The GOP, the party of exclusion -- no gays seeking marriage allowed, also no Hispanics, no black people, no poor people who are on or ever were on welfare, and no women who are on or ever were on birth control -- yeah, that private party spent last week taking sole credit for America's greatness, saying in speeches, announcing on signs and even chanting: We built it.
Republicans did it all, they said. The GOP accomplished that exclusively, they contended.
Ann Romney adopted the braggadocio, assigning to her husband all credit for the success of private equity firm Bain Capital. She said of GOP nominee Mitt Romney:
I can tell you Mitt Romney was not handed success. He built it.
No help from anyone, not Bain & Co. founder Bill Bain, not Romney's fellow Bain workers, not the Bain investors, certainly not the government that Romney considers so evil but that he wants to run. He built Bain all by himself.
This is a new week though. It's a week that begins with Labor Day. For that reason, it's a time when Republicans will be falling all over themselves to compliment American workers -- well, except unionized workers, who Republicans hate and who Republicans would like to exclude from their party, along with those gays, poor people and women using birth control. This week, Republicans will ever so briefly share some credit for the greatness of America with white, male, non-union, blue collar workers -- the ones Republicans believe they can convince to vote for the quarter billionaire they've nominated for president. Next week, however, the GOP will be back to claiming Republicans built it all by themselves.
A couple of weeks ago, President Obama said he believes America's success was forged by the talent and hard work of innovators, risk takers, researchers, hard laborers, skilled workers and government leaders mixed with community support, faith and hope. He explained that no one person can take credit for the greatness of America, no individual built that. He said:
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. 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. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.Republicans, have been pounding President Obama about that ever since. They contend one person did build that. No help provided or needed. If Bain was successful, then Romney did it all by himself. He gets all the credit.
Well, that might be right except for the credit that local, state and federal government should get. And that credit, of course, goes to citizens because they provided the government with the tax money that politicians handed Bain companies.
Yeah, that's right. Bain companies took corporate welfare. One of 'em even required a new tax!
In the mid-1990s, Bain invested in a start-up mill, Steel Dynamics, that was to be constructed for $385 million in DeKalb County, Ind. The mill got built with $37 million in subsidies and grants from Indiana and DeKalb County. In addition, DeKalb County levied a new quarter-percent income tax on residents to pay for infrastructure improvements such as roads and railroad exchanges that benefited Steel Dynamics.
Bain put $18.2 million into the project, less than half of what Indiana residents did, and the private equity firm took out $104 million when it sold its share five years later. Romney, of course, contends he built that all by himself.
Similarly, California taxpayers built a conveyor bridge between two Bain company buildings. New York taxpayers gave Bain tax breaks and lower energy bills so it wouldn't move a company to New Jersey. South Carolina taxpayers gave Bain company Holson $200,000 in utility support and a $5 million construction bond. Maryland taxpayers gave Bain company Staples $2.3 million in grants and low-interest loans. And there's more government help for Bain companies Sealy, Steam International, Alliance Laundry Systems, Burger King. . .
But, you know, Romney did it all by himself.
Then there's the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics that Romney claims to have saved all by himself. Right. Except for that quarter billion dollars that American taxpayers donated in the form of federal subsidies to rescue the games.
Other GOP members who spoke on the special "Republicans built it" day at the convention were Phil Archuletta, owner of P&M Signs, and Sher Valenzuela, who owns an upholstery business. Both received government aid to build their businesses. Archuletta complained that his business didn't get enough tax dollars out of the federal stimulus package -- only $340,000. Valenzuela got $2 million in loans from the Small Business Administration and $15 million in government contracts, some noncompetitive. But, you know, they did it all by themselves.
Last week, while Republicans claimed credit for building by themselves everything that's great in America, President Obama upped the ante on his contention that many achievements are a result of group efforts. The President told 6,500 students at the University of Virginia that securing a tax credit for college tuition, increasing tuition grants and extending low interest interest federal student loans, were all possible "because of you."
President Obama made no claim that he built that by himself. On Labor Day, he recognizes the contributions union and non-union workers made to building this great country.
All Americans built that.
***
Follow Leo W. Gerard on Twitter: www.twitter.com/uswblogger
Dean Baker: Romney's Success at Bain Capital: The Business as Scam Model
Mike Lux: What Kind of People Will We Be?
I'd like to see the president say this...
At this time four years ago the Dow Jones Average was about where it is now. But by December 31st of 2008, before I took office the Dow was at 8800 and sinking fast and it quickly sank to half today's level before we began to turn this crisis around. George W Bush had to send out $700 checks to everybody in America to keep us from bottoming out. How Socialist is that?
So to those in business who say 'am I better off now than I was four years ago?' I say, if you like being pulled out of the frying pan and put in the window to cool, then yes, you are better off now.
To bailout haters. This American economy might have crashed and burned without those bailouts and they were bi-partisan. Period. Where would we be if we had let our auto industry disappear as Governor Romney suggested?
Unemployment has stabilized and is coming down.
We're not doing great, yet. But we're coming back from the deepest hole this country has seen since the Great Depression!
We are better off now.
TheDixieDove
http://thedixiedove.com/
One is debtors' prison.
It could give a big boost to our unemployment problem, as the prison industry would benefit.
Since Bankers will never end up there, pot smokers are not enough to replenish its population.
The other would be Child Labor. Children, especially of The Poor, are an overlooked resource.
Onerous work schedules imposed on children would relieve our crowded classrooms as well.
No, Obama did build that.
Great Article. However I think the title should be revised to read as follows:
‘Labor Day: Team America, Including Workers—Whose Worthless Labor Was Given Increased Value By Capitalists Who Used Their Wealth To Increase Labor’s Productivity While At The Same Time Paying Them A Wage Despite Having To Take Risk To Do So, Built That’
Or,
Labor Day: Team America, Including Workers, Built That…But Only Because Capitalists Paid For It So Labor Day Should Be Spent Paying Thanks To Capitalists And It Should Be Renamed ‘Capitalist Day’
Or Simply,
‘Capitalist Day: Team America, Including Workers Who Were Paid By Capitalists So Their Labor Had More Marginal Worth, Built That’
Though I am not sure what your title has to do with the tendentious article of anger and envy that you have proffered forward.
Kai
This paragraph was particularly important for those "capitalists" who believe they do it all by themselves:
"Other GOP members who spoke on the special "Republicans built it" day at the convention were Phil Archuletta, owner of P&M Signs, and Sher Valenzuela, who owns an upholstery business. Both received government aid to build their businesses. Archuletta complained that his business didn't get enough tax dollars out of the federal stimulus package -- only $340,000. Valenzuela got $2 million in loans from the Small Business Administration and $15 million in government contracts, some noncompetitive. But, you know, they did it all by themselves."
Yea, maybe workers are paid by capitalists, but those capitalists, including Romney, got the money to do that from the government, which, of course, got it from workers' tax dollars.
Thansk for supporting my point.
Kai
You state, ‘Self-centered economics is alarming.’
Hahahaha. Economics started out as a moral philosophy which describes how individuals acting through self-centered self-interest arrives at the greatest result. Thanks for pointing out that economics is the study of self-centered self interest and the actions that result in aggregate results.
‘It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.’—Adam Smith
The uniform, constant and uninterrupted effort of every man to better HIS condition, the principle from which public and national, as well as private opulence is originally derived, is frequently powerful enough to maintain the natural progress of things toward improvement, in spite both of the extravagance of government, and of the greatest errors of administration. Like the unknown principle of animal life, it frequently restores health and vigour to the constitution, in spite, not only of the disease, but of the absurd prescriptions of the doctor." —Adam Smith
Congratulations!….you inadvertently stumbled upon the basis for economics.
You continue on to quote Lincoln. Great!
(a) Glad that you point out that for decades and centuries Republicans have had a better grasp on the nature of economics and the condition of man.
As a famous US president once said, if it were not for the toil of labor there would be no capital
A Lincoln
Thanks for doubling-down on my point.
Kai
You rightly ask, ‘But you have no problem with the wizards of wall street robbing folks on mainstreet of their retirements, their home values, savings, cutting their wages and so forth, all perfectly "legal"’
Do I have a problem with wizards making money off of mainstreet? No. Robbing them, I would have a problem if money is taken by force or fraud. And in such rare cases they should be prosecuted…on a case by case basis. But you are ascribing dark motives to what are for the most part just simple transactions between willing participants. I also have no problem with mainstreet making money off consumers. No labor making profit off of employers… Why would I?
You then go on, ‘Paying for the benefits of a civil society is a civic responsibility.’
"Today, we celebrate those who have taken a risk, worked hard, built a business and earned their own success."