Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.) on Thursday jumped on the growing Republican bandwagon in blasting President Obama for his recent comments that businesses thrive not just through their own hard work but also with help from American society at large.
"Unfortunately, President Obama has received some very bad advice from Elizabeth Warren," Brown said in a press release. "What has made America the greatest country in the history of the world is the ingenuity, creativity and hard work of the American people, and especially those who take enormous personal risk to build a business. Until now, these are qualities we as a country have always celebrated. But to denigrate those efforts and attribute to government the credit that rightly belongs with individuals turns the whole American idea on its head."
Brown's comments were in response to remarks made by President Obama this past weekend, which have caused an uproar amongst Republicans.
"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help," the president said. "There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has pounced on the tail end of that sentence, using it out of context to claim that the president is anti-business.
The president's remarks echoed a theme in a previous speech from Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, which is why Brown claims the president is taking "advice" from Warren. In September 2011, Warren delivered a speech in which she said, "There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own."
Brown's new attack against Obama appears to be a departure from a previous campaign strategy in which the senator aligned himself with the president and touted his bipartisan credentials. For instance, in April 2012, Brown tweeted, "Glad to be back at the White House with #Obama for another bill signing." Massachusetts voted heavily in favor of President Obama in 2008 and typically leans Democratic.
The Brown campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
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