The significance of “who built it”

By Tom Quiner

Homerun!

That’s my reaction to last night’s opening round of speeches at the Republican National Convention. I loved the way they developed the theme that “we built it.”

Republicans are the party of achievement, of entrepreneurship, of opportunity.

Democrats are the party of government.

In fairness to my many friends who vote Democrat, I speak for all Republicans that we need government. No argument with you. Where we part company: what type of government? Republicans embrace the type of government called for in the Constitution, which includes the tenth amendment.

Democrats like to ignore the tenth amendment.

From a conservative’s viewpoint, government can be a drag on entrepreneurial innovation. Excessive taxation, government regulations, and onerous licensing requirements slow down and some times even stop the people who “build it.”

From a liberal viewpoint, government can check the excesses of overzealous entrepreneurs and create a more secure marketplace for the country.

Both sides are correct.

The tension lies in where you draw the line.

Under the Obama administration, the line has shifted way Left, with a capital L. This isn’t the kind of government envisioned by our Founding Fathers. When the president doesn’t like a law, he says he’s just going to stop enforcing it.

The president and his party have piled on one new regulation after another and expanded the scope of the federal government far beyond any reasonable interpretation of the tenth amendment.

Liberal commentators are wringing their hands and saying this is the “new normal.” The solution: higher taxes on the innovators, entrepreneurs, and other top producers. In other words, they propose to “punish” productivity by taxing it more.

Their other solution is to expand the welfare state for the declining middle class which necessitates even more taxes on the productive, which results in less productivity, which results in less jobs, which increases the need for more dependence on government.

That’s why we entrepreneurs bristle when Barack Obama scolds us that we didn’t build our business, that government deserves equal credit.

The arrogance is really hard to take.

Kudos to the Republicans for honoring the Americans who are building the businesses that create jobs for America.

These women and men who risk their last penny trying to build a business are the ones who often become rich. They become the same women and men reviled by the president and his party for not paying enough taxes.

It is a bogus argument.

IRS data from 2007 lays it on the line:

√ The top 1% earn 22% of the nation’s personal income but pay 40 percent of all personal income tax.

√ The top 5% earn 37% of the nation’s personal income but pay 61 percent of all personal income tax.

√ The top 10% earn 48% of the nation’s personal income but pay 71 percent of all personal income tax.

√ The bottom 50% earn 12% of the nation’s personal income but pay just 3 percent of all personal income tax.

Let us praise the productive who not only create the jobs for America, but shoulder most of the load for the lavish government created by Democrats.

More Americans need to mimic and learn from them.

Democrats need to stop mocking and loathing them.

1 Comment

  1. rcaamo on August 31, 2012 at 10:15 am

    During Romney’s speech last night, the pledge of alligiance came to mind. That which we recited faithfully every morning before class comes to point again:
    I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
    One nation, indivisable…seems we may not notice that our priorities are coming apart. Above all the clamor we are to be indivisable. Something is putting a wedge in our pledge. Need I say that it is obviously, then, unamerican. Again, the 45 goals of communism: 13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
    If we do not say it, it may not sting us in our patriotism.
    Oddly, maybe, if we look at the 45 goals and the democratic platform, we might see the cause of the contention.