WASHINGTON — House Republicans brought a pair of related measures to the Rules Committee this week designed to do one thing Democrats have spent years avoiding: put every member on the record about socialism.
The centerpiece is H.Res. 1490, introduced by Rep. Jeff Crank (R-Colo.). It condemns “socialism in all its forms,” specifically names the Democratic Socialists of America, opposes socialist policy in the United States, and ties that stand to election-security language calling for the SAVE America Act. GOP leaders scheduled the fight as DSA-aligned candidates continue to win Democratic primaries and as polling shows a majority of Democrats now view socialism favorably.
Republicans say the vote is overdue. They argue the country cannot keep pretending “democratic socialism” is a branding exercise when its agenda — government-run health care, federal jobs guarantees, massive new spending — would balloon the state and shrink private life. A Cato Institute analysis circulating this week put a decade of DSA-style proposals in the tens of trillions of dollars, with government spending climbing toward a majority of the economy.
Ranking Member Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) treated the effort as a sideshow. In past Rules Committee clashes over similar language, McGovern called anti-socialism resolutions “ridiculous,” a “waste of time,” and a scare tactic aimed at Social Security and Medicare. He has pressed Republicans with a familiar trap: if the House denounces socialism “in all its forms,” is Medicare socialist? Is SNAP? Are public schools? The point is to blur the line until the word means nothing.
That is exactly why Republicans want a recorded vote. Four House Democrats — Josh Gottheimer, Hillary Scholten, Jared Moskowitz, and Tom Suozzi — offered their own amendment condemning the DSA while stripping the SAVE Act language, a sign that even some Democrats now feel the heat and want a narrower off-ramp.
Supporters of the Crank resolution say the moment is larger than one hearing. They argue the administrative state and the activist left have spent years expanding government power while daring opponents to use the word “socialism.” A floor vote, they say, ends the dodge. Members who vote no will have to explain it at home. Members who vote yes will have drawn a line.
The fight is not subtle. One side wants the House on record against an ideology it calls incompatible with the Constitution. The other calls that exercise theater. The roll call will decide which argument survives the midterms.
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