Morphing Obama

After yesterday's theme at the GOP convention which was "We built it", the Obama apologists are out this morning trying to explain president Obama was correct when he told business owners that "you didn't build that; somebody else did." It's actually fun to watch the process.

Nicholas Kristof of the NY Times explains this morning that "we all built that." He points out that one of the speakers at the GOP convention built her business after getting a loan from the SBA and winning government contracts. What better proof could there be, he argues. Kristof needs to remember what Obama said. Obama was not arguing that businesses get help from government; Obama was very clear. "You didn't build that; somebody else did" is not a statement that the government helped. Obama was claiming that the business owner gets no credit and government gets all credit. Obama was just plain wrong, and everyone knows that.

The important point here is that millions of businesses across America are run by owners who have to struggle each day to keep the doors open, to pay employees, and to satisfy customers. These folks are the principal reason that the businesses survive and grow. Did the SBA loan funds to a business? Yes, but who then was obligated to pay that loan back if the business failed? Here's a hint, it wasn't the government. Have governments made purchases from businesses? Sure, but that doesn't mean that the government built the business. And it makes sense. When governments try to build businesses we end up with failures like Solyndra. A business has to operate to make a profit in America; if it is just meant to make a political point like the Obama green energy businesses, it will surely fail.