On Friday evening, Mitt Romney addressed the Republican National Committee's winter meeting in California, repositioning himself as a lifelong warrior against poverty and insisting that Republican leadership is needed in the "post-Obama era." Romney repeatedly attacked former secretary of state and presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for a foreign policy that he denounced as believing "America and her friends like Israel were the problem, not the solution." But Romney, as always, was most passionate when he was talking about money. "We haven't seen rising income over decades," he said. And "under President Obama," Romney told the room, "the rich have gotten richer, income inequality has gotten worse.”

Which is true. You can't argue with that. It's not just Obama, though; income inequality in America has been increasing since the 1970s. This is more than just a cycle—it's a sickness, and every president from Reagan through Obama has been unable to cure it. The problem is that the rich aren't being taxed at a high enough rate anymore. Except Romney doesn't think that's the problem. Here's what he identified as the cure for income inequality: "The only policies that will reach into the hearts of American people and pull people out of poverty and break the cycle of poverty are Republican principles, conservative principles." Okay, but what are the principles? "They include family formation, education, good jobs, and we're going to bring them to the American people and finally end the scourge of poverty in this great land." Romney also called to "shrink government" and to "repeal and replace Obamacare so that we can get some real growth again." (Because Obamacare has irreparably damaged the economy, I guess.)

This, of course, is bullshit. The government is a major employer in the United States, and so Romney's calls to shrink government sound to me like he's angling for layoffs, which is the exact opposite of job creation. And that sly little "family formation" he slipped in there is the most insidious statement in the whole speech because it seems to lay the blame for poverty at the feet of single mothers, gay marriage, and wanton promiscuity. This isn't an economic platform. It's culture war.

The day after Mitt Romney gave his weird greatest-hits speech for the Republican Party, President Obama unveiled a plan that could actually do something to address income inequality in America. The AP's Julie Pace describes the plan, which will be officially revealed during the State of the Union, as "raising the capital gains rate on top income earners and eliminating a tax break on inheritances," and then using that money to "fund new tax credits and other cost-saving measures for middle-class taxpayers." This is exactly what needs to happen. The money that the 1 percent is sitting on needs to be freed up, put back into circulation to fund small businesses and spending and infrastructure and economic support for the poorest Americans. It's the first good economic idea President Obama has floated in a while, a genuine first step in a new war on poverty. So of course Republicans call it a "non-starter."

Before Romney spoke on Friday, a reporter asked President Obama what he thought about his 2012 challenger making noise about running for president again in 2016. Obama's dismissive tone, and the bile-swallowing grin with which he delivers his response, is absolutely perfect.