By Alan K. Ota, CQ Staff

GOP congressional leaders Friday vowed to oppose President Obama’s budget priorities, comparing them to those of socialist governments in Europe.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and House Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio — speaking to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington — targeted their barbs at Obama’s fiscal 2010 budget blueprint, including his proposal for a new cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions allowances.

The charge of socialism was used against Obama during his presidential campaign. The lawmakers also abandoned rhetorical references to bipartisanship — often heard during debates in the House and Senate — in their remarks.

The lawmakers said they also opposed Obama’s vision for broadening government health care programs and attacked the pending fiscal 2009 omnibus spending measure (HR 1105) and the newly enacted economic stimulus measure (PL 111-5). They criticized a number of Democratic domestic priorities aimed at the party’s liberal base, such as a proposal to allow unions to organize without a secret ballot, a process known as “card check.”

“Pushing back these efforts to basically Europeanize America will not be easy,” McConnell said. “It will require a committed effort on the part of everyone in this room. It will require carrying our message to those who have left our party and to many more who are receptive to our message. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress will be vigilant about voting their ideals.”

Boehner said, “The stimulus, the omnibus, the budget, it’s all one big down payment on a new American socialist experiment.”

Boehner and McConnell both predicted that Republicans would press for a GOP comeback in the 2010 midterm election by taking a hard line against many of Obama’s priorities.

McConnell rejected the idea of “diluting the Republican message” by moving to the center on big issues.

Boehner said Republicans would be unified in opposing tax increases built into the Obama budget plan.

“It relies on tax increases on small businesses, family farms, middle-class families, charities, every Americans with a 401k and, yes, any American who dares flip on a light switch at home. . . . You know the government tried to raise taxes in recession once before. It was the Hoover administration. And we all know what happened,” Boehner said.

Democrats have defended proposed tax hikes, saying they would pay for tax cuts for middle class families and arguing that many of the proposed tax increases would not begin until fiscal 2011, when some economists project the recession will be over.

Boehner called the proposed cap-and-trade system a “code word for a carbon tax on Americans” that would help other countries that do not have similar carbon emissions restrictions. “I can tell you that I, my Republican colleagues, and a lot of Democrat members of the Congress, are never going to stand for having taxes raised on Americans. ... It’s just not going to happen,” Boehner said.