Socialism???

I'm just gonna be blunt, I'm a simple guy, not an expert on this or many subjects. But this is how I see it. 

I hear and see the word socialism thrown around a lot right now, mostly by those attempting to spin things in order to make Obama's policies seem as though they are anti-american or something. Heres the thing, if you look at our country with any sort of reality you know that this country has practiced socialism on many fronts for decades, maybe much longer. So if thats true then its clearly not anti-american. Sure we like to consider ourselves capitalists, but ultimately our country functions somewhat well because we have a fairly even mix of the two. In fact before the Rescue/Bailout plan our government already accounted for and/or controlled between 20-30% of our economy, with the plan it could be 40% or more when all is said an done.

Also in this country we have Social Security, Medicaid, Unemployment, and Welfare just to name a few programs. All of which are funded by money we or companies are required to give to the government. The reality is most of us have or will receive some benefit from at some point in our lives. In all likelihood we already have a friend or family member that does. Now obviously some of these programs have some issues, and need improvement, no one will argue that. But my question is this, ultimately if we remove the lefty/righty distortion glasses and look again, what's so terrible about them? And if there is something so terrible then why hasn't something be done already in order to get rid of them? 

Obama has said time and time again that he wants to re-evaluate government programs in order to maximize effectiveness and spending, and eliminate those that are no longer working.

McCain's claim is that he would use the line item veto and cut some of them, or "freeze" them. However he has had nearly my entire lifetime to vote on, fight to improve, or dismantle these programs, but his record shows he has supported or at the very least voted for most of them.

In Alaska, Gov. Palin started giving money to the taxpayers, by essentially taxing the oil companies more. Ironically something Obama wants to do. She was applauded for this, heck, I applaud her for this. But from what I have heard, most authorities on the subject would call this a form of guess what, thats right, socialism. 

So call me crazy, but I'm confused as to why this claim or attack even exists. If we want to have some strait talk, we are all taking part in socialism. In my opinion that seems to be a good thing. We need to keep a healthy balance between socialism and capitalism, I think as long as we do we will be better off. I also tend to think the whole mess we are in financially comes back to that balance getting skewed. Maybe we let our greedy little capitalist side take over a little to much.