Whole Foods CEO Takes Back "Fascism" Comment on Healthcare Reform

John Mackey, founder and CEO of grocer Whole Foods, was very quick to distance himself Thursday from his word choice (“fascism”) in describing President Obama’s healthcare reform efforts.

Mackey wrote on his blog Thursday, “I made a poor word choice to describe our health care system, which I definitely regret. The term fascism today stirs up too much negative emotion with its horrific associations in the 20th century.”

Mackey also made a number of TV news appearances Thursday to apologize for using the word.

Mackey had previously classified ObamaCare as “socialism.” But when asked about that word in an interview that aired on NPR Thursday morning, Mackey responded, “Technically speaking, it’s more like fascism. Socialism is where the government owns the means of production. In fascism, the government doesn’t own the means of production, but they do control it, and that’s what’s happening with our healthcare programs and these reforms.”

Then everyone exploded. Blogs, newspapers, cable news pundits, and even insidePatientFinance.com let out a collective WTF? after learning of the comments.

In backing away from the word, Mackey still had harsh criticisms of the new medical access law. “I need a new word or phrase to describe the state of health care now because it is something that I, like all folks entrusted with the wellbeing of a team, grapple with daily in this era,” Mackey wrote on his blog. “I think for now I will simply call it government-controlled health care to distinguish it from free enterprise capitalist health care.”