Rick Perry Calls Obama A Socialist During 2012 Republican Debate In New Hampshire

Texas Gov. Rick Perry doubled down on his claim that President Barack Obama is a socialist during Sunday morning's GOP debate in New Hampshire.

"I make a very proud statement and a fact that we have a president that's a socialist," he said, in response to a question about whether he agrees with a 2011 editorial by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that said Obama should not be attacked as having un-American values.

The moderator asked if Perry agrees with that statement.

"I don't think that our founding fathers wanted America to be a socialist country," Perry continued. "So I disagree with that premise that somehow or another President Obama reflects our founding fathers. He doesn't. He talks about having a more powerful, more centralized, more consuming and costly federal government."

Perry said as governor he pushed for a stronger embrace of 10th Amendment, which says some powers should be left to the states rather than the federal government. "The states will considerably do a better job than Washington D.C. as led by this president," he said.

This was not the first time Perry has attacked Obama as a socialist. Perry ran a 30-second ad in November called "Lazy," featuring a clip of the president saying, "We've been a little bit lazy I think over the last couple of decades."

That statement is "pathetic," Perry said in the ad. "Obama's socialist policies are bankrupting America. We must stop him now."

WATCH Perry's "Lazy" Ad: