Mr. President: When will ’somebody else’ build my business?
There was a lot of buzz over the weekend, stretching into today, about these remarks President Obama made during a campaign stop Friday in Roanoke, Va.:
There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.
Well, that’s not so controversial, is it? I’ve had some success in my career in journalism, and I am in the habit of referring to the great teachers I had (in college and before), the great upbringing I got from my parents, and some favorable timing/circumstances along the way. Certainly, there are a lot of successful people who want to “give something back” and do so — to churches, their alma maters, to civic organizations …
Wait, what’s that? Obama wants to steer the conversation toward government? Well, I’m not exactly surprised.
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges.
OK, I mentioned teachers, too — although Obama does not differentiate between those in public schools or, like his own daughters’ teachers and his own college professors, those in private schools. (I’m a public-schools product myself.) And it has become routine for Obama to harp on the roads and bridges as if that’s necessarily something the federal government must or should be involved in.
But that wasn’t enough for Obama. As the saying goes, he went there:
If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
Now, if you’re expecting me to slam Obama for that comment — and the idea that government’s role in the creation of the Internet means every online entrepreneur should get down on his knees and thank government, or gladly hand over whatever amount of her profits government thinks she owes it — you’re going to be disappointed today.
Nope, my question is: Where’s mine?
If “somebody else” is going around building these businesses for people, when do “they” make it to me? I’d love for “somebody else” come “make that happen” for me. I mean, a business doesn’t “get [started] on its own!”
So … when should I expect “somebody” to call and make the appointment for handing off this new business, Mr. President?
– By Kyle Wingfield
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383 comments Add your comment
Don Abernethy
July 17th, 2012
8:27 am
Our President wants the government to own all the businesses.
Bubba Dodd
July 17th, 2012
8:38 am
My take on this is……”I made it in my business in spite of the Damn Government!!!!”
wmr71
July 17th, 2012
8:41 am
this president is a complete and utter dumb&%s with these continued remarks! Soon we will have to allow these same “underprivileged” and non-motivated folks to come live in our nice homes in middle/upper class neighborhoods since I am sure government had a hand in us being able to buy these homes too.
wmr71
July 17th, 2012
8:41 am
this president is a complete and utter dumb&%s with these continued remarks! Soon we will have to allow these same “underprivileged” and non-motivated folks to come live in our nice homes in middle/upper class neighborhoods since I am sure government had a hand in us being able to buy these homes too.
@@
July 17th, 2012
8:42 am
Here we go again.
Stocks: Waiting on Bernanke
CNN–ForexLive currency analyst Gerry Davies said investors will be moved most by Bernanke’s testimony. The London analyst noted heightened speculation the Fed could take action to stimulate the economy through a third round of quantitative easing.
“If you look at it logically, the market doesn’t think too deeply,” Davies said. “But QE won’t really have an effect on the economy. It’s akin to pushing on a piece of string.”
Why don’t we just elect Bernanke, KING OF THE WORLD?
bluecoat
July 17th, 2012
8:44 am
I thought all businesses were the governments.You are told all facilities you must furnish.Break and lunch times.Hours worked before ot pay.What you must post on bulletin board.Taxes you must withold.Days you must give off,or pay a premium if worked.Meet all safety regulations,and told who you must hire.All this while you are totally responsible.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
July 17th, 2012
8:50 am
@@: Here we go again. Stocks: Waiting on Bernanke
——-
Remember when the economy depended on free people and free markets, rather than what Central Planning was going to do?
Vote American in November.
@@
July 17th, 2012
8:52 am
The “rent’s” TOO damn HIGH because government bureaucracy is TOO damn BIG!
They’ve ASSUMED way more than they’re entitled to!
Tap Out
July 17th, 2012
8:56 am
Make people in rural and isolated areas “retroactively” pay more in taxes for the roads and utilities they take for granted…they don’t need our help. Georgia also gets way more in Fed help than they pay into the system. This blog should be called….Right Wing Loserville.
curious
July 17th, 2012
8:57 am
Before Obama ruined it all, things were great with the Tax Cuts and all. Jobs were being created at a record pace. The housing industry, commerical development, auto industry, and stock market were going great guns.
can’t we go back?
Junior Samples
July 17th, 2012
9:00 am
Vote American in November indeed. Now we hear the Mitt outsourced torch bearers uniforms to Burma while running the Olympics in Salt Lake.
Let’s watch how republicans spin this into a patriotic Rorschach test…
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
July 17th, 2012
9:03 am
Educate people support free trade, Junior.
Junior Samples
July 17th, 2012
9:05 am
Free trade with military dictators, nice one Barry.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
July 17th, 2012
9:07 am
curious, just to sum up:
Our President Bush’s unemployment rate: 4-6%
Obozo’s unemployment rate: 8-10%.
Care to compare budget deficits or poverty rates?
tiredofIT
July 17th, 2012
9:07 am
“Educate people support free trade, Junior.” The kind of free trade that makes a Jeep cost 180,000 in China. We need tariffs on imports.
@@
July 17th, 2012
9:10 am
LBB:
I do remember!
As it stands now, our two choices are debt or inflation.
I listened to Mitch McConnell last night. His solution was to extend the tax cuts for everyone, then spend the next year working on tax reform.
I’m all for eliminating tax credits and closing the loopholes, either temporarily or permanently. For government? A 5% tax cut across the board.
Money saved is money earned. For business, compliance costs alone would make up for the loss.
The democrats’ solution was to let the tax cuts expire for everyone. For dems, revenge is sweet.
ew
curious
July 17th, 2012
9:11 am
When Obama took office, the economy was sinking faster than the Titanic. You can cherry pick all the numbers you want, but I doubt you can find anyone , with a brain, that wil dispute that.
Wesley T.
July 17th, 2012
9:39 am
This is a pretty cheap shot. It’s quite obvious that the President was (perhaps awkwardly) stating that hard work and personal ingenuity are only part of what makes a successful entrepreneurial economy. Because those private traits can only thrive in a system with a functioning public component. There’s a reason why companies aren’t chomping at the bit to invest in places like Congo, Nicaragua, or Zimbabwe. Because those countries don’t have the rule of law, functioning infrastructure, public safety, and/or public education that’s required for private industry to thrive. No one’s going to create a business for you, but without government support, you won’t have the environment, the workers, or the customers to be successful. Or a marauding band might just come and take it from you.
md
July 17th, 2012
9:41 am
“In some way, you depend on roads, which other people pay for. Your education was paid for by other people.”
I just have to shake my head sometimes…….”other people pay for”?…..could it also be possible that they paid as well? The answer is obviously yes……..
Same with that education……..folks do pay for that, it isn’t free. start with property taxes and go from there……….
TrishaDishaWarEagle
July 17th, 2012
9:42 am
A marauding band of aholes with guns who intend to steal from you to take for themselves and others..hey that’s called the IRS
md
July 17th, 2012
9:44 am
“SOMEBODY INVESTED IN ROADS AND BRIDGES – IF YOU’VE GOT A BUSINESS — YOU DIDN’T BUILD THAT. ” ONE sentence, which makes undeniably clear that the President did not talk about somebody building your business, but about the roads and bridges (and the whole American system) that business people utilize. ”
And are we to assume those businesses did not also contribute to the building and maintaining of said roads and bridges?
And to my knowledge, everybody has the same access to those roads and bridges…..including the ones that choose NOT to run a business of their own……….
md
July 17th, 2012
9:50 am
“Georgia also gets way more in Fed help than they pay into the system. ”
And the tax foundation attributes a good bit of that to medicare……you know, those very mobile old people that have a tendency to move a bit further south (and west) when the weather gets a bit too cold on their old bones……..or should we have the gov’t force them to stay up north in those blue states??
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 17th, 2012
9:51 am
“But the question I really want answered is about Mitt’s Vietnam draft deferment. I have read that he got a deferment intended only for ordained Ministers.If this is true I deeply resent it, as should all my Vietnam vet brothers.”
Well, since he was doing ministry work in France for the Mormon CHURCH, Pizzaman, you have ZERO reason to be resentful.
When did our Vietnam Vets get so darned sensitive?
md
July 17th, 2012
9:51 am
“Free trade with military dictators, nice one Barry.”
Vs the current communist party of China…..and the difference is??
md
July 17th, 2012
9:54 am
“The kind of free trade that makes a Jeep cost 180,000 in China. We need tariffs on imports.”
Tariffs would be a kneejerk reaction………..and would lead to tariffs on our exports…….so the price goes up on everything………..
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 17th, 2012
9:56 am
Retail sales down again for the third straight month.
Who warned you Obama sycophants about that, and what it will mean long-term?
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 17th, 2012
9:58 am
“We need tariffs on imports.”
Yeah, ’cause a trade war always benefits the country that can’t make stuff as inexpensively as another . . .
MarkV
July 17th, 2012
10:08 am
md @9:41 am
“In some way, you depend on roads, which other people pay for. Your education was paid for by other people.”
“I just have to shake my head sometimes…….”other people pay for”?…..could it also be possible that they paid as well? The answer is obviously yes……..”
You need to shake your head more, md, to clear it up. Most people who start business have not paid for the roads they drive on. How much have you paid for building the interstate highway system? Once you start paying for roads and bridges, you have become one of those Obama was talking about – somebody else who “makes it happen” for other people.
MarkV
July 17th, 2012
10:10 am
md @9:44 am
“And to my knowledge, everybody has the same access to those roads and bridges…..including the ones that choose NOT to run a business of their own……….”
And the point is what?
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
July 17th, 2012
10:16 am
curious: When O[bozo] took office, the economy was sinking faster than the Titanic.
———
Oh? When Obozo took office, Our President Bush had already passed TARP and fixed the Didd-Frank housing mess, and the recession ended in June 2009.
Where are the jobs, and why is Obozo still proposing and running trillion-plus deficits?
Obozo: Fail.
md
July 17th, 2012
10:18 am
“Most people who start business have not paid for the roads they drive on. How much have you paid for building the interstate highway system?”
Have a link for that Mark? Can you show me who paid what and when please………….
And my payments to the highway system come out of my taxes, just like some others and businesses. If you really want to go there, a case could probably be made for those that did not pay anything yet still use the roads……..
As for the point…….we all have equal access…….and those businesses aren’t getting any special treatment as he seems to be implying……
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 17th, 2012
10:19 am
“Most people who start business have not paid for the roads they drive on.”
Au contraire. Virtually everybody who starts a business has paid for the roads they drive on. Tsk, tsk. Such imprecise wording.
“How much have you paid for building the interstate highway system?
Probably as much, if not more than, YOU.
The point you MISSED (and no one is surprised at that) is that EVERYBODY gets the same benefits of roads, bridges and other infrastructure in life. It’s the hard work that those who actually do to start businesses that is being dismissed by Obama’s clumsy comments. Just as we know he could have been more precise in his wording if he chose to, he clearly chose NOT to be more precise in order to exhibit his love of all things government, and his disdain for the private sector which funds it.
Dusty
July 17th, 2012
10:30 am
I will waste my time and reply to MarkV’s statement of last night,
Yes, I drive and have driven on federal highways. They are a support system furnished by government. But they never made a single decision in my life as to whether I would contribute positively or ride to the proverbial “poorhouse”.
That is the crux of the president’s statement that is so false. While government may give a support system, it is not the decision making, the strength, the mind to make or break a business. Nor should it be. We are a country where making your own decisions is vital. We are not told what to think. Another name for it is freedom.
When someone decides that government is the one and all for establishing and continuing business, they have given up on freedom. They wait and want a support system to run things for them. That is why the president’s speech is rejected. Amercans choose freedom over dependency and resent their efforts being identified as the child of government.
If you developed in a total governmental support system, perhaps your lack of interest in self decision and support are understandable. But it is not the American way. Most of us are accustomed to freedom and refuse to give it up.
Jack
July 17th, 2012
10:32 am
Obviously Obama never started a business.
DI
July 17th, 2012
10:40 am
This guy should know. He’s been givin everything. What in the world has he accomplished? Mr. Jive talkin Barry. Wake up people.
MarkV
July 17th, 2012
10:44 am
md @
10:18 am
“Most people who start business have not paid for the roads they drive on. How much have you paid for building the interstate highway system?”
“Have a link for that Mark? Can you show me who paid what and when please………….”
md, if would make sense to argue with you only if you made any sense in what you write. A link? For what? A link instead of applying a tiny bit of common sense?
“those businesses aren’t getting any special treatment as he seems to be implying……”
Only in your twisted imagination he seems to be implying that.
All that the President was saying, quite correctly, is that in a civilized society we are all dependent on many other people, and are taking advantage of what those who came before us have done. He did not say that the people who paid for roads and bridges a business uses were paid by only non-business people. To use a simple example, most people living now in California have not paid for building the Golden Gate Bridge – with possible exception of a few very old ones. But they pay for maintenance and repair, thus making it possible for people after them to use it, etc.
“And my payments to the highway system come out of my taxes, just like some others and businesses.”
For the building of it? Good for you. Then you are one of those Obama had in mind when he said “somebody else made it happen.” And for whom somebody else made it happen? For those who came later, when the system was built. And many of them are “making it happen” for people coming after them by paying for extension, repair, maintenance, etc.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 17th, 2012
10:50 am
MarkV: Bowing down to his government gods at every turn.
MarkV
July 17th, 2012
10:51 am
Dusty@10:30 am
I will waste much less time replying to you.
I can only repeat what somebody else has accused you of, i.e., your writing in generalities. Why don’t you try sometime to write something concrete and specific? For instance, you wrote the following:
“That is the crux of the president’s statement that is so false.” Why don’t you tell us what is false in the President’s statement? Specifically.
md
July 17th, 2012
10:52 am
“md, if would make sense to argue with you only if you made any sense in what you write. A link? For what? A link instead of applying a tiny bit of common sense?”
Too funny…..now common sense makes assumptions that ““Most people who start business have not paid for the roads they drive on.”
And you know that how?? Hence the request for a link…….
John Dewey
July 17th, 2012
10:54 am
Anyone who has started his own small business knows full well that government is not a partner. Government is an obstacle which must be overcome. And that obstacle remains in our path throughout the life of our business. Red tape, regulation, licenses, fees, inspections, property taxes, reporting requirements, tariffs, insurance mandates, and all sorts of other bureaucratic inventions block our paths to success – the success through which America’s businessmen would fund millions of more jobs. If government would just get out of the way.
Kyle Wingfield
July 17th, 2012
11:00 am
Trisha @ 9:22 and 9:44: As you predicted, you’re gone from the blog forever.
Junior: I did not “allow [it] through moderation”; moderation ended around 7 a.m. and I’ve been working on other things. But I’ve taken down it, and the comments referring to it.
md
July 17th, 2012
11:00 am
And Mark…..if one were to do a little research, one would find that there is a growing trend for developers to build the roads leading from/to shopping centers with private funds…….
But I’m sure this president and yourself would try to give that credit to the benevolent gov’t.
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
July 17th, 2012
11:03 am
Vote American in November indeed. Now we hear the Mitt outsourced torch bearers uniforms to Burma while running the Olympics in Salt Lake
Yes, but he didn’t outsource the US Space program to Russia! This outsourcing thing needs to be put to rest. Romney should slap Obama down on this. Obama has given all this money to his “green energy” firms, aka, his campaign contributors, so that they could have the products made in China.
His best business friend, probably his only one is Jeff Immelt, the chairman of his Competitiveness and Jobs committee and the CEO of GE. One half of GE’s employees are abroad. They make much of their money overseas and keep it there to avoid paying US Taxes. They pay no federal income tax. Obama should just shut his pie hole on outsourcing as he is the Outsourcer in Chief.
Most all competitive firms outsource jobs, get used to it. Until we lower the corporate tax rate to become more competitive, money will remain overseas and untaxed.
Dusty
July 17th, 2012
11:09 am
MarkV
What you call “generalities” is what I call opinion. I haven’t seen any vital statistics presented with your “generalities”. Perhaps you should look at your own source of information before you start condemning mine.
snoqualmiefalls
July 17th, 2012
11:10 am
Successful business’s have benefited in many ways from the largesse of the various layers of government such as roads to transport goods, or using the legal system to settle disputes, or the educational system to train people and on and on. These are all mitigating factors that successful business’s or successful people rely on each and every day, it’s time to admit the obvious folks.
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
July 17th, 2012
11:11 am
If Government is so great, beneficial, supportive, and all knowing, why are there all these third world backwater countries spread all over the world? Should we just all bow down and support government or should we just bow down and support good governments, and how do we tell the difference? This blind allegiance, by the left, to anything promoted by the government is a risky habit.
BADA BING
July 17th, 2012
11:11 am
There are a lot of you on welfare, SNAP, WIC, Free Lunch Program, etc, who think that you got there on your own. But somewhere along the way, you had a relative, friend, or an older con artist that guided you, showed you how to milk the system. You didn’t do it by yourself. Years of liberal policies and lazy grifters worked to refine the ripoffs and scams that so much of you take for granted today. The gov’t built the roads and bridges that allow the Post Office to deliver your checks, dozens of gov’t departments have Federal employees that process and determine what free programs that you are entitled to. You didn’t do that. BO
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
July 17th, 2012
11:14 am
Bada Bing
Post of the day, wonderful, turn of the phrase!
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 17th, 2012
11:20 am
“Successful business’s have benefited in many ways from the largesse of the various layers of government”
Largesse, snoqualmiefalls? Really?
Let’s take a look at the word and it’s definition, shall we?
“1. a. Liberality in bestowing gifts, especially in a lofty or condescending manner.”
Lofty and condescending? OK, you may have a point there.
But gifts? Nope. A gift is something given freely and without payment into the process.
Government must take first, by force, before bestowing it’s condescending largess, sno.
Do you have a permanent crick in your neck from bowing in supplication to your government gods?
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
July 17th, 2012
11:21 am
ROFLMGDAO, BADA!