The War on Success - Wall Street Journal

Lost in all the spin and bluster of last week's Republican National Convention was this amazing piece of hyperbole:

"The centerpiece of the president's entire re-election campaign is attacking success," Mitt Romney claimed in his acceptance speech.

There is nothing more to debate. Attacking success is the only issue left—at least according to Mr. Romney.

We have become a nation of petty, jealous snivelers. And under President Obama, success has become a punishable offense. This is why nobody will drive a BMW, live in a 25,000-square-foot house, fly on a private jet, sail a yacht, throw a lavish party or wear fine jewelry anymore. This is why no one goes on reality TV shows or starts a website to flaunt their riches.

To be fair, though, the attacks on success began long before Mr. Obama's term.

We shut down one of our greatest energy-trading firms: Enron. We put the founder of one of our biggest telecom companies in prison: Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom. We couldn't stand seeing former Tyco International CEO Dennis Kozlowski with a $6,000 shower curtain, so we locked him away, too.

And those were just the Bush years. When Mr. Obama took charge, we escalated. We made a laughing stock of a man who attracted billions in investment capital from successful families all over the world, Bernie Madoff. Then we started jailing highly successful Wall Street investors on insider-trading charges. We did this because they had better access to information than we did, I suppose. And we are not going to stop attacking success there.

Many of us would like to see the CEOs of every major bank in chains. Yes, they are too smart, too good-looking, too talented and too successful for our envious hearts.

Last week, one of America's most successful companies, Citigroup, agreed to pay $590 million to some unsuccessful shareholders, who lost big investing in Citi stock. Shareholders claimed Citi lied to them about some risky subprime-mortgage paper. Citi denied the charges and said it settled only to fend off the attack-dog lawyers.

In a statement, Citi said it would continue to pursue success: "Citi is fundamentally a different company today than at the beginning of the financial crisis. … We are focused on the basics of banking…to serve our clients and the real economy."

Taxpayers put up $45 billion to save Citi from its previous pursuit of success. Citi has repaid this money, but its near-collapse still ripples through the economy. And critics charge that big banks, including Citi, are now little more than government-sponsored enterprises like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

That's why some people want to attack Citi and break it into pieces. It's been too successful…at looting shareholders and taxpayers alike.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who doesn't like bank bailouts, was among those echoing Mr. Romney's theme.

"Mr. President, you say the rich must pay their fair share. When you seek to punish the rich, the jobs that are lost are those of the poor and middle class. When you seek to punish Mr. Exxon Mobil, you punish the secretary who owns Exxon Mobil stock."

By Mr. Paul's logic, all rich people and corporations are above the law. They can't be punished for crimes, because that just hurts the little people, and they should not be taxed because that just kills jobs.

The U.S., meanwhile, has a $16 trillion debt to pay off. Republicans and Democrats ran up this tab together. It has been a bipartisan attack on the success of us all.

—Al Lewis is a columnist for Dow Jones Newswires in Denver. He blogs at tellittoal.com; his email address is al.lewis@dowjones.com