President Obama is a Socialist

Thank you Emilirose for accepting, I look forward to a spirited debate. Rebuttals: 1: Pro says of Barack Obama "He was raised as a socialist," It would be interesting to see proof that someone could be raised a socialist. For example, both of my parents are staunch Republicans and "raised" me as such, and yet I am no Republican. I invite pro to substantiate this claim with facts and links. 2: Pro says Barack Obama "was mentored by Communist Party USA member Frank Marshall Davis." Again, association to an individual hardly ties Barack Obama to Socialism. For example, I have many friends that I respect greatly that are Libertarians, Republicans, Democrats, and even Socialist. Yet I am none of these. This much I can say in regard to the Communist Party USA. John Case, a writer for the CPUSA wrote an article entitled "The Danger of a Romney Election"(1) In this article Case concludes, "Re-electing Obama is not sufficient to bring economic recovery or even relief to our people. Only a different class configuration in political power can do necessary minimum reforms to give us a chance. But re-electing Obama is absolutely essential. Now is not the time for hand washing the complexities and tactics away - or failing to triage the most critical questions from those that are less critical. We cannot win everything at once!"(1) His statement shows that the CPUSA view is that Re-electing Obama is "not sufficient" to attain their goals. However the "danger" in having Romney elected is enough reason to vote for Obama. Sounds like a classic case of "the lesser of two evils," or even "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." The CPUSA's endorsement of Obama is ideologically weak at best. In fact, the following is taken from an article from CPUSA.org written in 2010. "The CPUSA has pushed the vote for Democratic candidates, not because we have the illusion that they will bring us socialism, nor because we have actually given up on socialism, but because socialism is not an immediately achievable goal and voting for the Democrats is likely to produce a better situation from which to push the struggle forward, eventually putting socialism on the agenda."(2) The CPUSA just stated that they are not under the delusion that Democrats (like Obama) will bring them socialism. Any endorsement by the CPUSA of President Obama is a "lesser of two evils" endorsement. The CPUSA clearly does not view President Obama as a socialist. 3: Pro Says "Before he became a member of the democratic party, he worked with ACORN (the Democratic Socialists of America) as a community organizer and was an active member of radical socialist group "The New Party"." Again I would invite my opponent to substantiate with sources the claims that have been made. This I will say to save my opponent some time. President Obama has never been a member of the Democratic Socialist of America. Such a link cannot be found because it does not exist. 4: My opponent than list so called "socialist policies" pushed by the President. Many of these examples are of progressive taxation. Progressive taxation can hardly be attributed to the ideology of socialism as it has historical roots in ancient Rome.(3) Socialism as an ideology did not exist until the 1700"s.(4) Surely my opponent is not implying that the idea of taxation is socialist. If so the United States has been a socialist nation ever since the signing of the Constitution. (5) Socialism owns the idea of progressive taxation as much as Christians can claim they are the only ones to believe in a God, which is preposterous. Perhaps the policy the president is most famous for is the Affordable Care Act or ACA. It has been nicknamed Obamacare. Let"s take a closer look. The misconception of the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is often viewed by some as a socialistic program, but when observed it becomes clear that it is not a socialist program. The ACA includes provisions that "are intended to expand access to insurance, increase consumer protections, emphasize prevention and wellness, improve quality and system performance, expand the health workforce, and curb rising healthcare costs"(6) The ACA does not however promote government ownership of the healthcare industry. In fact the ACA largely supports and relies on private ownership of the healthcare industry. "The ACA program relies on private health insurance companies to manage health services" Under the ACA, health insurance in America is still being delivered by private practitioners and paid for by private insurers. In fact, the vast majority of Americans who receive their health insurance from employer-paid plans will see no discernible change in their coverage or delivery, and need not access the exchanges."(7) What do socialist think of the ACA? Greg Parsons, the national secretary of the Socialist Party USA had this to say: "Obamacare cannot be considered socialist in any way, The ACA program relies on private health insurance companies to manage health services," Parson said. "A socialized system would not include 'health insurance,' but would be an actual national health-care system which would be publicly funded through progressive taxation and controlled by democratically elected assemblies of health-care workers and patients."(8) Clearly the ACA is not only not a socialist program but relies heavily on private ownership of the healthcare industry. Concluding Rebuttal With no sources pro has not substantiated any evidence that the President is a socialist. Association with a member of the Communist Party USA is not membership, in fact the CPUSA is critical of the President because he is not a socialist. The President"s Policies have been the antithesis of socialist as is evident by Obamacare. President Obama is not a socialist. (1)http://peoplesworld.org... (2)http://cpusa.org... (3)http://books.google.com... (4)http://www.anu.edu.au... (5)http://www.archives.gov... (6)http://www.ncsl.org... (7)http://www.newsday.com... (8)http://www.huffingtonpost.com...