At a time of slowing growth, weak hiring, and widespread worry about the economy, to hear the President of the United States dismiss the efforts of business owners is, at best, surprising and, at worst, astounding, given that he's in a close election with less than four months to go.
"If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen," President Obama declared at a campaign stop in Virginia. He goes on to dig an even deeper hole by adding, "If you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own."
His point (or at least, his attempted point) is that many of the top 2% of income earners (most of who also happen to own businesses) would be happy to "give something back" in the form of higher taxes. John Mauldin, founder of Millennium Wave Investments is not one of them. This self-disclosed Republican and business owner sees it as a lack of understanding about how jobs are created.
"'That's not a way to leave money in private hands to create jobs," he says in the attached video. "You reduce my ability to have money to invest — to put those profits back to work," the Dallas-based advisory and newsletter firm founder says of his own firm that now has nine employees — a business about which he says he "put my own money into" and "worked my derriere off" to grow.
While the President's pitch on raising tax rates is not new, the broadside on success and business has clearly sparked a debate.
"It's not that he's anti-business, he just is pro-government," Mauldin concludes, taking exception to the notion that government should provide for us and pick up the slack.
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