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President Obama shredded Republicans who have called him a socialist today by pointing to his record, and highlighting their love of big government programs like Medicare while fearing socialism.

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The president said,

People call me a socialist sometimes, but you’ve got to meet real socialists, and you’ll have a sense of what a socialist is. I’m talking about lowering the corporate tax rates. My healthcare reform is based on the private marketplace. Stock market is looking pretty good last time I checked, and it is true that I’m concerned about growing inequality in our system. But nobody questions the efficacy of market economies in terms of producing wealth and innovation, and keeping us competitive. On the flip side, you know most Republicans, even the tea party, one of my favorite signs during the campaign was folks hoisting a sign governments keep your hands of my Medicare. Think about that. Ideologically they did not like the idea of the federal government, and yet they felt very protective about the basic social safety net that has been structured. My simple point is this. If we can get beyond the tactical advantages that parties perceive in painting folks as extreme and trying to keep an eye always on the next election, and for a while at least just focus on governing then there is probably seventy percent overlap on a whole range of issues.

President Obama broke it down, and explained to Republicans why their howls of socialism are laughable. This president is a centrist, not a socialist. It was refreshing to hear him summarize his own views and record. There is not a single policy that this president has advocated for that could be described as socialistic.

Obama is the opposite of a socialist. The only socialism that Republicans are able to attach to the president is what they dream up. President Obama did not nationalize or takeover the auto industry. He didn’t nationalize and stage a government takeover of healthcare, and raising taxes on the wealthy because they are paying less than their fair share is not socialism.

The ignorant people who call President Obama a socialist do not know what a socialist is. They are so extreme that they describe center left policies as socialism. It was nice to hear the president bluntly lay it out, and confront the ridiculous Republican delusion that he is a socialist.

The know nothings who do nothing in the Republican Party have been making this bogus claim for too long. Barack Obama is not a socialist, and it was to see him treat the Republican allegations with the ridicule that they so richly deserve,