Fox & Friends outlines “Nine Steps to Socialism” to fearmonger about Democratic policies 

Tom Del Beccaro: “This can be avoided. ... We can walk away from this, but it would be really dumb, really dumb, if we did the Green New Deal or 'Medicare-for-all.'”

From the March 18 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

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STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): We're going to go through the nine points and we're going to see how close we are getting to it. First of all, the first step is government spending and we do a lot of that, and it's massive.

TOM DEL BECCARO (FORMER CHAIRMAN, CA REPUBLICAN PARTY): Yeah. We do have massive -- we're going to spend $7.6 trillion as a society in this upcoming year, which is roughly four times what Reagan's era spent when he said government was the problem.

JEDEDIAH BILA (GUEST CO-HOST): All right, number two: Our tax systems that reduce incentives. 

DEL BECCARO: Yeah. We have massive tax systems, and hallmarks of socialist societies are poor incentives where there's weak economic growth. And that comes from tax systems. Trump did a good job, beginning with the business tax code. He's got to do better with personal so we have better growth.

DOOCY: Next step, number three: Reduced growth leading to economic stagnation, and that's something the EU's seen over the last 20 years. 

DEL BECARRO: Yeah, they have had zero growth over the last 20 years and government is about about 60, 70 percent of their economies. In the United States we're about 36, with regulations closer to 50. Our growth has slipped from 4 to 2 over the last 60 years. Trump's trying to revive it.

BILA: Next up, something that gives me rage: Our growing deficits. 

DEL BECARRO: Yeah, this is what happens when you have massive government spending. There's no example in history of a big government that didn't have deficits and lots of taxes, and the United States is pushing the limit here. Greece was at 180 percent of the economy. We are at 106 in debt.

DOOCY: OK, next step, number five: Governments print money. Hmm, that sounds familiar. 

DEL BECARRO: Yeah, no government can keep up with the spending, taxes can't do enough, so they start printing money. This is the danger zone when that sort of thing happens. We had it once in the '70s, Venezuela has it now. They have, what, 1,000,000 percent inflation this year. A million.

DOOCY: Unbelievable. 

BILA: Number six: Wage and price control. 

DEL BECARRO: Yeah, this all comes out of weak economic growth. That's the key here. If you have zero or less growth, you're going to have stagnation, and then you start having shortages, all these problems. We had it a little bit in the '70s. In Venezuela the stores can only be open on certain days and you can only shop on certain days.

DOOCY: That's crazy. Underground economies rise, that's happening in certain spots.

DEL BECARRO: Yeah. In the United States we had a lot of this during the Carter era. But once the engine got going under Reagan then it changed. So in Greece it's about 25 percent. Here in America it's 5 to 6 percent. That's a good and normal amount.

BILA: Number eight is a big one. Class warfare, which we're already seeing right now, frankly. 

DEL BECARRO: Yeah, and that all relates to economic growth. If people can get jobs, then they start to worry about what's on their own plate and advancing. But if they can't get jobs, they look to the others and say well, they are doing too well. And if you have too much income gap or wealth gap, then it gets played up. That's where the real danger zone starts.

DOOCY: And the final step is total societal discord, which is what we're seeing right now in Venezuela. But Tom, let me ask you about this. In this country, as you look at some of those steps towards socialism. Some of them seem like we're right there. But others, we're a bit apart. Are we closer to this than we were 20 years ago? 

DEL BECARRO: We are because spending is so much more. And if they went forward with something like “Medicare-for-all” and drove spending above 50 percent, then socialism starts to sound normal and comes into view. If we kill off economic growth with AOC's Green New Deal, then you're going to have this class warfare. This can be avoided. Sweden is walking away from socialism, down from 70 percent spending to 50. We can walk away from this, but it would be really dumb, really dumb, if we did the Green New Deal or “Medicare-for-all,” because that would drive spending so high we would have economic stagnation and back to this class warfare.

BILA: Thanks, Tom, it's funny, when I was looking at this I was thinking about the Democratic Party platform. And I don't think their platform is going to do too well when people start realizing what the consequences of these things are.

Previously:

Fox guest: Green New Deal is “nothing more than a socialist Trojan horse”

Fox & Friends has a full-on freakout about the Green New Deal

Fox & Friends host accuses Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of advocating for “civilizational suicide”