Obama: The rich need to pay their fair share because they didn’t become rich on their own

I see several blogs posting the short video of Obama saying “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” And I hate really short clips because I always want to know what the context was when it was said. So I went and got it myself and I think the context makes it even worse. It’s not that he’s just insulting business owners – in fact he’s talking about the actual physical business that was built by a construction worker. But what he’s really doing is making the argument that the rich need to pay their fair share and then goes into this riff about how you were never successful on your own, that you got help from somebody else.

Watch below:

This clip is just laden with false premise after false premise. First of all, turning the deficit into a surplus in the 90s had much more to do with a Republican Congress who had a mandate from the people and a president who was forced to compromise with them.

And tax increases just don’t create private sector jobs. How does taking money out of your pocket incentivize you to hire someone? It’s just stupid.

And we all know that the rich pay more than their fair share when it comes to taxes. It’s the bottom 50 percent or so that don’t pay their fair share and we’ve explained that before right here.

After spouting this nonsense Obama goes into this riff about how people don’t become successful on their own to explain why the rich must pay their fair share. But it’s poppycock. Every example he gives is the result of someone paying someone else to do something. If I need a building for my business you better believe I’m going to have to pay someone to build it. If the fire department puts out your house-fire, it’s only because you pay for it in taxes. The roads and bridges that were built weren’t done with money the government solely provided – it was done with money the taxpayers solely provided.

And someone doesn’t work because they want to help you – they work because they want to help themselves. They have a family to feed or needs of their own that necessitates money. That’s just how it works. People are always looking out for their own self-interests and that’s a good thing.

But what Obama is really saying in this riff is that you need the government and the rich need to pay more to fund it. At least that’s what he wants you to believe. It’s this collectivist, redistributionist bullcrap. It’s the life of Julia.

Obama bolsters his point by saying that we rise and fall together, but we don’t – at least as Obama means it. America is great because the individual is FREE to do whatever he or she wants to with their lives. As Ronald Reagan put it:

The American dream is that every man must be free to become whatever God intends he should become.

If anything America’s greatness is borne out in the culmination of millions of free individuals who did it on their own. That’s why we’ve been prosperous. That’s why our sons and daughters fight so hard to defend this nation and to keep it safe. Because we’re FREE. And it’s only when the government steps in that we become less free.

I fear Obama is right about one thing though. We do fall together when we listen to people like Obama and we allow these collectivists and statists to spend us blind with these redistributive policies. They claim to have the noblest of intentions but the end result is that the whole society crumbles under the weight of a decreasing number of people paying for the rest. Just look at Europe.


Comment Policy: Please read our comment policy before making a comment. In short, please be respectful of others and do not engage in personal attacks. Otherwise we will revoke your comment privileges.