Just Thinking About Taxes

Last week Mr. Obama, in a speech to supporters, suggested business owners owe their success to government investment in infrastructure and other projects -- saying “if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.”  Obama’s comment Friday during a campaign stop in Roanoke, Va., came just days after he urged Congress to extend tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration only to families earning less than $250,000 annually -- part of his argument that top earners have an obligation to pay more to trim the deficit.


“There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me because they want to give something back,” the president said. “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,” he said. “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.”


He is right that there are a lot of hard working Americans.  He is right that a successful business is dependant upon others for support.  That is about the only thing that he is right about. 

Successful businesses are  successful because they DO give back.  They give back by producing things that people want and need and that make their lives better.  They give back by employing workers who can then support their own families and their communities. And they give back by already paying hundreds upon hundreds of taxes and fees and registrations.

The businesses pay corporate taxes. Their owners and their employees pay income taxes. The owners and the employees pay social security taxes and medicare taxes. They pay state income taxes. They pay fuel taxes when their trucks deliver products out into the world. They pay sales taxes when they buy the materials to produce their products, and customers pay sales taxes when they buy those products.

All these successful people are already giving back in ways that the President, who's never worked for a business, or directly employed anyone, or produced anything that any consumer could concievably want, never has and never will.  He just does not get it!

We may not be able to fix stupid, but we don't have to reelect it!