On Thursday, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) made a rather astonishing statement: The U.S. doesn’t have a spending problem, it has a “misallocation of wealth” problem.
Really, Tom?
Here's are the Democrat Senator's exact words:
"I think, first of all, I want to disagree with those who say we have a spending problem. Everybody keeps saying we have a spending problem. And they are talking about that like there's an assumption that somehow we as a nation are broke. We can't afford these things any longer, we're too broke to invest in education and housing and things like that.
Well, look at this way: We're the richest nation in the history of the world. We are now the richest nation in the world. We have the highest per capita income of any major nation. That kind of begs the question, doesn't it? If we're so rich, why are we so broke? Is it a spending problem?
No. It's because we have a misallocation of capital. A misallocation of wealth. All of this wealth that's been built up by hard-working Americans has been accumulated into fewer and fewer hands all the time."
"A misallocation of wealth…so in other words, there are people that people in his position know should not have wealth because it's been 'misallocated'," Glenn said.
"A misallocation means that somebody is out there allocating the wealth. Nobody's allocating the wealth," Glenn emphasized. "People are going out there and earning it, either through their talent in sports, in their talent in business. They might be a drug dealer, they might be a dancer, they ‑‑ whatever. They might just be a speculator. They might be a wildcatter. But their wealth isn't allocated unless you're a Kennedy. It wasn't allocated to you. You went out and earned it."
Harkin's big point seemed to be that because people in America have the highest per capita income, we're the richest nation in the world. Unfortunately, one does not mean the other when your government spends itself into oblivion. Glenn explained you're not really "rich" if you make a lot of money and are buried in debt.
"How are we the richest nation in the world?" Glenn asked. "For him to say that we don't have a spending problem, but a misallocation of wealth… Who's allocating the wealth, Tom? Who decides who's rich and who's poor?"
"These guys are out of control, are truly, truly out of control."