OPEN SOURCE dKos DRAFT: Featured speaker on RNC’s “WE BUILT THIS!” night
[I’m posting this draft for comments and suggestions. I’m thinking I’ll post it at dKos on Monday. Thanks to everyone who has chipped in so far.] It is easy to see why Delawarean, Sher Valenzeula was asked to speak on the RNC’s “We Built This” theme night in Tampa. She is a woman, latino, and a successful small business person who built her business all alone without any government support whatsoever. Her story is a real rebuke to President Obama’s take on capitalism, right?
If by “she built her business all alone without any government help whatsoever” you mean “with millions in SBA loans, economic development incentives, ARRA stimulus money and a steady stream of millions of dollars worth of no bid government contracts” I guess it is a rebuke.
On Tuesday night, the media will have to utterly ignore all of the millions of dollar taxpayer dollars Valenzeula has leveraged for her speech to make any sense and for her business to be considered a great example of the RNC’s “we built this” theme.
On paper she looks good. A candidate for lieutenant governor of Delaware, and a small businesswoman who, along with her husband, “started an upholstery business that makes padding for baseball umpires and military vests worn by members of the Israeli military,” according to a Fox News report.
The only hitch is, she built her entire business on a foundation of taxpayer funded grants, subsidies and loan programs. Here is a list of what First State Manufacturing has reveived:
*Federal $650,000 Small Business Administration (SBA) 504 loan.
*Federally funded Service Corp of Retired Executives (SCORE)
*Federal and Delaware funded Small Business Technology and Development Center
*Federal $20,000 Express loan
*U.S. DoD and the Delaware Economic Development Office funded Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC)
*$96,500 SBA backed 7(a) loan
Without the government getting her business off the ground, it is not clear she would be where she is today. But that is just the beginning. Sher jumped on the real tax money gravy train when she started taking down huge no bid contracts. All tolled, $15 million in government contracts over 11 years, nearly 70% of which were awarded without competition.
These are the First State Manufacturing Government Contracts Statistics:
Amount Obligated by the Federal Government $15,175,502.75
Total Value of All Contracts $30,016,836.27
Number of Contracts 147
Number of Contracts Awarded Without Competition 102
Percent Awarded Without Competition 69%
Inclusive dates (from) 6/15/2001
Inclusive dates (through) 5/18/2012
One final bit of irony, when she rails about Barack Obama and “the government” interfering with small businesses, she will be doings so knowing that she grabbed ARRA stimulus money when it was available. $301,000 worth of ARRA stimulus money to be exact.
If we have any remnant of an objective media left in this country, this speech should really blow up in the RNC’s face and leave everyone wondering who the hell vetted Sher Valenzeula to speak?
I think with that kind of national exposure it will be important to include links to back up those claims about the Federal benefits. Sorry I’m not that knowledgeable about FSM’s business, but I’m sure other people have the links.
Actually it is $30M in federal contracts awarded, of which the government has obligated $15 on those contracts.
Budgeted – planned expenditure (budget appropriated/approved)
Obligated Work under the contract is funded (obligated the funds)
Expended – Work accomplished (bill must be paid)
Outlay – Bill actually paid.
Just wanted to provide the distinction for the term “Obligation”
Finally, she is a success story, and the government support she had is one reason why the government made her the SBA person of the year. (I wouldn’t denigrate her success in any way. Rather, her success demonstrates the value of these programs and support by government). She needs to thank the taxpayers and government for giving her the opportunity to succeed.
Do you want to hear from the English teacher? No comma after ‘Delawarean’ in the first sentence. I would put in an ‘a’ before latino, or put latino/latina before woman. ‘On paper she looks good… a candidate’ gives the second part of that thought a verb, where the period does not. Typo, at ‘what First State Manufacturing has received.’ ‘All told” should replace “all tolled” and then a subject & verb, like “she collected.” Typo at “doing so” and another ellipsis after ‘available.’
I agree links would be a good addition, and think some mention of her speaking career, which has been exclusively based on teaching people how to get government contracts, would be appropriate.
I think this is a great thing to put up. I hope the proof-reading is okay. I just hate when I discover (as I often do) that the one thought anyone chooses to notice and retweet from me has a big honkin’ typo, right in the middle. :p
Dave makes a great point — that the government support and contracts awarded to her have been crucial to her company’s success. It is a shame that she isn’t thanking taxpayers for their support.
And not only would I send this to dKos, but I’d send it in to the NJ.
The story actually illustrates the purpose of government: enabling persons to live in civilization.
Taxes are the price tag for civilization.
If you’re sending it to the NJ, better get it to John Sweeney today to have a chance of space on the op-ed page on Tuesday. Columns usually run 600-650 words.
Great comments all. I agree about Sher being a success, but (depending on her speech) she could also be a first class liar.
If u use Latina u do not need to use woman- the a at the end denotes the gender. Also is she really Latina? Or married to one
And
The business would also have favored minority status and female owned and Latino owned- so she owes a lot to progressive policies of favored minority status
I can’t seem to find if she is Latina herself or not- funny how that info is missing- wonder of she is trading on the last name for advancement- would not be the first time
If so- she is all window- dressing
I think it’s important to acknowledge her success, but to also point out that it depended heavily on public funding and infrastructure. She’s probably not a liar, but definitely ungrateful and obtuse about government support for business.
DailyKos has posted previously on the phenomenon of Romney being supported by government contractors claiming “We built this.” Maybe your intro can acknowledge and link to those articles or borrow some material. Sorry I’m just making suggestions and not helping write.
Just a general observation. When Democrats try to refute “We built this,” we often reach for the easiest examples: public streets, or direct checks from government. I find these examples true, but kind of shallow.
I think the statement “Taxes are the price we pay for civilization” is much closer to the truth. Think: the courts, public education, state universities, public health care (such as it is), enforcement of fair business practices, transportation, safety, public parks, law enforcement, foreign trade agreements, poverty relief, etc.
Anti-trust law is probably the best support for small business ever enacted.
Anyone know how Sher paid for college? 😉
Her parents were UNION? Oy.
Years ago, I lived in San Jose, CA. There was a letter to the editor in the SJ Mercury News from someone who did not drive; had no car; took the bus everywhere,and esented a county road tax.
Someone pointed at to her that the buses run on the same roads, as well as the police, fire, and other emergency services using the same roads. It is indeed called civilizaton and it has a price.
As in every endeavor, there are excesses but you don’t treat the excesses by denigrating the essential elements of civilization of which everyone enjoys the accrued benefits.
The other non-tax funding mechanism for infrastructure that we don’t often mention is the great public authorities, such as the port authorities or bridge and river authorities. These are quasi-governmental entities that are authorized by government to issue bonds to build infrastructure, to be repaid by user fees on said infrastructure. For example, the tremendous buildout of New York City, including the major arteries, bridges, port facilities, airports, and the late World Trade Center were all built by public authorities.
I have received advanced excerpts of Joe Biden’s Speech in Tampa
It is good that Joe Biden is going to the Republican National Convention to hold high the flag of his party. People make fun of his gaffes, of his embarrassing verbal forays, but he’s no fool and he knows how to take it to the other guy. The speech he is working on, to be given in the heart of downtown, just across from the convention site, will be stirring and stentorian: “All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Tampa, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, ‘Ich bin ein Tampon.’
that’s really all you’ve got? not a peep for weeks then you come out with a dumb joke….. you’re getting rusty, dills.
I heard Romney’s speech on the economy will be featuring the theme “We Killed That.”
This is the big speech in the 62% taxpayer funded stadium right?
That will leave a mark.
Um, why is no one else singing “We Built This City on Rock and Roll”? WHY? I cannot be the only person who’s had this stuck in her head since first hearing about this convention.
Post-Airplane Airplane doesn’t get much respect but has always been a guilty pleasure of mine.
they also might have, but whenever a Repuke uses(good) rock music as a song, it is usually without the artist’s permission and the artist demands they stop. I cant see the Children of the Haight being ok with their music blaring at the teabag-fest.
Post-Airplane Airplane is Starship, and it and they suck.
I’m pretty sure that “We Built This City” won (?) at least one poll for worst song ever.
Off to scour the internets for something resembling proof…
Well, THAT didn’t take long:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2004-04-18-worst-songs_x.htm
“Achy Breaky Heart” was #2.
Yes, that’s always the problem with guilty pleasures.
Speaking of “Achy Breaky Heart”, at least it inspired perhaps the greatest Pinky & the Brain episode evah! “Bubba Bo Bob Brain”, featuring the hit single ‘Empty Hollow Hair’. You’re welcome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11qF60ZhyB8
Concentrate Pinky concentrate! Thanks for that clip. Takes me back to middle school!
We built this city, we built this city on public dough
Built this city, we built this city on public dough
Say you don’t know me… or recognize my face
Still my taxes pay… for that kind of place
Knee deep in the hoopla… coming from the right
Too many lobbyists… eat at the trough tonight
Rush Limbaugh spreads the falsehoods, coming from the radio, don’t you remember
We built this city, we built this city on public dough
Chorus:
We built this city, we built this city on public dough
Built this city, we built this city on public
Romney’s always playing… corporation games
You know he’s only serving… corporation aims
We just want some health care… but up there on the stage
They call us irresponsible… while spewing fear and rage
Rush Limbaugh spreads the falsehoods, coming from the radio, don’t you remember
We built this city, we built this city on public dough
We built this city, we built this city on public dough
Built this city, we built this city on public dough
It’s just another Monday… with protests on Wall Street
Police apply a choke hold, oh… protecting the elite
Who counts the money… paying for the war
Who builds elevators… for each of his cars
Don’t tell us you’ll lead us, ‘cos you’re a bunch of fools
Screwing up America, cutting jobs and schools
(I’m looking out over that Golden Gate bridge
Out on another gorgeous sunny Saturday, not seein’ that bumper to bumper traffic)
Don’t you remember (‘member)(‘member)
(Originally built and supported with public research grants, the internet connects every city on the planet;
The city by the bay, the city that rocks, the city that never sleeps…)
Rush Limbaugh spreads the falsehoods, coming from the radio, don’t you remember
We built this city, we built this city on public dough
We built this city, we built this city on public dough
Built this city, we built this city on public dough
Built this city, we built this city on public dough
Built this city, we built this city on public dough
(We built, we built this city) built this city (We built, we built this city)
Come on Socialist Ben, that was solid. Unfortunately I did not write it, wish I could take credit for it. I have been laughing all day about it.
Romney was in New Mexico yesterday (My State), unveiling his new energy policy that will get North America and the U.S. energy independent by 2020, his last year in office. Great speech. Google it, It was in Hobbs New Mexico Yesterday. Got to go, Off to watch 2016.
Yes, Romney’s brilliant plan to achieve energy independence by ending subsidies for renewables. What did Romney say about thorium? Nothing? And why not? No thorium lobby, that’s why.
I own a small equipment sales business I started 24 years ago. President OBAMA says I did not build my business. He says someone else built my business. Can anyone on the Delaware liberal tell me who built my business, I would really like to find out. Maybe I will have them get up at 3:30am tomorrow, and I will sleep in.
“He says someone else built my business”
Link please.
He never you did not build your business. He said you did not do it alone.
I was self employed for 35 years. I had help from a variety of sources both governmental and private. Romney took a few words out of context. Most small business people do not look at legislation when they support Republicans. They listen to the rhetoric. The Dems. walk the walk, the Reps. talk the talk. If small business people knew as little about their business as they do actual legislation, they would be out of business.
Rusty,What we want you to acknowledge is all that infrastructure that all of us paid for and all of us use .You did not build it yourself .I was a self-employed small businessman for 32 years and also founded a Habitat For Humanity chapter and a Hospice .I did not do it alone . Yes, I lit the spark and drove it but I did not do it alone .
Capesdelaware, if you were not there, if you did not do it, it would not have got done. You built it
The good news is everyone, including lifelong self employed like me, know that we do not make it alone. Everybody gets it. The GOP look like fools. Even the folks repeating I built this knows they are BS. Trying to take us from We The People to Me The Person. Imagine if Obama said we need to form a more perfect union, or in union there is strength. The GOP today is the epitome of what’s wrong with the ME generation. Self-glorification aka narcissism is not a Christian value or a conservative one.
Add that to the speech: “Narcissism is good. As a ME generation success story, I resent being told I was helped by anyone. This is not about we the people, this is about me the person.”
Puck, and Tom McKenney.
Word for Word
If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that, someone else made that happen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFPzVp3MvFg
When I was 24,(around 1983-84) I was still working for my Dad’s Family Equipment business. I was currently located in Phoenix AZ. My Dad told me I was being transferred to Albuquerque to be branch Manager. I Put my Phoenix Home on the market and starting designing and drawing the plans for a 4000 square foot home I wanted to build after I moved to New Mexico. It took me a while to sale my phoenix home, but everynight I would come home and draw and redraw the plans for my home in New Mexico that I was planning on building myself with my wife’s help. It probably took me about six months, the only drawing experience I had was a mechanical drafting class I took as an elective in High School. About six months after moving to New Mexico, my Wife and I started building our house. I actually remember the first night, (Me and My wife built the house at night with lights, I worked for my Dad’s company during the day).
In the early evening we went down and started building the temporary power poll, Using car lights for light. My battery ran dead, I had to go wake up a neighbor at eleven at night to jump my car. I was very scared to take on a project of this magnitude, with the very little experience that I had. But I never let my Wife know how scared I was. I had never drawn a pay check for working construction, but selling equipment to contractors for 6 years, alot had worn off on me. 12 months to the day we moved into the house. I did not watch TV for one Year. I worked for my Dad’s company during the day, worked on the house at night and weekends. Me and My wife did 90% of the work ourselves, we only had sub contractors on the job for about 15 days the whole time.
House came out great, and when I got ready to start my own Equipment business,I sold that house to get the equity out of it to start my Equipment Business.
Now are you guys are going to side with Obama on this case and really tell me that I did not build my house. This issue is not whether we need help along the way,(of course we do) the issue is, that certain people accomplish things in life, and without their sense of free enterprise and spirit, and their drive to accomplish things, nothing worth while would get built.
P.S. I think the time when I was working 120 hours a week in 1984, 50 for my Dad, and 70 on my house, I think that was along the same time Barry was snorting coke, and he has the gaul to tell me and people like me that we did not build it
“This issue is not whether we need help along the way,(of course we do).”
Rusty,
Unfortunately, that is exactly the issue. Everyone knows that people accomplish things in life, through free enterprise and spirit. If you examine the statements, that’s exactly what the President was saying – everyone had help along the way. The help you had did not do the work you did, but it helped you. The power pole you put up had to connect to a power grid somewhere or the pole would have nothing more than a tree without limbs. So, yeah you can be congratulated for your effort and perseverance. But give some thanks to the nation for giving you the security and infrastructure that you might build your dreams. He wasn’t taking anything away from your effort. He was saying that the nation was not built by individuals working individually for their own reward but by the collective will of the people to build a nation in which people like you have the opportunity to excel.
Now if you built the power grid that you connected your power to, I stand corrected.
I started my business with a $12 bag of flour. I used roads to deliver my product. I had employees without whom I could not have grown. I can go on and on. It was my vision and work that made things go, but I had help.
P.S.
While I was in Viet Nam, Mitt was hanging out in France. The chicken hawks want to cut VA budgets, while sending others to fight. It seems giving them tax cuts is more patriotic than caring for our heroes.
You guys are still not fessing up to the Presidents Comments. He said if you have a business you did NOT build that, Someone else made that happen. You guys are twisting his words around. That is what he said. No one in business is saying we don’t all need help, But without Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Ford, Microsoft, and Apple would not have happened. Hence “They did build that”
There are only 4 logical responses, and 1 illogical response to my story.
A. I don’t believe Rusty’s story.
B. I could do what Rusty did, but choose not to
C. I could do what Rusty did, and I did or I will
D. I can’t do what Rusty did.
E. Rusty did not build his house and business
You all will most likely choose the illogical choice, hence your title, liberal.
P.S. the response I don’t care is not considered a response by me
Tom Mc Kenney, are you somehow equating Mitt Romney’s Missionary Work in France with Barack Obama’s Cocaine Habit.
No, he’s comparing it to Dick Cheney’s “other priorities.”
Nice try to change the subject. He worked so hard in France he got zero converts.
P.S.
The drug laws do not make much sense. Alcohol is this country’s number one drug problem. Obama’s drug use did not interfere with his duties. Failing to serve his country is a much more troubling problem.
I served with a conscience objector who did not qualify for religious exemption. He served as a medic. I see that as courageous, but since he was a liberal he isn’t as patriotic as Romney, Cheney, Bush et al. according to conservatives.
Rusty, let us not argue about what he said here is are the exact words. Now may we could discuss what he meant, not the words he said. Please read and digest and see if it doesn’t agree with your statement “This issue is not whether we need help along the way,(of course we do)” (Read the second paragraph Rusty).
“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.
“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. 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. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.
@RD “There are only 4 logical responses, and 1 illogical response to my story.”
How about the response that building a house is not the same as building a business. It really isn’t.
Oh.. And the house I’m building. Even though we’re the only ones actually using tools, I did get a lot of help from others. Who do you think wrote the building codes?? A hell of a lot of hard work went into those to help make you safe. And who cut the lumber? And who mined the copper for your wires,….
You didn’t build that, you only assembled it.
“Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.”
“That” being roads and bridges. It REALLY is that simple. Obama is saying, and rightly so, that you, Rusty, did not build the roads and/or bridges to get to your house and business. Any other interpretation is grammatically, contextually and intellectually incorrect.
I am going to go out on a limb here and also assume that the house you built had building materials delivered to your site, or did you have your own forrest,quarry and metal foundry on your property? Your building products came from hundreds, if not, thousands of miles away. All delivered on public roads.
Private enterprise runs on public infrastructure. Get that through your head and embrace it.
And if you were in rural NM, the power grid was built with public subsidies and grants. Much like phone lines, rural electricity was constructed becasue “we the people” thought it was important to bring it to rural locations, where electric/phone companies could not build it and make a profit.
It’s bigger than that, Dave and SA. Roads and bridges are just symbols of civilization, not the only components or even the biggest components.
Obama’s “that” refers to “this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive,” not just roads and bridges. Is that what Romney supporters are claiming they built by themselves?
I commented about this upthread.
@puck,
Agreed. Someone here said it before, I apoligize for not remembering who – but the word they used was “civilization”
Oh wait, I see from the upthread it wasy you puck. 🙂
By building and subsequently selling my house, I was able to start my business, during the course of thelast 24 years in business, I have helped my customers make hundreds of thousands of dollars, and dramatically improve there life. Last time I checked, the only people that the irs wants taxes from related to my business is me. If I did not decide to build my business it would not have been built. But I did decide to build my business, and I did build my business. Steve jobs dramatically improved peoples lifes with his innovative products and services. If steve jobs did not decide to build his business apple would not exist. But he did decide to. He built apple. If the people at the delaware liberal did not decide to build a blog, the delaware liberal would not exist, and we would all be less enlightened, but the did decide to, they built the delaware liberal
Rusty. Go back and reread what Obama actually said, in full context. Do you have any problem with that?
How about a little honesty on your part???
Dave, I have read a number of your other post on this website.
In all of them you are very, very, very, very, SUPERSONIC EXTREMLY PARTICULAR about exact words. And now, when you can’t make your point, somehow you think it is ok to change Obama’s Words. Maybe you should try and get a retraction from him. Until I see a retraction from President Obama, I will go by what he said
“IF YOU’VE GOT A BUSINESS, YOU DIDN’T BUILD THAT, SOMEONE ELSE MADE THAT HAPPEN”
P.S. Went to 2016 last night, Number one at the box office Yesterday. Don’t worry, there are a bunch of us making sure that boy gets fired. He is tricking you guys also, you should go to the film, and see for yourself how you are all being played for patsies by supporting him. What he is trying to do, is not at all what you think he is trying to do.
Rusty: Good for you. But “anyone can do it” is not the same thing as “everyone can do it.” Many of the businesses you praise unilaterally would not exist without the exploitation of thousands of laborers. What would McDonald’s be without a steady supply of burger-flippers?
The reason regulations exist is directly due not to the “job creators” who treat workers and consumers fairly but to those who do not. The entire history of capitalism is only partly the one you revere, the one in which brave men with a vision build commercial empires. It is also the history of grifters and snake-oil peddlers preying upon the dumb and unwary.
Creators have always chafed at society’s restrictions, and always predicted the death of innovation if things didn’t improve. Let history show that, short of outright bans on research, creative people continue to create regardless. And that when we ban something, such as fetal stem-cell research, the creating will go on somewhere else.
By your guys backwards logic, since mitt romney is primarily responsible for starting and growing staples, and since the lakers play at the staple center, then phil jackson, kobe bryant, and shaq are not responsible for the nba championships, but rather mitt romney is since he built staples
I’ll give you that rusty….. although i think the NBA is stupid and hate the Lakers. I also cant stand Phil Jackson because he is an a-hole, Kobe because he is a rapist, and Shaq because he’s a bad actor….. so yes, Romney is responsible for all that.
Once again for Rusty and those who slept through reading comprehension in grade school.
“Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.”
“That” being roads and bridges. It REALLY is that simple. Obama is saying, and rightly so, that you, Rusty, did not build the roads and/or bridges to get to your house and business. Any other interpretation is grammatically, contextually and intellectually incorrect.
Which is VERY similar to what Mitt Romney said at the opening ceremonies of the SLC Olympics. “You (athletes) did not get here on your own.” So, Rusty, please tell me why Mitt HATES Olympic Athletes so much?
And, no, Mitt Romney is not “primarily responsible” for Staples. The creators of the Staples idea should get the credit (Leo Kahn & Thomas Stemberg). Romney was an investor. There is a big difference. That would be like suggesting Steve Jobs or Bill Gates were not responsible for their products while a monied investor is.
You need to start the quote at least one sentence earlier. Obama’s “that” refers to “this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive,” of which roads and bridges are just one representation.
I know it’s a minor point, but I think Romney’s taking time out of his relentless ascent to snobbery in order to annoy ordinary French people with his insane cult was actually a BAD thing.
He can call it a religion, if he likes. I have higher standards.
“Missionary Work.” rotfl
Hey his mind is made up, don’t confuse him with the facts.
Once again for sussex anon,
if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that, someone else made that happen.
Sussexanon, please, please, tell
me your not a
In this sentence, ” that”, can only refer to the persons business.
Unfortunately, when I have to stoop to this level, that is offer to bet sussexanon money, that my definition is correct and yours is wrong.
All obama has to do is retract this statement and we will shut up about it.
@Rusty,
If I changed Obama’s words, I apologize. As you said I am very “….particular” about exact words. I must have used the wrong source quotes. Would you please provide a correction to to the material I posted that is in quotes. And since I am particular, please be exact. I’m serious Rusty, if I made an error in quoting something word for word, I want to know what the error is.
Rusty is lying. Pure and simple. It’s a blatant lie to take what Obama said and try to make it something that it never was and never was intended to be. It’s what crappy conservatives do when they don’t have any real arguments or ideas to offer.
Dave, your qoute is correct, but my objection with is that two comments ago you said we should not concentrate on his exact words, but on his meaning. I say he meant exactly what he
Said
Sussexanon, since you say romney is not primarily responsible for stables success, then does that also relieve mitt of any responsibility with regards to negative things that alledgedly happed to bain companies
The problem is that these were spoken words. Conservatives reported them this way:
“Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.”
But this is more correct and makes sense in that it has proper sentence structure:
“Somebody invested in roads and bridges, if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.”
@Rd “I say he meant exactly what he said”
Yea right. Typical right wing crap when you got nothing better…
How about a little intellectual honesty??? Or is that too much to ask of a conservative?
Who paid taxes to “build that”???
The roads were built collectively by the business owners and citizens.
All government did was inflate the price and lower the quality of work.
Do you people have the slightest clue about how government works? Government contracts go to the lowest bidder; in what way does that “inflate the price”?
In my neighborhood, which is older, some people have put in driveways. They vary in width, depending on the type & number of cars the owners use, and in materials, depending on what’s cheap/available, or meets their concerns about drainage. They work, for those uses, but I do NOT want everyone responsible for the construction & upkeep of roads I need, and I don’t want everything running as a toll road.
I happen to live on a busy street. I would happily walk to a parking area on the margin of town in order to drive the few places I go, but considerably over half the vehicles that pass my house paid not one thin dime, either through direct taxes or business taxes, to maintain the road. They use it, from an economic basis, at the generosity of tax-payers of THIS state and county, as part of a highway system that gives “full faith and credence” to the rights of other states to award drivers’ licenses and provides roads to areas that have chosen not to provide roads for themselves. Mostly in red states, of course. This ridiculous right-wing effort to reject both the federal Constitution AND the progressive era must stop. It’s plain idiocy.
Look down this page, about 2/3rds. That’s what the roads looked like, before the evil government decided (quite recently) to take a hand in it. http://www.bobweiner.com/bhh.asp
Rusty seems like a smart industrious person, he’s just having trouble shaking something he imagines to be true. From what I read Rusty thinks somebody is saying that Rusty or Steve Jobs didn’t built what they built. It’s kind of unsettling a rational person could be so wrapped up in ideology, they refuse to understand plain english. One more time Rusty: You and Me and Steve Jobs are all great American business builders who built our businesses. Three cheers for us we are great industrious people creative hardworking job creating patriots. Yay for us. But Rusty . . . . .
People are simply saying we also depend on others. Like you and your dad. Your wife. The roads, teachers, bridges. The construction equipment you sell is purchased many times to work on government contracts. You must know what we are saying: Apple Computer would be nowhere, repeat nowhere, without the Government Patent Office. Not too mention all the other ways government finances technological breakthroughs.
So why be so extreme? If you think Obama is a bum just say it. But don’t twist things to make it sound like President Obama does not believe you created your business. That’s just – well . . . nuts.
The President says we are all in this together. Reminds us no man is an island. That even those of us who succeed as entrepreneurs built our business within the public infrastructure. Why come along and make that sound like some kind of insult. You may think you are being an all American patriot conservative – but your comments really work against the true spirit of American. E pluribus unum. Would you object if the President said we the people in order to form a more perfect union?