Backed Into A Corner, Boehner Admits That Obama Is Not A Socialist

Posted by Amanda Terkel, Think Progress at 6:45 AM on September 21, 2009.

RNC Chairman Michael Steele recently sent out a fundraising letter saying that President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress are attempting a "socialist power grab." [Sunday] on NBC's Meet the Press, host David Gregory pressed House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) on whether such language was appropriate. Boehner tried to dodge the question, insisting that "you can call it whatever you want," but the fact is that Obama's the one scaring the American public. Gregory continued to ask whether Boehner believes Obama is a socialist, to which he finally admitted he doesn't:

GREGORY: Do you really think the President is a socialist?

BOEHNER: Listen, when you begin to look at how much they want to grow government, you can call it whatever you want, but the fact is --

GREGORY: What do you call it though?

BOEHNER: This is unsustainable. We're broke.

GREGORY: That's fine. Do you think the President is a socialist?

BOEHNER: No!

GREGORY: Okay. Because the head of the Republican Party is calling it that.

BOEHNER: Listen, I didn't call it that, and I'm not going to call it that.

Watch it:

Boehner is lying. He has said that what Obama and Democratic leaders are doing is socialism. From his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference a few months ago:

Well, the stimulus, the omnibus, the budget -- it's all one big down payment on a new American socialist experiment. ... All of these bills seek to replace our economic freedom with the whims and mandates of politicians and bureaucrats.

Basically, Boehner admitted today that all he was doing there was fear-mongering and attempting to scare the public for political gain.

[Sunday] on CNN's State of the Union, Obama responded to these charges from conservative leaders, stating, "You know, I'm amused. I can't tell you how many foreign leaders who are heads of center-right governments say to me, I don't understand why people would call you socialist, in my country, you'd be considered a conservative."

Transcript:

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Tagged as: barack obama, meet the press, david gregory, john boehner

Amanda Terkel is Deputy Research Director at the Center for American Progress and serves as Deputy Editor for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress.