What are some ways that the united states government is moving towards socialism?

[Monkey-Manned-Moon-Mission]

go into details if you can. best answer gets 10 pionts. also posting reference sites with articles about your point will be a plus! Thanks!

[Elmer]

PUBLIC FUNDING OF TRYING TO SAVE THE POOR

[Buffalo]

The new health care bill and cap and trade.With the health care,the government is mandating that you buy insurance or face fines and possibly jail time.With cap and trade every business will be forced into increasing prices and eventually we will all pay for more for utilities and even for using a gas lawnmower.

[PhiRatio]

The only thing I am aware of is the healthcare bill, which has a very weak provision for the option of a public form of insurance. It's the weakest reference to a social program I've ever heard of. Even if it were the strong public option that many on the left were hoping for, one with a hope of having some effect on the insurance market, it wouldn't be true socialization. Socialized medicine would mean that the government pays for at least some portion of some sort of health care service, like the way medicare has been run for years. Nothing like that has even been on the table during this administration.

I like how one guy here called Cap and Trade socialism. That is very demonstrative of the sort of ignorance that has led to the cries about moving toward socialism. Cap and Trade is simply a law that penalizes pollution, and does it in the most free-market fashion (thus the word trade). It has nothing whatever to do with public ownership or control of anything.