Are Republicans Ashamed of the "You Didn't Build That" Rhetoric?

They should be, given the fact that they've taken the comment completely out of context. This is one of the main reasons voters express disgust when it comes to our political system.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/31/politics/fact-check-built-this/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

(CNN) -- "You didn't build that."

That July comment by President Barack Obama was the cornerstone of this year's Republican National Convention. Republicans have seized on the phrase -- a seemingly stray clause in a line Obama delivered at a campaign stop in Virginia -- as a kind of Freudian slip that reveals the president's hostility to free enterprise.

The statements:

The phrase "We Built It" was the backdrop for speaker after speaker during Tuesday night's convention proceedings, and speakers have invoked it to paint Obama as an out-of-touch, big-government liberal.

"That makes me think that Barack Obama has a problem with the American dream," GOP Chairman Reince Priebus said Tuesday.

"He said, 'You didn't build it.' Translation: 'It doesn't rightly belong to you,' " former Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee chimed in Wednesday.

House Speaker John Boehner delivered what may have been the most epic recounting of the line, putting it in the context of his family's Cincinnati tavern: "Now, let's say a guy walked into our bar, and before he could say anything, he overheard a regular telling his story," Boehner said Tuesday night. "Turns out this guy ran a small business, got involved in it while he was in school. Then, out of nowhere, his business partner died. They had just one customer. So he fought like hell through sleepless nights and close calls ... Now, if a guy walked into a bar and heard that story, and he said, 'Well, if you've got a business, you didn't build that,' well, you know what we'd do with him, don't you? We'd throw him out."

Vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan invoked it in his acceptance speech Wednesday, praising small business owners who show up "to open the door at 5 in the morning."

"Nobody did their thinking, and worrying, and sweating for them," Ryan said. "After all that work, and in a bad economy, it sure doesn't help to hear from their president that government gets the credit. What they deserve to hear is the truth: Yes, you did build that."

The clips that ran between speakers at the GOP convention took things further, heavily editing Obama's remarks to set up television-ready vignettes with business owners who took umbrage at the comment.

"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 ... If you've got a business -- you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen," was what delegates heard over the PA system.


The facts:

Obama's remark came at a July 13 speech at a firehouse in Roanoke, Virginia, where he attacked Republican opposition to his economic plans and defended the role of government in promoting economic growth. It is true that he used the phrase, "you didn't build that."

Here is the full text:

"Look, if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own," he said. "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," he continued. "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."

So there it is. Everything before and after "You didn't build that" refers to infrastructure, education and public services.

Obama released a rebuttal to the criticism within two weeks of his Roanoke appearance. In a television spot, the president tells viewers, "Of course Americans build their own business. Everyday hardworking 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, training, roads and bridges, research and technology." He called ads that used the edited version of his remarks "flat-out wrong."

The conclusion:

It's a classic example of a remark being taken out of context.

 

Funny to watch when the libs continually have to "explain" what Obama meant instead of what he said. Funny but dishonest.

 

Whats that? the republicans are funny to watch. I agree!

See, this is an example of taking a quote completely out of context..........

 

He said what he said. Libs bend over backwards to explain what he meant ignoring his previous words, actions, and point of view.

 

You said what you said. Why do you hate republicans and laugh at them?

 

What he said was just posted above; can you read?

 

Lulz....more sycophantically defensive interpretions of Dear Leader's command ecomomy collectivist screed.

The condescending arrogance one must possess
to take it upon themselves to define for the proletariat "what he meant"

Creepy.

and dangerous.

 

Ayuh,... You'd think that as smart as he claims to be, he could come up with his own lines,...

rather than plagiarizing another left-wingnut...

 

He mocked every hard-working people and successful business in this country. Not that I'm surprised. The Retard In Chief can't run on anything except class warfare and dishonesty tactic. Sadly, liberals are too consumed to Obambi bs and they can't think for themselves.

[video=youtube;YKjPI6no5ng]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKjPI6no5ng[/video]

 

I've read it several times. If he'd meant roads and highways and other such infrastucture the appropriate phrase would have been "you didn't build them." They indeed built those businesses. We had businesses in this country long before we had highways or railroads. Private industry built the space progam in this country. All the government did was pay private industry for what private industry had built.

Government doesn't build anything. I hires other people to do the building. The most government does is maintian whatever it is after it's built and often they do a poor job of that.

No business gets built if some individual somewhere down the line doesn't take the initiative to go build it and takes the risks to do so. Those risks may or may not include getting financing somewhere and by the way yu don't get that financing unless you can show a sound business plan. Everyone in this country has access to an education. Everyone has access to roads and highways and bridges. Not eveyone starts a business. Even fewer successfully expand that business beyond the mom and pop stage. And none of it happens if you don't work longer and harder and smarter.

I've worked for more than a few small companies in my life. Some died, some prospered. The one thing all those that propered had in common was that the first car in the parking lot every morning was the owners' and the last car out at night was the owners' and the only time he wasn't there was when he was meeting a potential customer.

So please tell me something why in heaven's name whould we be afraid of the truth?

 

"That" = infrastructure, which is singular.

 

The better question is....Are liberals ashamed with their GOD'S CLASS WARFARE AND DISHONESTY TACTIC?

 

You'd have a point dave if he'd actually said 'infrastructure' but he didn't he said highways, bridges etc. Which would require the plural 'them'.

 

This is the stupidest (*)(*)(*)(*)ing argument I've ever heard. "CEO's don't build anything, they just hire other people to do the building." Well, who made the investments in those programs? That's right, the government. Who decided that these programs would be of immense value to the country? The government. I can't believe someone was stupid enough to actually make this argument, een on this board.

 

exactly. If this was one speech from one guy it would be bad enough but we know that this is a continuation of his class warfare. Something he and his staff have harped on for years. He took the words directly from Elizabeth Warren, who said the same thing last year.

I read/heard the entire speech and don't need a Progressive operative explaining to me what I heard. I can understand English just fine, thanks.

 

It is very apparent that Obama thinks that government came first and business only flourishes with it when the opposite is true. It is true some businesses flourish when government picks winners and losers, the definition of crony capitalism.

No, we know what he said instead of having to try and re-interpret what he means because we know he has a government centric viewpoint. His statement makes that very clear and is a slap in the face of hard working people.

 

Are bridges, highways, etc. infrastructure?

 

An argument can be made that infrastructure is responsible for local economies to be abandoned for long range shipping, which both increases pollutants and weakens local economies in times of crisis and allows big box shopping ruining local business. Again this just shows that government can actually do more harm than good.

 

there's the rub. See he is trying to feed that jealousy and envy from people that didn't take advantage of the opportunity this country gives them. He is validating every welfare leach, every bum in the country. Whereas at one time, if you were lazy and didn't do anything, you'd be ashamed to admit it...and your neighbors would look at you with contempt.

It's the flip side of the 'the poor can't help being poor' meme they've pushed for so many years....if the poor are poor thru no fault of their own; then the rich have to be rich thru no effort of their own. Because if they admit that the wealthy got that way thru hard work, they HAVE to admit that poor people could make more money if they tried.

 

So now you are going to ask me a question in a debate about grammar that has absolutely nothing to do with grammar. Good job.

You right actually I should have said, Government hires already extant entrepreneurs to build roads, highways, etc. And the impetus doesn't come from government but from the local citizens who put the idea in the head of their local representatives.

 

And you've now just proven that you're either trolling or completely braindead.

 

so, where does the government get the money to MAKE the investments in those programs?

I'll give you a few minutes to think on that one....dont' scroll down til you've thought about it...








no, they don't get it from the magic money tree in the back of the White House, silly! they get it from the TAXES of the people that work for successful BUSINESSES..built/concieved/nurtured by the men and women that STARTED those businesses.

 

Thinking out of the box is not a specialty of Obama defenders.

 

Collectivism: Emphasizing the importance of human interdependence over that of the individual.

A command economy collectivist ideologue props his kingly feet on the Oval Office desk....
as his sycophantically defensive devotees self-servingly redefine him.

Sick.

Creepy.

and dangerous.