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. The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together – Barack Obama, Roanoke, Va., July 13
Does he hate free enterprise or was this just a momentary gaffe away from the teleprompter?
Yes, those of us who’ve built companies have been blessed by many things in this country including hard work and heroic acts by people who worked in our governments, but his statement creeps me out. If you’re an entrepreneur, you know how your business got built. When others were getting quality time with their kids, watching TV or hanging out with friends, you weren’t enjoying those things. You were busting your butt to get a candidate an interview or taking a call during dinner to negotiate someone’s job offer. You gave up so much day after day, year after year.
You sacrificed and because you sacrificed you CREATED JOBS, made our country better, and succeeded in business.
You most certainly did build your staffing company.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I was very hesitant to jump on the whole “Obama is a socialist” bandwagon because let’s face it, the rhetoric on both sides has become worse then ever. This interview though really gave me an insight as to his thought process. I truly believe that as a man that never built anything himself and has made a living off of public funding, he has no idea what goes into building a successful business and therefore no clue on how to truly stimulate job growth and the economy. This man thinks that the government should control every facet of your life and that without it none of us would be able to function. It’s no coincidence that the deficit has tripled under him and that we’ve had 4 years of stagnant economic growth. There was a great paper written by a man that predicted the recession back in 2007 and he predicts that due to the government’s refusal to approach the recession in a meaningful way and instead just printing more money to throw at it, there will within the next two years begin a period of hyper-inflation and that due to the dramatic loss of value of the dollar and coresponding inability of our country to pay for imported goods our economy will fall off of the proverbial cliff.
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This is purportedly a staffing industry newsletter. Please keep your obviously biased political opinions to yourself or voice in another, more approriate forum.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Dave
Thanks for you advice which I’ll take into consideration. In the meantime if you care to offer an opinion piece that explains why the business people that frequent this site should think differently, I’m sure our editor Paul Phipps would strongly consider running it…he in fact emailed me to that effect a moment ago.
Dave,
I’d have to guess you’re not a business owner and don’t understand the time, money and effort required to build any company. If you are, I can’t understand why you would want to give credit to the government for building your company. I’m sure your employees wouldn’t appreciate your attitude.
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By, Jim Rohn —
“There is a story about a man who took a worthless rock pile and in two years turned it into a lovely garden filled with the most beautiful flowers. One day a holy man came by as the fame about the garden spread for miles around. He said, “Gardner, the Lord had certainly blessed you with a beautiful garden.”
The gardner understood. “You’re right, holy man,” he said. “If it weren’t for the sunshine, rain, the soil, and the miracle of the seed and the seasons, there would be no garden at all. But you should have seen this place a couple of years ago when God had it all to Himself.”
We’re all given gifts of life, stable government, or even roads and bridges. But it’s up to us to decide if we want to use those gifts to prosper. And, prosper we should if we take the initiaitve.
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Not sure how saying that “we succeed because of individual initialtive, but also because we do things together” extrapolates to hating free enterprise.
And by the way, Romney made the almost identical speech…look it up!
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I think it’s safe to say that most business owners were fearful of Obama BEFORE these comments, because in part they do believe Obama does not care for (or even “hate”) free enterprise. I also think it’s safe to say that Obama and Romney are on different planets when it comes to free enterprise. So, it stands to reason then that one should question whether or not this was a gaffe or if Obama actually meant what he said, even if in part.
As a business owner, I stand firmly in the fearful camp and all but a small number of business owners I know believe the same thing. And, I know a lot of them. Hence why the piles of cash in money markets and bank accounts is at an all time high. (Read: It’s not getting spent or invested because people, especially business owners, are indeed fearful.) Any way you slice it, that hurts our economy.
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I don’t get it. I’m a small business owner and I’ve worked my butt off to make it into the famous 1%, but I’m not afraid of Obama. What am I missing. He wants to increase my taxes by 4%, I’m not happy about that or taxes in general, but the impact on me and my lifestyle will be minimal. He wants to try and reign in health care costs, which we all know are out of control and one of the biggest problems we face, particularly as small business owners. Working primarily in automotive, I can tell you his bailout or whatever you want to call it saved a hell of lot a peoples jobs and businesses. Yes they could have gone through bankruptcy, but that would have taken longer and caused much more serious damage. I also agree that yes we do need governement for things like roads, police force, firemen, teachers and sometimes to make sure those looking to make a profit don’t get carried away at the expense of the public good. What am I missing that seems to have everyone else up in arms.
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Jeff,
My problem with it is this, he’s not just raising taxes on the “1%”. ACA is a tax. In 2014 everyone will have the amount their employer contributes towards their healthcare counted as taxable income, a tax increase. The deficit has tripled since he came into office after he promised to cut it in half. He bailed out GM and now they are taking their newfound profitability (that we the taxpayers facilitated) and building factories in China. He bailed out the financial companies yet failed to put any meaningful reforms or safeguards in place to keep it from happening again. He halted deportation of illegal immigrants who continue to put a huge burden on our school systems in areas such as Southern California, Arizona, and Texas. These same illegal immigrants drive down wages among the logistics and other sectors. He promised to be the most transparent President ever yet he’s spent two years and millions of dollars sealing his college records / transcripts yet decries Romney for failing to disclose more then 2 years of tax returns. Instead of listening to companies on how he can help them hire more employers with things such as decreased regulations (especially from the EPA), tax incentives to bring jobs back from overseas, etc. He continues to print money to throw at the problem which is priming us for a period of hyper-inflation and will likely make our currency worthless. Are those enough reasons to be up in arms?
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Jeff,
The summation of your entire comment is exactly why we are paying 50 cents on a dollar in taxes today. It is called incrementalism. Giving up 4% here and 3% there is exactly the thinking that brought us this tax rate.
How do you rein in health care costs by giving 30-million people coverage for little or nothing? The”Affordable Health Care Act” will not save any money at all. The true cause and effect of this decision will be plain to see when the laws of supply and demand come into play. This bill will bring us is higher costs and when they become exponential – rationing will follow. In the meantime, the rationing will start as soon as 30M people start making regular doctor appointments.
In reference to government motors, I too worked in the auto industry for 1/3 of my career and I can tell you this bailout is just a band aid on a problem that is not over by a long shot. Government motors is not a solution it’s a short term jobs program paid for with debt that will be left to our grandchildren.
Jeff, what has everyone up in arms is that Obama truly believes that what is yours is ours. This kind of thinking is the fastest way I know to quash individual human spirit and achievement. For me this kind of thinking is downright scary and that is because for Obama it is as normal as breathing.
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In the same week, Obama’s “insourcing” jobs plan was shot down, the one which would give a tax credit for bringing jobs to the U.S., and remove tax breaks for moving out of the country. Mitch McConnell threatened to add a rider to repeal Obamacare. Many Republicans denounced it as a way to further complicate the tax code. Plan? They have no plan. They’re obviously the party of business interest protectionism.
I did a Google search, and once I got through page after page after page after page after page of the same tired analysis of one sentence of a speech, one whose overarching message seems to be “we’re all in this together”, I found several examples of Obama forwarding plans to help small business (can’t do it, that’s socialism!), praising companies for opening factories in America (he’s praising the foreign takeover of America!), trying to curb outsourcing (he’s getting in the way of businesses trying to make money! He hates success!), trying to spur on lofty goals like energy independence (Solyndra totally proves that solar power is unattainable!)
The part of that Roanoake speech that I didn’t like is that he put a heavy influence on the government’s role in private business. I don’t know if he thinks government intervention in business is totally necessary, or if it was a Bush-like gaffe (gynecologists performing their love, people working to put food on their families) but that’s my only issue. Only in modern divisive America can “we’re all in this together” garner so much hate.
And if I really did believe that Obama was a total failure, was completely at fault, and that replacing him was the solution, I cannot agree that replacing him with Mitt Romney will solve anything.
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I have to agree with Regeya. Lot’s of could be’s and what if’s, he’s evil you just don’t see it. The bank f*** up I agree with, but that wasn’t Obama’s deal and to some extent makes the point. We gave the banks the money, assumming they would do the right thing and lend it out. Didn’t tell them they had to, just counted on them as good businessmen to do what was right. Well as soon as they figured out it might be more profitable to hang on to it, especially since the government had already purchased their toxic assets, guess what they did. I also agree that there are tax implications to the health reform plan. That Robertson also called a tax, a tax. So Obama is the first president (politician) to play a little fast and loose with language, especially to get a contentous plan through Congress. Health Care is rationed now, based upon what type of coverage you have and if good forbid you ever have used it for one of those pesky preconditions. The “auto jobs program”, the administration forced through more closures of obselete and redundent facilities than the automakers themselves wanted. It was the right thing to do for the longer term health of those companies, but from a political standpoint it didn’t gain any friends. I’m still unconvinced that you’ve uncovered the bogey man and again like regaya haven’t heard what Romney’s great plan is. If he’s got one I’d love to hear it.
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The difference Jeff is that Obama has had 4 years to spell out his plan on top of the year plus campaigning he did running the first time. Romney has just begun his national campaign. All I’ve seen is a failure by Obama to come through on campaign promises and a lack of transparacy, and this is from someone who coted for him in 2008. You’re discounting the extremely negative effect that the ACA is having on businesses that will not fully reveal itself until the 2013/2014 parts go into effect. Also, he didn’t simply play fast and loose with language on the ACA. He LIED. Do you not remember his no new taxes pledge when running in 2008? I’m not just talking about the penalty phase of the ACA, I’m talking about the employer contribution being added into the income portion of your tax return. It’s a huge tax increase. I can’t believe you actually made the statement that “We gave the banks the money, assumming they would do the right thing and lend it out. Didn’t tell them they had to, just counted on them as good businessmen to do what was right. “… This tells me that you are either a horrible businessman or are simply partisanly overlooking a major goof. You never “trust” people with billions of dollars. You spell out what it’s for and how it’s to be used in a legally binding way. The government has wasted untold amounts of money with it’s piss poor effort to stimulate the economy which is setting us up for crippling inflation over the next few years. Printing worthless money to throw at the problem isn’t a “solution”.
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Neither naive nor partisan, my point was that is what we did with the banks under a Republican administration. I voted for George Bush (father and later son, but in this case the first) despite the “read my lips” speech. Maybe we have different levels of expectation when listening to campaign promises.
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Mr. Obama- a governing board can eject its CEO, as tax payers and American citizens I am thankful that each person who so diligently made comment above, also has the right to vote for a new CEO for the United States.
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