Romney: Obama 'insulted' business owners and entrepreneurs

IRWIN, Penn. - In an attempt to change the subject from his tax returns and his tenure at the helm of Bain Capital, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney intensified his own rhetoric on Tuesday and called President Obama's recent comments about small business "insulting to every entrepreneur, every innovator in America."

Romney was referring to Obama's remark on Friday at a campaign event in Roanoke, Va., where he argued that successful businesses happened not only because of individual achievement, but because people utilized parts of the public system, such as teachers, the Internet, and roads and bridges. Obama said, "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."

While agreeing that government-paid employees and infrastructure are needed, Romney said that those services were not responsible for the success of new business.

"The taxpayers pay for government," Romney said to applause from a fired-up crowd of several hundred people at a gas and oil equipment company. "It's not like government just provides those to all of us and we say 'Oh thank you, Government, for doing those things.' No, in fact we pay for them and we benefit for them and we appreciate the work that they do and the sacrifices that are done by people who work in government. But they did not build this business."

Romney broadened his argument to suggest that Obama's logic demeaned those who were trying to better themselves.

"People who reach to try and bring themselves up, the president would say, 'Well you didn't do that,'" Romney said. "You couldn't have gotten to school without the roads the government built for you, and you couldn't have gone to school without teachers, so you're not responsible for that success.' Look, President Obama attacks success and therefore under President Obama we have less success, and I will change that."

A spokesman for the Obama reelection campaign called Romney's comments "over-the-top."

"As President Obama said the other day, those who start businesses succeed because of their individual initiative - their drive, hard work, and creativity," campaign aide Lis Smith said in a statement. "But there are critical actions we must take to support businesses and encourage new ones. That means we need the best infrastructure, a good education system, and affordable, domestic sources of clean energy. Those are investments we make not as individuals, but as Americans, and our nation benefits from them. Apparently Mitt Romney disagrees."

Romney also attacked the president for an executive order that allows states to opt out of parts of the welfare law that was passed by former President Bill Clinton and a Republican Congress. "He is trying to take work out of the welfare requirement," he said. "It is changing the nature of America, changing the nature of what Democrats have fought for and Republicans have fought for."

Several prominent conservatives recently argued that Obama's changes are aimed at repealing the law and allowing states to give welfare money to people who are not working or actively trying to find a job. But according to an analysis of the order by the Washington Post, the administration is not removing the work requirement but offering states more flexibility to try new programs that will encourage employment.

[Isamericadead]

I have to admit this has to be hands down the dumbest thing I have heard Romney say. Anyone one who believes they accomplished anything without help especially from the government is as delusional as it gets. Tell that to the Marians who are dying for our freedom, tell that to the police who and firefighters who protect us so we do not have to spend our time doing it. Why were the dark ages so dark? The king was collecting money and everyone had to fend for themselves.

[MkUrbo_8]

Obama's "Elizabeth Warren" like comment in Roanoke on how government is the creator/purveyor of all will go down in history as the most left leaning socialist comment ever made by an American president. It was a disgusting display of liberalism's misguided view of reality courtesy of a Harvard education no less...
America was created by individuals. Individuals ALLOW the government to collect taxes to be used for infrastructure building that they WILLINGLY approve - such that future individuals can continue to create wealth for themselves and growth opportunities in America.

Without individuals and their success in the private sector - there would be no government and resultant public sector opportunities. These comments by Obama and Warren are proof positive that government needs to be reset in size and jurisdiction, and sweep clean of socialists.

Think back to Edison, Bell, Wrights, Ford and many others - some self educated - who brought their ideas to life without big government, roads, electricity, or infrastructure. They did not get block grants and loans from a central socialist government or approvals from some government agency to create lights, phones, phonographs, flying machines, affordable cars, etc.

This very software [ Disqus ] used to comment here was a dream in an individual's head, before it was an idea that became a reality. America became great due to individuals and their self initiative, not big central government directives. To think otherwise is to fall victim to the greatest con in human history, which is that socialism/collectivism leads to a utopia where everyone is treated the same and all outcomes are equal and fair. As history shows - on your way to this socialist utopia or about the time you pull into the station - the economy will meltdown and all will be lost because socialism is NOT sustainable. Your socialist utopia is a smile on an OWS dog.

[Isamericadead]

I have to admit this has to be hands down the dumbest thing I have heard Romney say. Anyone one who believes they accomplished anything without help especially from the government is as delusional as it gets. Tell that to the Marians who are dying for our freedom, tell that to the police who and firefighters who protect us so we do not have to spend our time doing it. Why were the dark ages so dark? The king was collecting money and everyone had to fend for themselves.

[CraigCM]

I started MY business 30 years ago and have worked 60 -70 hours a week since then to keep it going. Barack Obama can KISS MY ASS!

[Isamericadead]

Who protected your business? Who is insuring uninterrupted interstate highway system? Who is going to insure logos, banners, letter head and your business identity from theft or copyright infractions? Just to name a few.

[TimeToEvolve]

Yes, we know Rob Me, because "corporations are people my friend".

[nancy_naive]

"Blind trusts are the biggest ruse." -- Mitt Romney, 1994

[RealWorldNow]

Your blind trust in Obama is the big ruse on you !

[marychgo]

C'mon, folks, we all know this is a matter of both/and, NOT either/or!

Entrepreneurs are terrific! They come up with fantastic ideas and use their brains and dedication and persistence to turn those ideas into products and services that serve millions of Americans and sometimes billions of people around the world. But sometimes those entrepreneurs FALSELY believe that they achieved their successes ALL BY THEMSELVES. They're wrong!

SOMEBODY educated the entrepreneurs themselves and educated the people who produce their products or services. SOMEBODY produced their inputs and provided a way to get their products or services to the customers who need or want them. SOMEBODY paid for the roads and bridges and airlines and postal service and telephone lines and Internet that the entrepreneur uses to bring in inputs and ship out products. SOMEBODY operates a legal system that makes it possible for entrepreneurs to enforce the sales contracts that ensure they get paid for their products or services. SOMEBODY paid for the police officers who make sure that their products aren't stolen and the fire departments that ensure that their products don't go up in smoke.

That SOMEBODY is the rest of us: the people -- poor, working class, middle class, and rich -- who have paid taxes to provide the infrastructure that makes it possible for brilliant entrepreneurs to build fantastic businesses. We DON'T expect entrepreneurs to thank us 24/7/365; we DO expect entrepreneurs to pay their share of taxes so we can maintain an infrastructure than will empower the next generation of entrepreneurs!

[RealWorldNow]

Oh please, get a life.... This is BS and you know it, so just try to stop for one minute and look at your words. Trying to justify this stupidity really shows your level of ideology over reality. Government is not the answer. We are the government, with out our cash they are nothing !!!! They only create problems not solutions. Government is twice the size it was just ten years ago, has our population doubled? No it hasn't. So this is just you towing the liberal line....

[bonzothemonkey]

Among the many passions Mitt Romney and his other robber baron friends, both at Bain Capital and at other companies doing the same thing, is to buy, deconstruct and streamline small American businesses around America. Then turn around and resell the "new, improved version" while at the same time firing American workers from those businesses so they can then export that work to 3rd World countries and use slave labor there at a tenth of the cost of what it would be here; they then take that profit from all that cheap labor and proceed to give it to...who? You got it! Themselves!
Finally, after the smoke clears, they turn around, smile at each other, and brag brazenly about it "all just being the American Way"!!
Wed Jul 18, 2012 1:23 AM CDT

[gabel87]

Republican goveners nationwide have been lobbying for Internet sales taxes and trumpeting the charge to internet taxing for YEARS! Total hypocrites.

Indiana's own village idiot, you're boy Mitch! Is behind the whole thing!

This won't hurt small internet businesses at all though, right? This won't add another layer of govt BS to their daily lives? This isn't raising taxes? This won't hurt consumers? This isn't just another example of the total hypocrisy of Republican GREED?

[lg144]

I never realized how much time millionaires and billionairs had on their hands to post here. Other wise how do you explain why members of the 99 percent support republicans?

[Ulgnud]

Small business did quite well in the early years of the US when the Government still obeyed the US Constitution and didn't interfere. I guess Obama forgot that fact or was hoping no one would remember it.