President Barack Obama: "Somebody Invested In Roads And Bridges. If You've Got A Business - You Didn't Build That"

Of course you or anyone else can and should appreciate the help from the likes of parents or other mentors. But that misses the point. Obama specifically is talking about private accomplishments being beholden to the "American system" of government, that our own private labor is somehow indebted to government because of a public bridge or road. This is absurd. It completely distorts the quintessential American view of government. James Wilson declared at the Pennsyvania Ratifying Convention in 1787, "We the People - it [the Constitution] is announced in their name, it is clothed with their authority, from whom all power originated and ultimately belong. Magna Carta is the grant of a king. This Constitution is the act of the people, and what they have not expressly granted, they have retained." The private earnings and successes of citizens are not the credit of the sovereign. The sovereign is granted authority by the body politic consisting of private individuals to protect the citizen's rights and property.

What's troubling is this stuff about how because the government built a road or a bridge that somehow, herego, "you didn’t build that" business. It's this mentality that somehow the government is entitled to your earnings more than you are. That's what he's getting at here that's concerning. It's not a humble recognition that some taxes are needed for essential services or programs. It's an attitude that outright says that people who make money have no greater right to what is theirs because they have traveled on public roads. All earnings are essentially public earnings, and it is government's grace that allows you to keep it because it has as much (if not greater) credit for the income you make. If you disagree, please explain what the heck he's talking about roads for right before declaring "if you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that"? Tweet