Obama Is a Statist Not a Socialist

[m42]

Pres. Barack Obama is not a socialist. He is a thoroughgoing statist, perhaps the worst in American history. And with Wilson, FDR, and LBJ, he's got some serious competition. Republicans in Congress lack the leadership to challenge the president's audacious power grabs. More important, they lack any serious philosophical basis for doing so. The acronym RINO is an oxymoron, for the name "Republican" in fact designates someone with a commitment to nothing more than maintaining political power. The purpose of maintaining that power is to, well, maintain that power.

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10158

[kerrin]

Couldn't agree more with this assesment. Wish more people were aware of this. Bush was also a big statist and so are most Republicans.

I 'effin hate statists! And want to do them physical harm... what? don't judge me. ;)

[John Scott]

I disagree. 100%. I've been mulling this question for a long time, ever since the election.

Japan is statist. People pay high taxes to have the state provide a wide range of services - from retirement pensions to health care. It's statist, not socialist, because it doesn't involve widespread wealth redistribution. The rich and poor both pay heavily into the programs.

In Obama's vision of America, the working classes pay nothing, and in fact get "tax credits" and receive refunds from the government on taxes that they never paid in the first place. The wealthy, on the other hand, pay heavy tax burdens and are excluded from any government benefits.

That's not statism. That's socialist democracy a la Henri de Man.

[kerrin]

Perhaps this is a matter of semantics. Certainly a Socialist must also be a Statist, but I think here, it's a matter of proportion.

So far Obama's actions show that he's a heavy interventionist and favors central planning—indicating, primarily Statistism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statism).

Obama's vision, as articulated during the race, is indeed troublingly similar to a socialist democracy, but his actions thus far show a very heavy preference to Statism. Now, he could, very well use the power he's amassing to usher in more socialist policies.

Bottom line, in my opinion, he's probably both. But he's a big time bailout, stimulus, deficit-spending, economic Statist.

In some ways America's Income Tax and Tax Code is already socialistic: it favors certain groups of people over others. We have socialist programs put in place by both Republicans and Democrats (No Child, Medicare, Welfare, Social Security, etc.), yet recipients don't equally pay into the system.

[LoraHup]

Well there were not so many good presidents in the USA... and with Obama, i have my doubts tbh... i mean whenever hes on the news its because he did a joke somewhere or bought something for his wife or gave a party in the white house.. i mean really.. what is he doing?