Appearing at a candidate forum in late January, three likely Republican presidential contenders — Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul — all made a striking confession: They considered “the increasing gap between rich and poor” to be a problem. But on the question of whether the government should intervene to solve it, Mr. Cruz and Mr. Paul rejected that approach, and Mr. Rubio appeared to agree with them. …
The responses, even as they reflect an effort to appeal to voters on an issue of increasing importance, put the three men at odds with public opinion. According to a Pew Research Center poll from January 2014, which surveyed about 1,500 adults, Americans not only consider inequality a problem, but 69 percent of them, and almost half of Republicans, say the government should act “to reduce the gap between the rich and everyone else.” CONT.
Noam Scheiber, New York Times