Obama DOES Get the American Dream

POSTED BY JHW22

I am a small business owner -- well in the least income-generating sense of the word. I work all by myself in my house and have yet to make a profit. But I collect state sales taxes, fulfill orders and have customers. So, technically, I am a small business owner who created one job -- my own.

But before that I was a stay-at-home mom and before that I worked as a teacher's aide in special education and before that I worked in advertising and before that I worked temp jobs and before that I worked in escrow and before that I worked at a video store.

Do you see a trend? My trend is most likely your trend. Very few Americans actually create a business or jobs. Only something like 18% of Americans have their own business (every link I found states the overall rate but all the reports are about segments compared to the overall).

So why is it President Obama is being made out to be someone who doesn't understand the American Dream when more than 80% of us understand him far better than we understand Mitt Romney? (Obviously, that is a TOTALLY rhetorical question.)

As a business owner I am getting REALLY tired of hearing implications that Barack Obama is worthless because he never created anything. Because if that's the case, my husband is worthless. And my parents. And my grandparents. And my aunts and uncles. I have a cousin who started her own business -- but ironically she's a speech therapist who services kiddos on MEDICAID. Even her business wouldn't be possible without that help President Obama was talking about when he said no one builds a business solely on their own. She proudly acknowledges that she couldn't be a business owner without social services. So she calls bullshit on the GOP talking points aka distortions aka lies about what Obama said about who built what.

Guess what? Obama didn't say people don't create their own businesses. He just said they all have some government resources that help. And since not that many people actually start a business in the first place, I'd say President Obama has a pretty good handle on the reality of starting one. I'm pretty sure he gets the American Dream!

President Obama's Weekly Address - January 14, 2012

Helping American Businesses Succeed

President Obama's Weekly Address - October 1, 2011

Fighting for the American Jobs Act

It Takes Two To Be Bipartisan

In today's Rude Pundit post, he brought up an NPR report about President Obama's Labor Day speech in Milwaukee and how someone who was interviewed didn't like it because it sounded like a stump speech. Where was the bipartisanship that Obama promised?

Well, obviously this rube hasn't been paying attention. Time and again, President Obama's commitment to be inclusive has been evident, unfortunately to the to the detriment of key pieces of legislation (public option, anyone?) and shown by his approval ratings. But if you dismiss the Republican numbers, because let's face it, they're going to be negative no matter what Obama would do, the President's job approval rating among Democrats remains strong, contrary to the mainstream media's reports.

Let's see how the GOP reacts to this new $50 billion infrastructure proposal. My guess is that it will go the same way the bill supporting tax cuts to small businesses went.

In a display that can best be described as insane, Senate Republicans demanded all week that the chamber act on the small-business-incentives measure, and not waste time with measures like campaign-finance reform. But this morning, when the small-business package was ready to move, Republicans balked.

To hear them tell it, GOP senators aren't against helping small businesses -- at least not explicitly -- but they're filibustering to get more time for more votes on more amendments to the bill.

In other words, Republicans have gone from complaining about the bill not coming up sooner to trying to drag out the process out.

For all the cries, whether positive or negative, about promises of bipartisanship, the fact of the matter is that it takes two parties to be bipartisan.

President Obama's Weekly Address - July 31, 2010

Good News on Autos, Obstruction on Small Business

Why Does The GOP Hate Small Business?

For all the bluster about protecting small business owners, you'd think that voting in favor a bill that would give them tax breaks and make available extended loan programs would be a no-brainer, right? You'd think...

Senate Republicans on Thursday rejected a bill to aid small businesses with expanded loan programs and tax breaks, in a procedural blockade that underscored how fiercely determined the party’s leaders are to deny Democrats any further legislative accomplishments ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Ah, yes. It's an election year.

President Obama's Weekly Address - July 25, 2009

Health Insurance Reform, Small Business and Your Questions