"Barack Obama is a socialist," former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), claimed on Fox News Monday night, speaking about her concerns regarding a fiscal cliff deal, growing American debt and a president who, she said, could even be leading the nation on a slow march toward communism.

Talking with Sean Hannity, Palin said that the opening offer Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner presented to Republicans last week to avert the fiscal cliff was a dangerous proposition.

“A very scary proposal was recently revealed by Geithner essentially saying, ‘Let the president have free rein on raising the debt ceiling to whatever level he wants it.' That’s a very scary thought," she said, pointing to Obama's supposedly "socialist" views.

"He believes in socialism, in redistributing, in confiscating hard-earned dollars of our small businessmen and women so that they cannot re-invest their dollars and hire more people and grow and expand," Palin continued. "Instead he believes in these failed socialist policies. And I say that not to personally condemn our president, but I say it because I face reality, and I see what's going on, and I see the path that we are on and the fact that Barack Obama has not had a budget in the four years that he's been in office and not been worried about it and continues to spend recklessly other people's money. And that is a sign of that idea of loving socialism."

Pressed by Hannity on her recent warning to Republican "wusses" who might agree to a fiscal cliff deal without massive spending cuts and sweeping entitlement reforms, Palin apologized for name-calling, but encouraged conservative lawmakers to combat a supposed tide of socialism, or perhaps worse, which she appeared to suggest would be brought forth by a fiscal cliff.

“So I say, Republicans, go back to what the planks in your platform represent,” Palin said. “It represents reining in government, putting back the power and the responsibility in the individual, not in the state, not in government. Again, that gets us towards socialism. What goes beyond socialism, Sean, is communism. I know I’m going to get slammed for speaking so bluntly about what’s going on here, but that is exactly what is going on.”

On Monday, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) put forth a counteroffer to Obama's initial proposal, calling for $2.2 trillion in deficit reduction through deep spending cuts, entitlement reforms and $800 billion in new tax revenues. Conservative groups quickly attacked the plan for its new revenues, which they saw as a cave to Obama and Democrats on taxes.

Watch Palin's entire interview at Fox News.

Also on HuffPost:

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