The divisions taking hold among Republicans are becoming
more severe as the party prepares to accuse its outgoing president
of embracing "socialism."
The slur that conservatives were so fond of lobbing at Barack
Obama during the presidential campaign is now being directed
toward President Bush and GOP lawmakers who supported federal
bailouts of the banking and auto industries.
At its meeting next month, the Republican National Committee
is set to vote on a resolution formally opposing the bailouts,
accusing Bush of helping nationalize the banks and taking
"another dangerous step closer toward socialism,"
the Washington Times reports Tuesday.
"We can't be a party of small government, free markets
and low taxes while supporting bailouts and nationalizing
industries, which lead to big government, socialism and high
taxes at the expense of individual liberty and freedoms,"
Solomon Yue, an Oregon member and co-sponsor of the resolution
told the Times.
The resolution reads, in part:
"WHEREAS, the Bank Bailout
Bill effectively nationalized the Nation's banking system,
giving the United States non-voting warrants from participating
financial institutions, and moving our free market based economy
another dangerous step closer toward socialism; and WHEREAS,
what was needed, and is still needed, to fix the banking industry
is not a bailout, but rather a commitment to fiscal responsibility."
Republican leaders in both the House and Senate supported
the Wall Street bailout, and GOP presidential candidate John
McCain infamously "suspended" his campaign to return
to Washington and whip up support for the bill. A Republican-led
filibuster blocked the auto industry bailout in the Senate,
but Bush decided to use some of the previously approved $700
billion to grant loans to the car companies.
During the campaign, accusations that Obama was a closet
socialist proliferated on talk radio, conservative blogs and
in McCain/Palin campaign speeches.
For the record, "The resolution also opposes President-elect
Obama's proposed public works program and supports conservative
alternatives," another co-sponsor told the Times.
