Barack Obama on Redistribution - Loyola Univ Oct 1998

Here's a 1998 clip of Barack Obama saying he believes in wealth "redistribution,"

In the video clip, Mr. Obama, ostensibly speaking to Loyola University in October, 1998, when he was a Illinois state senator, Mr. Obama endorses "redistribution" as a way to help the working poor.

"I think the trick is figuring out how to structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution — because I actually believe in redistribution at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody's got a shot," he said in a YouTube video posted on the Drudge Report.

The clip provides some context, including comments from Mr. Obama arguing for more policy research to help the working poor and expressing a desire to "resuscitate the notion that government action can be effective at all."

"There has been a systematic, I don't think it's too strong to call it a propaganda campaign, against the possibility of government action and its efficacy," he said. "And I think some of it has been deserved — the Chicago Housing Authority has not been a good model of good policy making and neither necessarily have been the Chicago public schools — what that means then as we try to resuscitate this notion that we're all in this together — leave nobody behind — we do have to be thinking what are the delivery systems that are effective in meeting people where they live."

" ... I think the trick is figuring out how to structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution — because I actually believe in redistribution at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody's got a shot," he continued.