Taking Apart Perry’s Socialism Assertion
Gov. Rick Perry labeled President Obama a "socialist" in Sunday's NBC News/Facebook debate in New Hampshire. Photo by Ben Philpott/KUT NewsAudio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Gov. Rick Perry refreshed a charge about President Obama in a debate last weekend. KUT’s Emily Donahue spoke with Gardner Selby of the Austin American-Statesman PolitiFact Texas about Perry’s response when he was asked Sunday whether he agreed with Republican Sen. John McCain that President Obama is a patriot.
“I make a very proud statement that we have a president that’s a socialist,” Perry replied. “I don’t think our founding fathers wanted America to be a socialist country.”
Socialism is governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods. One target of criticism has been the 2009 rescue of U.S. automakers using a program created under President Bush.
Now, many Republicans thought the spending was too intrusive into the private enterprise system. You could make a case the government was taking ownership of the makers. But as a percentage of the full U.S. economy it was small, and it also turned out to be temporary.
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