Obama rejects criticism of his agenda as "socialism"

Reuters ^

[Sub-Driver]

Obama rejects criticism of his agenda as "socialism" Photo 3:22pm EST

By Jeff Mason and Caren Bohan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama launched a vigorous defense of his economic agenda on Wednesday, rejecting critics who call his policies "socialism" and insisting he aims to boost U.S. competitiveness abroad.

Speaking to the Business Roundtable, which groups some of the country's top chief executives, Obama called for support of his administration's efforts to overhaul financial regulation, revamp the health insurance industry and create jobs.

"Contrary to the claims of some of my critics and some of the editorial pages, I am an ardent believer in the free market," Obama said in remarks that were set against a backdrop of unease in the business community about his economic policies and legislative priorities.

Businesses -- and opposition Republicans -- are wary of the Obama administration's regulatory zeal in areas such as healthcare and energy policy, and worry about a perceived tendency to increase spending rather than lower taxes.

Obama, a Democrat, said his efforts to enact sweeping legislation to overhaul financial regulations and set caps on carbon emissions to fight climate change were not aimed at thwarting businesses, and he reminded his audience that his $787 billion stimulus package included major tax cuts.

"We have arrived at a juncture in our politics where reasonable efforts to update our regulations, or make basic investments in our future, are too often greeted with cries of 'government takeover' or even 'socialism,'" Obama said.

[Sub-Driver]

This tag really needles him..........

[goodnesswins]

Sooo....I reject Obama...AND Socialist/Marxism/Communism...whatever his policies are

[BunnySlippers]

He’s a Moron! This will draw attention to his socialism even more.

Socialist, socialist, socialist!

[Tarpon]

Sooo, can I then reject your socialism sir ...

Maybe if you were talking to shoeless Kenyans it would work for you.

[AlexW]

“Socialist, socialist, socialist!”

MARXIST, MARXIST, MARXIST !!!!!!!!!!

[Diogenesis]

Pres_ _ent Obama is a racist, Marxist, Islamic undocumented hater of America.

[NCBraveheart]

ha ha ha ha ha ha.......what a joker Barry is.

[knarf]

Oh, OK ... but you’re STILL a usurping, mulatto lieing bastard.

[Anti-Bubba182]

It’s racist to criticize, “The One”.

[goodnesswins]

You know it might be fun to have a campaign to call the Whitehouse switchboard....and when we get an answer say....Obama is a Socialist...and hang up!

[Vaquero]

He is right.....

His agenda is more Marxist/Stalinist (with as touch of Fascist thrown in) than Socialist.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

The follow up question to Obama should be: “Do you condemn socialism as an antiquated and failed political system that should be scorned by those who embrace republican democracy?”

[dennisw]

Obama is right. It is communism and he learned from communists such as Frank Marshall Davis and Reverend Wright. Van Jones too

[Diogenesis]

“Western thinking has become conservative:
the world situation should stay as it is at any cost;
there should be no changes. ....
The communist regime in the East could stand and grow due to the enthusiastic support
from an enormous number of Western intellectuals who felt a kinship and refused to see
communism's crimes. And when they no longer could do so, they tried to justify them. In
our Eastern countries, communism has suffered a complete ideological defeat; it is zero
and less than zero. But Western intellectuals still look at it with interest and with
empathy, and this is precisely what makes it so immensely difficult for the West to
withstand the East.”
[Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn at the Commencement, 8 June 1978, Harvard University]

[FrankR]

Well, just because HE "rejects" it, doesn't mean it's not true.

If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...chances are, it's a duck.

And prince oogah boogah has done a lot of "quacking" this past year, and each one points straight to "socialism".

But the telepromTer kid is sooooo used to lying, if he was upside down, on National TV, he would tell you that he is rightside up if it would help him politically.

The "socialist" title wouldn't bug him so much, if it didn't have some truth to it. He's probably parsing words - as lib/progressives do...he probably means he's not a member of the socialist "party", only the democrats.

Quuuuuaaaaaakkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!

[Vaquero]

[svcw]

Socialism: Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.

Communism: A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people.

Marxism: refers to the idea that all evolving economies ultimately take the same course: Feudalism to capitalism and eventually ending up as a socialist or communist environment where economic and social classes no longer exist.

[majormaturity]

“I am an ardent believer in the free market,”.........Joe the Plumber asked him what he wanted to do and he said “spread the wealth around..”....Whose wealth? Mine? Yours? His? This man is at best a socialist, at worst a Communist...and he is leading this once great nation? To younger readers, Wake Up!! Forgive your ignorance for voting for him...Hell, in 1976 I voted for Jimmah Carter because I thought he rejected the politics of Watergate...then came 1980 and I woke up and voted for this guy named Reagan..What a Leader Reagan was....Love the man still. Changed my life and perspective.

[Diogenesis]

“There is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of
Pharaoh — get first all the people’s money, then their lands, and then make them and
their children servants forever. It will be said that we do not propose to establish kings. I
know it. But there is a natural inclination in mankind to kingly government. It sometimes
relieves them from aristocratic domination. They had rather have one tyrant than 500. It
gives more the appearance of equality among citizens, and that they like. I am
apprehensive — therefore — perhaps too apprehensive — that the government of these
States may in future times end in a monarchy [not called a monarchy but an executive
with monarchial powers]. But this catastrophe, I think, may long be delayed, if in our
proposed system we do not sow the seeds of contention, faction and tumult, by making
our posts of honor places of profit. If we do, I fear that, though we employ at first a
number and not a single person, the number will in time be set aside, it will only nourish
the fetus of a king (as the honorable gentleman from Virginia very aptly expressed it),
and a king will the sooner be set over us.”
-- Benjamin Franklin

[majormaturity]

Good reply