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Earth to GOP: Obama's No Socialist

Obama favors free-market approach

By Drew Nelles, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 8, 2009 6:12 PM CDT

(Newser) – Horrified by President Obama's stimulus plan, conservatives are calling him a European-style socialist—when in fact he's all-American, Jacob Weisberg writes in Newsweek. Obama envisions “cradle-to-grave opportunity, as opposed to the European model of cradle-to-grave security,” writes Weisberg, who explains that Obama’s plans to tackle hot issues like health care and climate change are all market-based.

Obama may be throwing borrowed money at the economy, but he's planning to trim Medicare and Social Security; he may be planning to fight global warming, but with a cap-and-trade system—not regulations. Obama knows that “the European model of social democracy would be unlikely to find root here, even if the president favored it,” Weisberg argues. “Obama gets that we want government to fix the free market, not take its place.”

[Images (6)]

[Quotes (1)]

"Obama shows every sign of instinctively resisting a paternalistic and overarching public sector as much as most Americans do," Jacob Weisberg writes. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

Barack Obama speaks at a rally in front of the Ross County Courthouse in Chillicothe, Ohio Friday, Oct. 10, 2008. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A volunteer holds U.S flags and a poster supporting Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in Newport Beach, Calif., Sunday, July 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., walks between two American Flags to a news conference in Chicago, Wednesday, March 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

In the March 16 issue of Newsweek, David Frum examines Rush Limbaugh's impact on the GOP. Influential conservatives like Limbauch have labeled Obama a socialist. (PRNewsFoto/Newsweek)

President Barack Obama smiles during the Columbus Police Graduation Exercises in Columbus, Ohio, Friday, March 6, 2009. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

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'Socialism' is a scare word in our political culture and a poor description both of modern-day Sweden and whatever Obama has in mind. - Jacob Weisberg

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 22 comments

Guest

Jun 9, 2009 2:05 AM CDT

No anything not authorized by our rule of law, the U.S. Constitution, purchased with public money and controlled by the State (Federal Government) is Socialist. Read the 10 planks for converting an advanced nation (read that free market capitalist nations) into Communist ones. Much of what you just named is found in those planks. There is NO Constitutional authority for public funds to be used for medical, educational, private firms like banks and more. The Constitution remember that? You know, that's the thing our government is framed upon, the laws of the land are based upon and every public servant including Obama has taken an oath of office to protect, defend and uphold. Meanwhile, the more the Federal government has grown under the Socialist model started largely by FDR, the larger our national debt has become and the more intrusive the government has become. I wonder why. Obama is closer to Marxism in practice than a free market capitalist following the U.S. Constitution. The O man says- "You want me to follow what? LOL!!!"

Guest

Mar 9, 2009 8:49 PM CDT

exactly!! but who really reads and who really understands what they read...

AdaptAndOvercome

Mar 9, 2009 7:41 AM CDT

People are idiots and the REPUBLICANS CONTINUE TO PROVE THAT THEY ARE THE BIGGEST OF THEM ALL. They love the "haves" and they want it all without having to pay for it. How pathetic a group their are... and selfish and self centered. They are the type that will see a young girl who finds herself pregnant from rape as someone who should keep the child and then when the young girl quits school and can't raise the child unless she has government assistance, as a dead beat that they have to support. They are the ones that love to spend extravigantly on hunting trips and leases and and then complain when they drill on them, put quick to have someone drill in your back yard and parks. HYPOCRITS FROM THE WORD GO. They want to have their cake and eat it too. Look what that got us for the last 8 years.

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Earth to GOP: Obama's No Socialist