“The free market for all intents and purposes is dead in America,” said Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Kentucky, the most vocal bailout critic in the Senate.  “The action proposed today by the Treasury Department will take away the free market and institute socialism in America.”

Senator Bunning was speaking about the Bush/Paulson bailout plan of Fall 08, but the references to Socialism have continued to mount as President Obama pushes forward with a massive new federal budget of $3.6 trillion dollars.

Republicans, who set new records for spending and deficit creation under Bush, have now suddenly decided they are fiscally conservative, and the cries of ‘Socialism!’ have grown louder and more frequent, as this article indicates.

The American people can stop this rush into socialism, if only the liberal and conservative media start telling the truth about the socialist ‘new world’ into which we are about to enter.

I am not fond of the financial bailout, nor of the new massive federal budget (nor do I have a better idea). I am also not fond of linguistic inaccuracy. Conservative pundits fan fears that the US is going to turn into a socialist country overnight.

In reality, the US has been incorporating socialist ideas into our system for the past 100 years. We can check that out from the horse’s mouth.

The following is from the Socialist Party Platform of 1912:

Industrial Demands

1. The conservation of human resources, particularly of the lives and well-being of the workers and their families:

2. By shortening the work day in keeping with the increased productiveness of machinery.

3. By securing for every worker a rest period of not less than a day and a half in each week.

In the United States these provisions are part of the law. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 applies to employees in industries engaged in, or producing goods for, interstate commerce. The FLSA establishes a standard work week of 40 hours for certain kinds of workers, and mandates payment for overtime hours to those workers of one and one-half times the workers’ normal rate of pay for any time worked above 40 hours.

4. By securing a more effective inspection of workshops, factories and mines.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act is the primary federal law which governs occupational health and safety in the private sector and federal government in the United States. It was enacted by Congress in 1970 and was signed by President Richard Nixon, that notorious Red, on December 29, 1970. Its main goal is to ensure that employers provide employees with an environment free from recognized hazards, such as exposure to toxic chemicals, excessive noise levels, mechanical dangers, heat or cold stress, or unsanitary conditions.

5. By the forbidding the employment of children under sixteen years of age.

In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which, among other things, placed limits on many forms of child labor

6. By establishing minimum wage scales.

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 also established a national minimum wage.

7. By abolishing official charity and substituting a non-contributary system of old age pensions, a general system of insurance by the State of all its members against unemployment and invalidism . . .

The Social Security Act, which provides for disability and retirement funding, was signed by President Roosevelt in 1935.

Political Demands

1.The absolute freedom of press, speech and assemblage.

Never mind.

2. The adoption of a graduated income tax and the extension of inheritance taxes, graduated in proportion to the value of the estate and to nearness of kin-the proceeds of these taxes to be employed in the socialization of industry.

The 16th Amendment was ratified in 1913, creating Federal Income Tax in the US, which in its current form taxes income at different rates. The US also has an Estate Tax.

3. Unrestricted and equal suffrage for men and women.

The 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, giving women the right to vote.

4. The enactment of further measures for the conservation of health. The creation of an independent bureau of health, with such restrictions as will secure full liberty to all schools of practice.

The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is a Cabinet department of the United States government with the goal of protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is “Improving the health, safety, and well-being of America”. The department was created when President Jimmy Carter signed the Department of Education Organization Act (PL 96-88) into law on October 17, 1979.

5. The enactment of further measures for general education and particularly for vocational education in useful pursuits. The Bureau of Education to be made a department.

The United States Department of Education (also referred to as ED, for Education Department) is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. Created by the Department of Education Organization Act (Public Law 96-88), it was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on October 17, 1979 and began operating on May 4, 1980.

6. The separation of the present Bureau of Labor from the Department of Commerce and Labor and its elevation to the rank of a department.

The U.S. Congress first established a Bureau of Labor in 1888 under the Department of the Interior. Later, the Bureau of Labor became an independent Department of Labor but lacked executive rank. It became a bureau again within the Department of Commerce and Labor, which was established February 15, 1903. President William Howard Taft signed the March 4, 1913 bill establishing the Department of Labor as a Cabinet-level Department.

Reasonable people may disagree on whether implementing any or all of these socialist ideas was wise or foolish. What cannot be dismissed is the large number of socialist ideas that have become part of the fabric of American government:

Social Security is wealth redistribution. So, too, is Medicare. So, too, are food stamps. So, too, is the program that provides breakfasts and lunches to school children who would otherwise go unfed. So, too, are all sorts of other programs. If these programs are socialism, and if support for these programs make someone a socialist, then here’s some news: by that definition, America has been a socialist nation for decades, and most of its Presidents and legislators have been socialists.

So there’s no need to worry that you’re going to wake up tomorrow and find you’re living in a socialist country. In many ways, you’ve been doing it for years.