Nuclear Energy

Boehner: The United States Should Be More Like France -- When It Comes To Nuclear Energy

Brian Beutler | March 16, 2011, 1:13PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

Reacting to the nuclear meltdown crisis playing out in Japan, House Speaker John Boehner told an audience at a job creation forum Wednesday that the United States should and will learn lessons from the tragedy. But in the meantime, the country should aim to increase its reliance on nuclear energy -- much like France.

"I don't think there's any question that there are a lot of lessons to be learned by what's happening in Japan, and there's no question we will learn from that," Boehner said.

But there are nuclear reactors operating all over the world. Eighty-two percent of the electricity produced in France comes from nuclear sources, and has done so successfully for decades. Only 20 percent of the electricity in the United States comes from nuclear sources.

So I think let's learn the lessons, let's understand what safeguards if any additional safeguards need to be put in place. But let's not just say like we have for the last 30 years, we're not even going to look at it because we're afraid of it.

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CPAC

Bachmann At CPAC: Obama Has 'Ushered In Socialism'

Jillian Rayfield | February 10, 2011, 10:23AM

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)

Rep. Michele Bachmann opened CPAC this morning with a quippy speech about needing unity in the conservative movement so they can kick Obama out of office in 2012.

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Fox News

Fox News Editor Pushed Emphasis On Obama 'Socialism' Ahead Of 2008 Election

Brian Beutler | February 1, 2011, 2:20PM

In late 2008, one of Fox News' top editors escalated his efforts to have the network portray then-Senator Barack Obama as a socialist and an anti-white racist during the waning days of the presidential election.

On October 27, 2008, then news-editor Bill Sammon emailed colleagues with references in Obama's first book Dreams From My Father to socialism, Marxism and Obama's past relationship with a white woman.

That email, obtained by Media Matters, was subject-lined "fyi: Obama's references to socialism, liberalism, Marxism and Marxists in his autobiography, 'Dreams from My Father.' Plus a couple of his many self-described 'racial obsessions'..."

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Paul Broun

Broun: GOP Is 'The Party Of N-O Against Socialism'

Jillian Rayfield | January 27, 2011, 10:02AM

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) in his office

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) is tripling down on his President Obama-is-a-socialist live-tweeting during the State Of The Union, this time drawing in Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid as well: "But we are the party of N-O against socialism and that's what Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack Obama have been proposing is a greater take over of everything and human endeavor in America."

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Health Care

Bachmann: Repeal The Senate To Undermine Socialist 'Obamacare' (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | January 20, 2011, 9:17AM

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)

No House majority likes to see its accomplishments buried in the graveyard of the Senate. That's why Republicans, who cherished the Senate's anti-majoritarian rules for the last two years, are already complaining about how their plans to repeal the health care law have just run into a dead end.

The logical solution to this problem, of course, is filibuster reform, unless you are Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), in which case it's more repealing of things. Specifically, Bachmann wants to repeal President Obama and the Senate and replace them with something more sympathetic.

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Fountain Hills

Tea Partiers: AZ Town's New Trash Plan Reeks Of Socialism

Eric Lach | November 9, 2010, 2:50PM

The community of Fountain Hills, Arizona has a new plan to streamline its trash collecting services and save money. But some Tea Partiers think it stinks.

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Bush Tax Cuts

In Record Time, Fox Host Confuses Taxes, Spending, Socialism, And Fiscal Responsibility (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | September 27, 2010, 7:15PM

Fox News hosts are masters at shouting down their own guests when disagreements arise. Here's a somewhat less-used tactic: increasingly absurd, scattershot questions, meant to yield an admission from the guest that she's a socialist.

This afternoon, Stuart Varney interviewed Occidental College professor Caroline Heldman, with the goal of walking Heldman, in Socratic-fashion, to the conclusion that President Obama is wrong to criticize the GOP for proposing "a series of policies that are just irresponsible...they say they want to balance the budget, they propose $4 trillion worth of tax cuts."

Unfortunately Varney confused "fiscal responsibility" with spending levels, and things went south from there.

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Jim Greer

Greer Apologizes To Obama For GOP Racism, Recants Critique Of Socialist Indoctrination School Speech

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 14, 2010, 11:40AM

Former Florida Republican Party Chair Jim Greer

Florida's school children are getting a lesson in how the political winds affect the political backbone today. Last year, Jim Greer, then the chair of the Florida Republican Party, was happy to, as he says now, "placate the extremists who dominate" the GOP and publicly accuse President Obama of orchestrating a socialist plot by addressing the nation's public schools via video.

Today, he's apologizing for ever saying any such thing, and calling members of his former party racist.

It seems that after a year which saw Greer get booted from the GOP and disgraced by scandal, he's had a change of heart with it comes to the president using his office to encourage and inspire the nation's pupils. In a statement sent to Florida reporters today, Greer completely apologizes to Obama for slamming his 2009 speech. Greer says the vitriol he threw Obama's way -- and the national kerfuffle it caused -- was part of his efforts to appease the party's extremes. (What's more, Greer suggests that it's now the GOP that's promoting ugliness, saying that "many" Republicans "have racist views.")

Unlike last year, Greer says his kids are excited about hearing Obama's speech to schoolchildren today.

"My children and I look forward to the President's speech," Greer says.

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2010 elections

Poll: 55% Of Likely Voters Think Obama's A Socialist

Thomas Rhiel | July 9, 2010, 8:26AM

Signs at a Tea Party rally.

Have months of Fox News hyperventilating and right-wing fear mongering over our supposed socialist-in-chief finally paid off? A majority of voters now think President Barack Obama is a socialist, at least according to one new poll.

The poll (PDF) from Democracy Corps finds that 55 percent of likely voters believe that the word "socialist" describes the president either "well" or "very well."

Peyton Craighill, a senior associate at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, a firm that does polling for Democracy Corps, attributed the surprising number to voters' impatience with the lagging economy.

"It probably has to do with the fact that people are very unhappy with the dire economy and the fact that the budget deficit is quite large," Craighill said. "People who don't like the man are going to use any label they can to ding him, even if they don't think he's a socialist in the vein of the Soviet Union or China."

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Steve King

Steve King: 'Know Thine Enemy' -- Liberals, Progressives...Trotskyites, Maoists, Stalinists... (VIDEO)

Eric Kleefeld | February 19, 2010, 11:06AM

Rep. Steve King (R-IA)

Speaking at CPAC, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) quoted the ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu, declaring that conservatives must "know thine enemy."

"Now who are we up against -- and I want to define that enemy," said King. "They are: liberals; they are progressives; they are Che Guevareans, they are Castroites, they're socialists. More enemies on this list: Gramsciites -- ring anybody's bell? -- Trotskyites, Maoists, Stalinists, Leninists, Marxists. They're all our enemies."

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Tim Pawlenty

Pawlenty: I Don't Think Obama Is A Socialist

Eric Kleefeld | February 12, 2010, 3:04PM

Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) and President Barack Obama

In an interview just published in Esquire, Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) presents himself as a true conservative -- but not too mean-spirited, either.

Pawlenty points to his success as a conservative in a liberal state. "But on the broader issue of Minnesota: This is also the state of Eugene McCarthy, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, Paul Wellstone, and now Senator Al Franken. Minnesota has evolved and ebbed and flowed a little bit in its politics, but it is fair to say that, with few exceptions, it's been one of the more liberal states in the country," said Pawlenty. "It's the history, the tradition, the culture here. I'm someone who has confronted that in a way that for some is refreshing and for some is quite dramatic, in a way that is viewed as quite a departure from the normal trajectory here. Most of the Republicans who have succeeded here have been mostly very moderate, Democrat lite. I'm somewhat an exception to that. I'm more of a mainstream conservative governing in a liberal state."

However, he did back away from some key GOP attack points against President Obama. While strenuously disagreeing with Obama's policies, he did not agree with calling Obama a socialist. And interestingly, he also said he would have supported the Medicare prescription drug benefit passed by President George W. Bush in 2003 -- one of the largest expansions of government involvement in social welfare since the Great Society.

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Michele Bachmann

Bachmann On Team Obama: 'These People Are Not Connected To Reality'

Eric Kleefeld | December 11, 2009, 10:04AM

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) denounced the Obama administration yesterday, citing a lack of private-sector experience.

"These people are not connected to reality," Bachmann said on a conference call hosted by the Republican National Committee, the Minnesota Independent reports.

"We're going to kill socialism," Bachmann also said on the call, adding: "They can't have our country. We're not going to let them win."

Afghanistan

Increasing Troop Levels In Afghanistan: Yet Another Sign Obama Is Not A Socialist

Evan McMorris-Santoro | December 1, 2009, 9:48PM

President Barack Obama

If you needed any more evidence, tonight's decision on Afghanistan may prove once and for all that President Obama is no Socialist. Following Obama's war speech this evening, a quick perusal of American Socialist sites proved that the political movement Obama is so often falsely associated with wants nothing to do with his plans for Afghanistan.

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Jim DeMint

DeMint Invokes Memory Of Dead American Soldiers In Fight Against Obama's Domestic Policies

Eric Kleefeld | September 23, 2009, 1:05PM

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)

In a new post on his campaign blog, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) invokes the memory of America's dead soldiers to explain how we must fight for our freedom against President Obama's socialist agenda:

Will we continue to climb the mountain of personal responsibility, free markets and constitutional limited government; or will we sink into a steep pit of high taxes, suffocating debt and socialism?

The President and his leaders in Congress need to start listening to all of us: "Let freedom work!" Too many Americans fought and died for our freedom to simply give it away with apathy and silence.

One question: Does DeMint include the troops from World War II in this count? After all, those brave servicemen were fighting for an America run by that big-government President Franklin Roosevelt -- and a lot of them even voted for him, too!

Socialism

Former Bush Official: Obama's Policies Are Like Hitler's and Peron's

Eric Kleefeld | September 17, 2009, 7:05PM

Former Asst. Sec. of State Ellen Sauerbrey

Former Bush administration official Ellen Sauerbrey, who served as Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, is warning that President Obama's policies point in a very dangerous direction: economic fascism.

The County Times of St. Mary's County, Maryland, reported on an appearance that Sauerbrey -- a former two-time GOP nominee for governor -- put in at a local Republican dinner this past Saturday. The paper reports that Sauerbrey said that President Obama was surrounded by a cult-like following, edging towards that of Juan Peron or Adolf Hitler. She told the paper that she was not making a comparison between Obama and Hitler, but instead saying that the conditions in this country were such that a dictator could usurp the rights of citizens:

She said that the Obama administration advanced "fascist, socialist ideals."

"I'm really afraid for the future of our country," Sauerbrey told attendees at the annual Lincoln/Reagan Dinner of Sept. 12 in Callaway. "Our Constitution is indeed being dismantled."

In an interview with TPM, Sauerbrey disputed some of the article -- but made clear the dangers of economic fascism and a breakdown in economic freedom and the rule of law.

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