- The House passed a resolution 285-98 formally denouncing socialism, with nearly half of Democrats joining all Republicans in support.
- The resolution, introduced by Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, links socialism to historical atrocities and says it is incompatible with America’s founding principles.
- Democrats like Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., opposed the measure as misleading and unproductive, arguing it distracts from cost of living issues.
With a 285-98 vote, the House of Representatives on Friday passed a concurrent resolution “denouncing the horrors of socialism.” The resolution came just hours before New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani was to meet with President Donald Trump in the White House.
A little fewer than half of House Democrats joined all Republicans in favor of the resolution, which was introduced by Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla. Salazar’s parents immigrated to the United States from Cuba in 1961.
It is now the official stance of the United States Congress to “denounce socialism in all its forms and oppose the implementation of socialist policies in the United States,” the resolution states.
Whereas socialist ideology has ‘collapsed into communist regimes ...’
Before the vote, Salazar spoke from the House floor. She referenced democratic socialist Mamdani’s meeting with the president, saying she was glad Trump invited him in for a meeting. “I salute the president for receiving Mr. Mamdani, because he won fair and square, and that’s how democracy works,” she said.
She continued, denouncing socialism’s place in the United States.
The resolution begins, “Socialist ideology necessitates a concentration of power that has, time and time again, collapsed into communist regimes, totalitarian rule, and brutal dictatorships.”
“Socialism has repeatedly led to famine and mass murders, and the killing of over 100,000,000 people worldwide,” it continues. It then references “socialist ideologues,” including the Soviet Union’s Vladimir Lenin, North Korea’s Kim Jong Il and Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.
It outlines the “tens of millions (who) died in the Bolshevik Revolution,” the millions who died of starvation in the Holodomor and the killing fields in Cambodia in the late 1970s.
The resolution also quotes former President Thomas Jefferson’s April 6, 1816, letter to Joseph Milligan.
“To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it,” Jefferson wrote.
Salazar’s resolution concludes, “The United States was founded on the belief in the sanctity of the individual, to which the collectivistic system of socialism in all of its forms is fundamentally and necessarily opposed.”
California Rep. Maxine Waters fights the resolution
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., called the resolution “baseless” and “filled with misleading and hypocritical claims about socialism, while ignoring the affordability crisis facing millions of Americans.”
From the House floor, Waters said, “This resolution is an embarrassing distraction from the complete and total failure of the Trump administration to deliver actual results for the American people.”
“This resolution is a huge waste of time and does absolutely nothing to lower costs or solve any of the problems that our country faces,” she said. “I urge my colleagues to vote no on this resolution.”
Reps. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; and 19 representatives from California voted with Waters against the resolution.