Got Socialism?

Socialism has gotten more attention in recent months than almost anything else in the news. FOX News adds flames to the Red Meat and MSNBC devotes countless hours to mocking those who believes the Obama Administration is a group of undercover Socialists. I find it a little more than humorous that every proposal by President Obama or the Democratic Majority in Congress is being called nothing more than an attempt to turn America Socialist. Nothing happening is a bold move in the direction of Socialism.

Let's define Socialism to start things off. Webster defines it as "a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state." What that means is that the government controls and runs every facet of life. It is a clear definition that the government runs EVERYTHING (think Orwell's 1984). That being said, you'll be hard pressed to find anything in our society that the government has complete control over. Our society is not Socialistic. Now that we have the definition lets apply it to the policies of President Obama and the Democrats.

The Policies and Proposals

The bailouts for the financial sector started under G.W. Bush's Administration. The plan was to take tax expenditures and give them to failing "banks" to use as capital to continue the flow of credit in the economy. The money was a loan that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has said will be paid back (in a substantial proportion at least) and even some revenues can be and has been made. The problem was that some banks were not failing but had already failed so for those banks the government had to take a controlling stake. Socialism? Hardly. The government did not take a step in creating a unified banking system run by the government. The Auto industry was next to get a bailout and the one company that has caused controversy was General Motors who was "taken over" by the government. The head of the company was forced out and a new head was appointed by the government. I have mixed feeling about this. I don't believe the government should have forced anyone out of a job that is not in the federal realm. But, as said before, there wasn't an attempt to turn Ford, GM, and Chrysler into Barackars Inc. and thereby only making government cars. No Socialism here.

Next up is taxes. Ah yes, good ol' Joe The Plumber acquainted us with Barack Obama's tax policies during the Presidential Race and started a dialogue on....well Socialism. Obama was quoted saying that he was for a "redistribution of wealth" meaning take from the rich and give to the poor. Redistribution is indeed coupled with Socialism. Does that mean Obama is a Socialist? In my opinion, not at all. The context in which Obama answered the question was all about opportunities. The way the government allows opportunities is through grants and assistance programs that are funded by tax revenues. That meaning Obama supports the rich paying more taxes to facilitate the governments programs. Don't automatically assume programs such as Unemployment and Social Security; the government also has programs such as the Pell Grant that gives us college students financial aid and also grants that help start up businesses. This is more a political ideology for Democrats than anything else. Taxes have been cut for 95% of working Americans under Obama thus far. No one has seen one tax increase and nothing has been proposed to have a tax increase during the recession.

At bat next is the famous Healthcare! Now, as my previous entry explained, some call the Public Option a step into Socialist Medicine. I see it more as a step towards a single payer system rather than Socialism. The Government very well can starve out the othe insurance companies as I said before if they continue to have insurance tied to employment and pass the Public Option plan. This very well could be a step, albeit small, into Socialism....but there's too many hypotheticals attached to call it Socialism on the surface.

So to summarize: Obama is not Socialist! In my very humble opinion, it's an attack from The Right to scare away any proposals since they don't have control over the two branches of government that has influence over policy.