A Republican tea party candidate running for Ohio's 8th Congressional District declared Monday that House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) was a "socialist."
David Lewis told Fox News' Neil Cavuto that he hopes to defeat Boehner in the Republican primary by running on the tea party platform.
"John Boehner is a socialist," Lewis explained. "I'm not calling him names."
"Socialist!" Cavuto objected. "Now, David, come on. That's a little extreme."
"It's an economic policy. I'm not calling names," Lewis insisted. "Here is someone that refuses to phase out Social Security. What I would do as a U.S. House member is work to phase out Social Security totally. 100 percent. That includes Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps. These are socialist policies."
"Does the tea party have your back?" Cavuto asked.
"I believe so... The tea party is still trying to figure out whether they believe in socialist policies," Lewis replied.
"David, that's a strong term to use. You know, many have been using it about liberals and those in Congress who want bigger and better government and all of that stuff. But you can call John Boehner probably a lot of things, but the socialist thing, don't you think that's a little over the top?" Cavuto wondered.
Last September, Cavuto didn't seem to mind as much when Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus told him that President Barack Obama was a "socialist at heart."
