OBAMA AND HIS FOLLOWERS AREN'T SOCIALISTS...OF COURSE NOT!

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The leftist/progressives like to deride conservatives for exposing President BO’s socialist leanings. We get called all sorts of names and are spoken to as though we are ignorant idiots (one of the names we’ve been called by those who claim to hate name calling).

I am not ignorant, and when a leftist/progressive calls me that (or whatever other names they may use), I am not affected by it because my self esteem is not determined by their opinion of me. Rather it comes from having learned to succeed in the endeavors of my life.

Recently, at a meeting of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, Harvard (note the school) economist Martin Feldstein pressed Obama to keep all the Bush-era tax cuts, not just the middle-class cuts the president wants to extend.

Here is how the exchange went (according to MARK S. SMITH Associated Press Writer):

WASHINGTON — Intending to talk about colleges and worker training, President Barack Obama on Monday suddenly found himself in a spirited, election-year debate with a business advisory group about whose tax cuts should be extended and for how long.
Feldstein pressed Obama to keep all the Bush-era tax cuts, not just the middle-class cuts the president wants to extend.
"That would give a boost to confidence," Feldstein declared. SEC Chairman William Donaldson added that an extension would allay business and consumer uncertainty.
Obama replied that his stand would benefit 98 percent of American taxpayers. "You'd think (that) would provide some level of certainty," he said.
Obama also reiterated his view that top-income tax brackets would do little to boost the recovery, since the wealthy aren't holding off buying flat-screen TVs and other big-ticket purchases for lack of a tax cut. Plus, he said, those tax cuts are unaffordable.
"If we were going to spend $700 billion, it seems it would be wiser having that $700 billion going to folks who would spend that money right away," he said.

At the American Thinker, Keith Riler has written:

The President basically said that not to increase taxes on small businesses and individuals making over $250,000 is equivalent to spending money on those businesses and individuals.

This is an extreme concept and one that is best understood by analyzing it personally. Everyone understands that when I "spend" money on a charity or at the grocery, the implication is that I am using my money to make a contribution or to buy chips and beer.

The President clearly believes differently, that my paycheck does not begin its life as mine, from which taxes are taken. Rather, he believes that my paycheck begins life as his, from which residual amounts are beneficently granted to me for living expenses. He clearly believes that the yet untaxed portion of my paycheck is still his, to be "spent" on me at his discretion.

This is revolutionary. This is Marx and Chavez, and it is a stunningly honest admission of President Obama's worldview.

It is also very like what is happening in Great Britain.