 51. goy:@47. E. Andrews: - Why do liberals so frequently resort to gutter language, name-calling and SHOUTING?
If memory serves, it has something to do with some Alinsky guy, a rulebook and using ridicule to beat down the opposition.
Guess he forgot to mention the bit about appeal to ridicule being a logical fallacy. And none of the supposed “college graduates” or “college graduates with postgraduate educations” seem to have noticed.
May 25, 2009 - 10:21 pm 52. Bohemond:In related news, The Obama administration has announced that it is seizing two of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ six Super Bowl trophies. The confiscated Lombardis will be awarded to the Detroit Lions and the Cleveland Browns. “After all,” said Sports Czar Oprah Winfree, “the Lions and Browns played just as many regular-season games and spent just as much time in practice. It’s only fair.”
May 26, 2009 - 8:00 am