Michelle Obama Suggests the COVID Pandemic Should Make America Rethink 'How Wealth Is Distributed'
Former first lady Michelle Obama hinted during a recent episode of her podcast that a redistribution of wealth may be in order.
Speaking with Washington Post opinion columnist Michele Norris on the episode released Wednesday, Obama suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic should prompt Americans to rethink “how wealth is distributed.”
Obama’s comments came after Norris commented on how the term “essential” has been used during the health crisis and subsequent lockdowns.
“And that’s something that we need to, that’s a part of that reflection, that we need to do, with ourselves, and as a community. And we have to think about that, in terms of how wealth is distributed,” Obama said, “how these essential people are supported, and what does that mean?
“A lot of these people are broke. They don’t have health insurance. That it, if they were to get sick, as essential as they are, we have not as a society deemed it essential to make sure that they can go to the doctor and get the care that they need.
“And even if they can get COVID care, even if they can get tested, to keep working and doing our stuff, after the effects of the virus have worn off, and they are dealing with some lung issue, or some breathing issue, or asthma, that they don’t have to wait in an emergency room for hours on end, and then worry that they can even afford the prescription medication that they need to survive. I mean we have to think about this.”
Obama went on to say that “we have to think about the people who are not from this country, who are essential workers.”
Michelle Obama’s husband, former two-term President Barack Obama, was the main force behind arguably one of the biggest government redistributions of wealth the country had ever seen in the form of the Affordable Care Act.
In 2018, Barack Obama voiced similar sentiments about a redistribution of wealth during an address in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The former president called for a system where “rich people are still rich, but they’re giving a little bit back to make sure that everybody else has something to pay for universal health care and retirement security, and invests in infrastructure and scientific research that builds platforms for innovation,” according to CNBC.
Michelle Obama’s talk of redistributing wealth comes in the heat of the 2020 presidential race, at a time when many people are concerned that Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden might push for socialist policies should he win the White House.
Speaking last week to People’s Action, a far-left institute, former presidential candidate and self-described “democratic socialist” Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont made it clear that he and his allies on the far left could influence a potential Biden administration into enacting social justice policies.
Like Michelle and Barack Obama, Sanders and his supporters have long advocated for a form of socialist wealth redistribution.
“I think, number one, in the next three months, we do everything that we can at a grassroots level to defeat Donald Trump and elect Joe Biden,” Sanders said.
“Do we agree with everything that Joe Biden stands for? No, we don’t, I don’t,” he added. “But right now, the immediate task is not only to defeat Trump, but to defeat him badly.
“And then, after we help elect Biden, the day after, we stand up and do everything we can to make sure that President Biden is the most progressive president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”
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