The GOP likes to paint the man as a socialist, but Obama's record tells a different story.
Once again the Republican bloc has invoked the “socialist” brand in describing President Obama, this time during the Republican convention over the weekend. Following the list of talking points, Obama is weak on economic recovery, has inflated government spending and public sector employment, and is withering the private sector upon which our great democratic (read: capitalist) nation is built. However, there are a few things that don’t quite jive with that characterization, and although they’re all things that grate on me personally, in the fairness of what is (rather than what the GOP would “have be”), I think they’re important to mention.
Government spending: The national debt is the highest that it has ever been, this is undeniable. However, Obama’s tactic in providing federal stimulus dollars to large banks and the auto manufacturers struck me as a strangely “trickle-down” approach, whereas President Bush’s (Jr.) approach before him had been to simply cut a check to the people in the form of a tax break. Now, of course, Democrats are also attempting to do that with low federal interest rates and payroll tax deductions. This twist gets stranger still when you see the Republicans fighting to protect big business (which Obama’s TARP accomplished), and Democrats wagging their fingers at the very goliaths they bailed out in the first place.
