Vice President Mike Pence echoed the president’s call to rally against socialism on Friday, speaking to hundreds of supporters gathered at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington.

He said “freedom, not socialism” made America prosperous, ended slavery and is the “beacon of hope for all the world.”

The vice president railed against progressives’ call for Medicare for All and their endorsement of the Green New Deal, an aggressive agenda to dramatically curb climate change in roughly 10 years.

“It was freedom, not socialism, that gave us the highest quality of life, the cleanest environment on earth, and improved the health and well-being of millions around the world,” Mr. Pence said.

He said universal health care would undermine the quality of health care, while the cost of the Green New Deal would be about $90 trillion.

“The truth is, we want people to make poor people richer; they want to make rich people poorer. We want to make poverty more rare; they want to make poverty more comfortable. That’s the choice we face today,” Mr. Pence said.