Obama responds to ‘you didn’t build that’ uproar in new TV ad: ‘What I said was…’
by George Bennett | July 25th, 2012
Republican criticism and mockery of President Obama for his “you didn’t build that” remark about businesses has clearly had an impact.
The Obama campaign has responded with a new TV ad in Florida and other swing states in which the president, speaking directly to the camera from the White House, accuses Mitt Romney and the GOP of twisting his words.
“Those ads taking my words about small business out of context – they’re flat-out wrong,” Obama says in the new spot. “Of course Americans build their own businesses. Every day, hard-working people sacrifice to meet a payroll, create jobs, and make our economy run. And what I said was that we need to stand behind them, as America always has, by investing in education and training, roads and bridges, research and technology. I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message because I believe we’re all in this together.”
Romney and the GOP have accused Obama of denigrating individual initiative and entrepreneurship in a July 13 speech in Roanoke, Va., in which the president went on a riff about the importance of public infrastructure.
“Look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own,” Obama said in the Roanoke speech.
“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.”
Obama continued: “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.”
Part of the debate is over what Obama meant by “that” in “you didn’t build that.”
Critics say “that” refers to “business,” in which case the president was effectively saying “You didn’t build that business.”
The Obama campaign says “that” refers to “roads and bridges” in the previous sentence, in which case the president was effectively saying “You didn’t build that roads and bridges” — an ungrammatical but not particularly controversial acknowledgement that tax dollars helped build basic infrastructure.
Romney, in an interview Monday with CNBC’s Larry Kudlow, said Obama’s remarks are “disconcerting” regardless of how one parses the “you didn’t build that” line.
“Just read the whole speech. I found the speech even more disconcerting than just that particular line. The context is worse than the quote,” Romney said.
“The context, he says, you know, you think you’ve been successful because you’re smart, but he says a lot of people are smart. You think you’ve been successful because you work hard, a lot of people work hard. This is an ideology which says hey, we’re all the same here, we ought to take from all and give to one another and that achievement, individual initiative and risk-taking and success are not to be rewarded as they have in the past.
“It’s a very strange and in some respects foreign to the American experience type of philosophy. We have always been a nation that has celebrated success of various kinds. The kid that gets the honor roll, the individual worker that gets a promotion, the person that gets a better job. And in fact, the person that builds a business. And by the way, if you have a business and you started it, you did build it. And you deserve credit for that. It was not built for you by government.”
July 25th, 2012 at 8:56 am
Obama eating his own words.
July 25th, 2012 at 9:17 am
It was a ridiculous statement by the President.
I am sorry I ever voted for him.
July 25th, 2012 at 10:08 am
@Never again, you never voted for the President. Nice try.
July 25th, 2012 at 10:14 am
When you have to explain the joke, it wasn’t funny. When you are still explaining your comments weeks later… you are in serious trouble.
July 25th, 2012 at 10:40 am
Let’s take this a step further. People who build companies don’t do it by themselves. Besides the infrastructure paid for by taxpayers, companies hire employee’s who also help build these companies. These companies obviously pay their employee’s for their service but in the U.S. today, wages are actually going down. Companies are cutting salaries and benefits in order to maximize profits. Despite record profits, especially by major corporations, these corporations refuse to share the wealth with their employee’s. This is what is wrong with capitalism today. Companies make record profits at the same time they are reducing salaries and benefits. They refuse to share the wealth. Someday, hopefully soon, there will be a backlash against this capitalistic “system” by the workers. It can’t happen soon enough! It is bad enough that many business’s and corporations are exporting jobs overseas but our illustrious government in many cases, give tax breaks to the companies that do so. The GOP is an enabler to this kind of thinking. By being the party of the rich and by continuously giving more and more tax breaks to the rich and corporate America while our education system and infrastructure continue to decline. The GOP is also trying to destroy unions and the middle class in America. So far, the GOP has been very successful at this destruction. Maybe soon the American people will wake up to this and do SOMETHING ABOUT IT. If we don’t wake up soon this country is on a course to become a land for rich people only and the rest of us will have to struggle just to get by. I am NOT talking about a hand out, I am talking about sharing the wealth. This is apparently an idea that is very foreign in America today. We have to decide whether there is a future in America for all working people or will this country become a country just for the wealthy. The choice is ours to make.
July 25th, 2012 at 10:45 am
So the ” Me First” is finally getting the message,”I didn’t get there by myself”. When are we going to realize a lot of things had to be in place for business to take the opportunity? Life and success is one big opportunity and some of us have the good sense to grab it when it arrives. So the President’s remarks were very accurate and should be applauded instead of denigrated to some type of hypocrisy.
July 25th, 2012 at 1:49 pm
Lesser of 2 evils: The GOP definitely opposes public sector unions. So did FDR and George Meany. Capitalism is asystem where the market, and not the government, allocates capital and resources. In the words of Adam Smith, “It is not by the benevolence of the butcher or baker that dinner is served”. It is their interest in profit. And as I write this post on the website of the PB Post, on my Dell Computer, using the Windows O/S and Disqus software, I think capitalism is doing fine getting capital and resources to the public, at which government is notoriously inefficient.
I also draw your attention to Obama’s other comment, to the effect that the System “allowed you to thrive”. That is very inconsistent with American ideals and values. A government of the People, by the People and for the People does not ALLOW the people to thrive. Just the opposite.
July 25th, 2012 at 4:55 pm
If it takes a village, what the hell happened to the continent of Africa?
It’s personal initiative, drive and ambition.
There are plenty of successful people who didn’t get a college degree.
There are plenty of successful people who just have a high school degree!
They took risks, they worked hard and did without and they never gave up.
President Obama was wrong in his statement.
Everytime the president is off the teleprompter he makes serious mistakes.
July 26th, 2012 at 6:23 pm
Lessor of two evils. Where would you socialists all be if we hard working personal risk takers decided to let you people’s worker socialist party run a business? Youd fall flat on your commi faces! “Lessor” here’s a fact…your a cry baby, who wants to steal other people’s money because you obviously have little. You are NOT owed anything in our country. You have to work hard, use your brains and earn it! You should move to France or some other socialists country. America is not about 99% of us driving little Sh-t box cars, family of 3 living in a 500 sq ft apartment, and having a large portion of our income go to the Govt. Think for yourself loser, get off you lazy a double s and depend on your self. If we listen to Hussein, and he gets elected, this country is blanked because losers just like you, with no ambition or drive will be in charge.
July 27th, 2012 at 5:32 pm
I am absolutely shocked that people are actually agreeing with the President’s sentiment here. If you started a business and it succeeds YOU DID BUILD THAT! Not your employees, but You! Your employees worked for their wages, and these ridiculous rants about declining wages,etc… are completely missing the point. The speech wasn’t about LARGE CORPORATIONS, he was speaking directly about small/start-up businesses. In those cases it is the owners of those businesses who put up all the risk capital, go without or little compensation while trying to grow. The government had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with it. This clearly shows his political ideology: American Liberalism. It isn’t Socialism, because he is not suggesting that your business output be for the benefit of the state, instead it is American Liberalism. That philosophy believes that success must be shared with the less fortunate through mandates and programs run by the government. That ideology believes that government is the primary solution to an orderly and successful society. Of course this is in direct conflict with the ideology and direction the founders had in mind when they created this great nation. To be honest, I stand with the Founders.