The Patriot Post Chronicle 7-18-2012

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The Patriot Post Chronicle 7-18-2012
From The Federalist Patriot
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'You Didn't Build That'

July 18, 2012

The Foundation

"To cherish and stimulate the activity of the human mind, by multiplying the objects of enterprise, is not among the least considerable of the expedients, by which the wealth of a nation may be promoted." --Alexander Hamilton

Editorial Exegesis

"President Obama has a message for all the small-business owners in America who also happen to employ more than half of all Americans: 'If you've got a business -- you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.' Obama uttered that sentence while campaigning in Roanoke last Friday, to explain how government deserves a large share of the credit for businesses' success because it provides basic services and infrastructure that businesses use. 'The Internet didn't get invented on its own,' Obama continued. 'Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.' Moreover, Obama did not make this statement to argue that government should invest more in basic research and infrastructure. He was calling for a tax hike to fund more failing solar firms, bullet trains to nowhere and most of all the budget-devouring entitlement programs he lacks the courage to fix. He seems to think successful entrepreneurs should be grateful and eager to pay more. Only someone who has never signed the front of a paycheck could make such an ignorant comment. ... It isn't easy to understand what it takes to create jobs while making money, but Obama has proven himself extraordinarily obtuse on the subject. In just his first three years in office, Obama has approved 106 new major federal regulations that cost the U.S. economy $46 billion annually, according to his own administration's estimate. Under Obama, the per-employee cost of simply complying with federal regulations -- before any other expenses or capital investments are accounted for SEmD has risen from $8,086 in 2008 to $10,585 in 2010, according to the federal Small Business Administration. That number will rise again substantially in 2014, when many firms with more than 50 employees are slapped with stiff fines under Obamacare's 'employer responsibility' requirement. Small businesses already pay the price of big government in more ways than one. Obama should understand if its most successful practitioners are less than thrilled to have him downplay their accomplishments while making the case to raise their taxes." --The Washington Examiner1

Share your thoughts on small business and government.2

Upright

"The Obama theory of entrepreneurship is that behind every successful businessman, there is a successful government. Everyone is helpless without the state, the great protector, builder, and innovator. Everything is ultimately a collective enterprise. Individual initiative is only an ingredient in the more important work when 'we do things together.'" --National Review's Rich Lowry

"[Obama's] apologists will say his remarks were taken out of context, but I'm afraid that's not the case. Though no one can deny Obama's assertion that all successful people have benefited from others -- teachers and other mentors -- the thrust of his remarks was directed at crediting government with having an indispensable role in the success of businesses. ... He referred wistfully to the Clinton years as a period of unbridled economic growth -- and he attributed that growth to tax increases on the 'wealthy.' He said that during those years, 'we created a lot of millionaires.' We? Created? In other words, government created a lot of millionaires; it wasn't their ingenuity, and it certainly wasn't their 'hard work'.... This is Obama's orientation. This is his mindset." --columnist David Limbaugh

"Under Obama's formulation ... private success is nonexistent. There is only the glory of the state, as expressed through collective action. The ditch digger and social worker share equally in the success of the small-business owner and the tycoon. Therefore, they deserve an equal, or at least much larger, share of the fruits of the entrepreneurs' labor. This is the thinking of a man who views businesses as entities to be milked for the good of the collective." --New Hampshire Union Leader

"['The buck stops with you'] is an interesting line of attack for Obama to be making. Romney is claiming he should not be held accountable for decisions made by Bain Capital from 1999 through 2002 because he was on leave and did not make any of the decisions in question. Sounds straight forward enough. But what about everything that has happened under Obama sine he was sworn into office? The murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and Fast and Furious. The Solyndra bankruptcy. The GSA Las Vegas spending scandal. Twenty-three million Americans either under or unemployed. 8.2 percent unemployment. Will Obama claim he's been on leave since 2009?" --Washing Examiner Senior Editorial Writer Conn Carroll

Insight

"I am concerned for the security of our great nation, not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within." --General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964)

The Demo-gogues

Obama's philosophy in a nutshell: "If you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. ... If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. ... If you've got a business -- you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." --Barack Obama ("It would be interesting to see [Obama] stand before an audience of, say, plant workers who lost their jobs because of EPA regs, and remind them 'you didn't get to the unemployment line on your own -- somebody gave you some help!'" --blogger Doug Powers)

Belly laugh of the week: "When some people question why I would challenge [Mitt Romney's] Bain record, the point I've made there in the past is, if you're a head of a large private equity firm or hedge fund, your job is to make money. It's not to create jobs. It's not even to create a successful business -- it's to make sure that you're maximizing returns for your investor. Now, that's appropriate. That's part of the American way. That's part of the system. But that doesn't necessarily make you qualified to think about the economy as a whole, because as president, my job is to think about the workers. My job is to think about communities, where jobs have been outsourced." --Barack Obama, who shouldn't be bringing up economic qualifications

On that inconvenient tax: "It's less a tax or a penalty than it is a principle -- which is you can't be a freeloader on other folks when it comes to your health care, if you can afford it." --Obama

Disagreeing with himself: "By the way, if you've got health insurance, you're not getting hit by a tax. The only thing that's happening to you is that you now have more security because insurance companies can't drop you when you get sick." --Obama, who has long insisted that the mandate is not a tax

The BIG Lie: "In my life, what I have found -- sometimes I do boneheaded things, I make mistakes. What I find is when I don't, when I try something that doesn't work, then I don't try it again." --Obama, who continues to repeat the same bad plan

You don't say: "Washington feels as broken as it did four years ago." --Obama

Story time: "It's funny -- when I ran [for president], everybody said, 'Well, he can give a good speech but can he actually manage the job?' And in my first two years, I think the notion was, 'Well, he's been juggling and managing a lot of stuff, but where's the story that tells us where he's going?' And I think that was a legitimate criticism." --Obama on his one fault being failure to tell a story

Throwing the middle class under the bus: "If we can't get a good deal [to raise taxes on the top two income brackets] -- a balanced deal that calls on the wealthy to pay their fair share -- then I will absolutely continue this debate into 2013, rather than lock in a long-term deal this year that throws middle-class families under the bus." --Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) (So, raising taxes on everyone will protect middle-class families?)