h/t Mark Hemingway

From a New York Times magazine piece on Obama:

“If you talk to Warren [Buffett], he’ll tell you his preference is not to meddle in the economy at all — let the market work, however way it’s going to work, and then just tax the heck out of people at the end and just redistribute it,” Obama said. “That way you’re not impeding efficiency, and you’re achieving equity on the back end.” He continued by saying that he thought there was some merit in Buffett’s argument. But, he said: “I do think that what the argument may miss is the sense of control that we want individuals to have in determining their own career paths, making their own life choices and so forth. And I also think you want to instill that sense of self-reliance and that what you do will help determine outcomes.”

I think, given Obama’s history, we can safely ignore the paean to “self-reliance” and self-determination and can focus not only on his agreement with Buffet’s unfortunate “tax the heck out of people” and “redistribute” that money, but also on his emphasis on government’s determining outcomes — something that is in vogue with the modern left, and that flies in the face of the rugged individualism and emphasis on equality of opportunity that have made this country what it is today.