“If you’ve got a business ... you didn’t build that. Someone else made that happen.”
When the president told a crowd in Roanoke, Va. last week that business owners are not responsible for their success, he kicked a beehive. And while he may struggle to create new jobs, he is having no trouble creating new Tea Party activists.
Comments
Name me a business owner who doesn't need roads, a good municipal police force and fire department to turn to when things go wrong, a strong federal banking system that keeps money flowing, a strong federal government that keeps financial transactions honest, a good school system to educate employees, etc., etc., etc. How does pointing all this out, how does making sure businesses don't steal from consumers, add up to a "war" on success? There has been enough corporate welfare. The middle class needs some attention, or those business owners who work so hard won't have any customers who can afford their goods or services.
Obama wants a fair shake, a level playing field for everyone. What the Tea Party tends to call "pro-business" is also "anti-consumer" and "anti-middle class".
Wrong, Wrong,the President is right. No one, but no one, lives in a vacuum. I personally am very fond of potable drinking water, fire protection and the building codes to name a few functions of the government that our taxes pay for.
This sentence, in particular, is over-the-top Tea-Party ranting: "a radical administration that has its boot on the necks of the successful". Bringing tax brackets for the wealthy back to Reagan and Clinton levels is radical? A consumer protection bureau is a "boot on the necks"?
Such a rant over a flubbed statement by the President - he was saying "you" didn't build he roads, bridges and other infrustructure that makes our econmony hum, and from which you have benefited greatly.
Not to mention the political and financial system that has let our counrty prosper - which are increasingly being control by those who already have greatly prospered.
His point, apparently poorly made though I have not heard the whole speech, is that you (the wealthy) are benefiting more from the physical, political and financial infrustruture that we, collectively, as a nation have built. So it is only fair that you contribute more to maintaiing those infrustructures by paying higher taxes.
Exceptionally well written article; explains, without rancor, a point of view that needs to be repeated. How hippocritical of Obama to have cited several times during the debate that this country is great because of the efforts of its citizens.