"Somebody invested in roads and bridges - if you've got a small business, you didn't build that."
Only a complete idiot would mistake "that" to refer to the business, rather than the SUBJECT of the sentence - ROADS AND BRIDGES.
Unless your small business involves road construction, your business did NOT build the roads and bridges that your suppliers use to send you material, and your customers use to get to your shop.

And what is the point of any of that? We don't have enough money for roads and bridges? Where is the money going from the fuel tax, property taxes and all other inflated taxes business pay?
Maybe we shouldn't spend like an Obama if we can't afford a road or a bridge?!

So I still ask, what is his point? Cause I know I am not in the road building business but the business I am in I should take away success of my customer/user because "they didn't build it"?

He meant, private businesses do not exist in a vacuum. They can not succeed without the infrastructure - roads, legal system, police force, rail lines, ship yards, electrical system, education system - that forms the foundation of the country. That infrastructure requires public investment. The concept that we should cut taxes for everyone, especially the rich, is fundamentally flawed because it ignores the cost and necessity of the infrastructure required for businesses to succeed.

Again, we already have taxes for all of those things and 100% of tax money comes form the private sector. Soooo he wants more money now? Trillions in stimulus weren't enough? Maybe we should have invested in a road or teacher instead of a train in Milwaukee, or a solar plant that is now bankrupt, or I don't know a huge healthcare bill. Call me silly. If all it takes to be successful in business is a road hell no wonder I am rich as shet and hardly work. I have a ROAD in front of my business, and my house!!!! Super lucky I am.

I understand the guy doesn't know how to balance a checkbook but isn't the writing on the wall he can't run a business let along a country?!

Let's be serious, Steve. Obama was HANDED a $1.3 Trillion budget deficit. Republicans, in control of the presidency and the congress for almost a decade, decided to cut taxes to the LOWEST level in history, while dumping several trillion in Georgie's little Middle East misadventures. We were not paying for our infrastructure before Obama took over. After making the necessary investments to stave off a full-on depression, the deficit REMAINS at $1.3T, the exact number it was when Obama started. With every single Republican congressman having pledged his allegiance to Grover rather than to his country, no serious effort at deficit reduction is even possible. Even the Ryan plan (aka - the kick grandma to the curb plan) doesn't come CLOSE to balancing the budget, even under his overly rosy projections.

Bottom line - we need to pay more taxes if we want to balance the budget. Anyone who says otherwise is a moron and/or a liar. (in other words, a Republican.)

@ Bert - If the president was referring to roads and bridges, he would have used the word "those" (referring to the roads and bridges) rather than "that" (which refers to the small business)

Blame Bush 2012. still blaming Bush

So why did he make it into a 6 trillion deficit with 16 trillion in debt? You can tax all you want we are now over 100% of GDP there isn't enough money to pay it all off. We showed how it's done here in WI, cut SPENDING.... it's not that hard to realize.

@Bert,
If that was indeed what Obama was referring to, it was a very poorly structured sentence.

Grammatically speaking, using the pronoun "that" (as in "you didn't build that.") refers to the last noun used, in this case, a small business.

You couldn't afford to have Government if it wasn't for small business. Government doesn't create private jobs, private jobs allow for the creation of Government jobs. Until you lefties figure that out, we are going to continue the spiral around the drain.
Bertrude, if we all use Obamabucks to pay our taxes- how long will that last?

@Bert - The more context you get, the worse it sounds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwWW2DQS_DU&feature=player_embedded

Given the direction of the economy he inherited, 8% unemployment IS an achievement. Of course, we should all forget about anything prior to Jan 21, 2012...
Funny, just yesterday Mitt told a reporter that you can't really hold a new president accountable for the economic results in his first 12 months. (Mitt was stupidly speaking about his own hypothetical presidency, of course). If you use Mitt's rule, Obama has had the single most impressive economic record of any President in modern history. Just more out-of-context lies from the right, which TRULY can't run on it's record! Last time we left Republicans in charge, we got the worst economic crisis since the Depression.

Bert- let's not re-write history. Democrats were in charge of Congress for the last two years of the Bush Administration. They claimed Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac were doing just fine until they just aout collapsed bringing about the crisis. Obama was claiming in 2009 about how he was going to fix the economy. Sadly, so many Americans are still waiting. Zero Jobs Council Meetings held by Obama when he went to 106 fund-raiser parties and 10 golf outings in the last six months alone.

Bret - Obama sold everyone that if congress passes stimulus, unemployment at this time would be at 5.5%. So now 8% is super awesome? This is the longest no growth post recession ever. We are in fear of a double dip recession, and you say 8% with real unemployment around 15% is good?!

The defense of a failed record is fun to watch, it's like Barrett support all over again.

Steve - first, you're so far off your rocker on that statement. The "under 8%" quote came from the Obama transition team (The "under 5.5%" is a figment of your own imagination), in December '08, when economist projections for Q4 were a GDP contraction of 3%. The GDP ACTUALLY contracted at 9.7%. That was a huge difference. Your talking point has been debunked by fact-check organizations, but I suppose Belling is still feeding you that drivel since he knows his audience is too stupid to look stuff up on their own.

GIVEN that the economy was contracting at a far faster rate than economists predicted, a huge stimulus was the only way to stop the three-quarter million jobs lost per month that Bush left on his way out from getting worse. Since Obama has been in office, he has never once made any promises on keeping unemployment at any particular level.

@Bert... Your explanation would be plausible had the Obama administration released the scaled same graph, unemployment adjusted upward due to the more negative Q4 GDP number, within a couple of days of the release of said Q4 GDP data. I've not seen anyone claim that the Obama administration re-released the adjusted data plotted graph.

Guy said he could fix the economy and you guys bought into it, I'm coming to collect on that promise.

Taking 1 trillion out of the private economy is about as dumb as you can get and totally slows down all growth. Not only does the private sector have to recover that 1 trillion, they have to double it just to get back to it's net loss not to mention the loss of not being able to use it for 3+ years. Then add in all the interest.

But all I need is a road in front of my business to succeed, and an art teacher to come balance my books in the summer.

Bert----- Th Stimulus DID NOT work. It was supposed to keep unemployment under 8% and Obama himself joked that shovel-ready jobs were just not there. Actually the economy was doing just fine under GWB UNTIL Democrats took over, for the record on number of quarters of growth was pretty astounding, that is until Nancy Pelosi took up the gavel.

Yeah Worst, the unemployment under Bush was pretty astounding.

Blame Bush tour 2012: When your black president sucks, blame the last guy.

Average unemployment under Bush was 5.3%

http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2012/may/17/bob-latta/bob-latta-says-obama-promised-stimulus-plan-would-/

Bert, you're attempting to re-write history here again. John McCain and some other Republicans were calling for over-site of Fanny and Freddie. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-from another planet) claims they were racists for calling this out because Franklin Raines was a black guy.

(Ex.)when so many folks that are making $40-50k and buying quarter million dollar homes, there's gonnan be a problem. Chris Dodd and Barney Frank ignored this looming crisis until it was too late.

You are really reaching Bert. In the case of high level Olympic athletes, it is a well known fact that many people sacrifice and contribute to the person as they are basicially in full time training for several years. Parents, family members and elite level coaches have given them help. How this compares to someone building a business I don't know. Face it Bert, you are reaching.

Berti: Have you ever known an olympic athlete? I have.
I know that Mom and Dad made huge sacrafices. Mom stayed here and worked two jobs. Dad moved to another State with an Olympic training facility, found work there and rented an appartment for himself and his athlete child.
Don't compare apples to oranges, it makes you seem even fruitier than you are.

Sounds pretty accurate to me. Now I know for sure you have never been a business owner or successful athlete.

China loves Slick Willy. President Clinton gave them most favored nation status, but you call Alberta Un-American?
Yea, we got too many in prison- so let's let them all out!
I find it rather odd you have a screen name as Johnny Paycheck, do you actually earn a paycheck? I'm thinking you are sucking the Government teet.

Craig, Bill Clinton isn't running for or holding any political office, so what difference does it make? You are too focused on partisanship...

No, I'm not on welfare Craig. I own 2 very small businesses and I will most likely never have more than 50 employees in either of them so anything that Obama has done (which is basically only Obamacare) matters little to me.

And why is it that you want to let everyone out of prison? My point was that we are already locking up people who break our laws. Anyone that gets caught is tried and sentenced and has to do their time, and the justice system is working just fine, so I would rather my representatives work on something more productive than becoming overly focused on the never-ending "get tough on crime" campaign which has been going on for 20 years or more. Whatever penalties there are or ever will be won't be enough for Alberta Darling anyway.

And all the focus on Obama's "you didn't do it all yourself" statement is just a bunch of sillyness. I, as I am sure you do, understand what he was trying to say. My businesses are actually doing ok, and I do not take all the credit for myself. I hired the right people and they made things happen. I have one employee who I pay more than I pay myself for that reason.

So in your business at the company meetings do you get up on the podium and tell your employees how every success is due to you and you alone? I can imagine what morale must be like in your company...

First of all- thank you for making my point. It has nothing to do with Government when a business thrives. The proper decisions (and that means people hired) do. As for partisanship, I learned time and time again. Got boned by Doyle and others with the big D next to their name.
What difference does it make regarding Willy? Too many point the finger at W for the economy, forgetting that deal Willy Wonka struck with China. It makes a lot of difference to me, I wanna know who screwed me, my family, my fellow Americans. We learn from our mistakes. When Obama was elected, I elected to use soap on a rope. After 3 1/2 years, Kenya still hasn't chistled out his Birth Certificate on a rock. Our debt is over 100% of our GDP.
I am not in favor of learning a new language, but Chinease may be in our future.

Clinton struck a similar deal with Mexico that isn't helping us in the least either... And W, while not the perpetrator of that deal still didn't do anything to change it. They were both in the pocket of megacorporations, as is Obama and Romney. Those same megacorporations own almost every major TV network and essentially "picked" our two presidential candidates for us. The best informed people are the ones who are able to think critically and get their news from a variety of different sources on the internet- the majority of whom wanted Ron Paul for their president, even though he wasn't invited to most of the debates, and was broadcasted as the candidate who can't win- a prophecy that was able to fulfill itself due to their meddling with the democratic process.

I personally would take a pass on moving to China-- you will live fine while you're there, but due to currency manipulation what you can earn there won't be enough to get you back home if you don't like it. The most appealing thing about living in China is that feminism hasn't taken root there yet so it's a society where the women still respect and honor the men, but I digress...

The whole situation seems so hopeless at times, that I have caught myself wishing for a righteous dictator once or twice... But that may the intentions of the plutocracy... To make people wish for that, and then give us something else that caters to their own needs even more so that the system we have now.

I would like him to define success. And yes the private sector is doing fine, thanks for the reminder as I still have 20% less employees than pre 2009.

Yeah. Record profits, 27 straight months of employment growth, saving the auto industry, coming up with a small business friendly health plan. What an utter failure.

Sure it could have been better, if only the economic traitors for the GOP would have not been wrapped around his legs.

Obama is the impediment to our economic recovery.

His policies are NOT working. He was a mistake and the American people are waking up to that fact. He will be soundly defeated in November. The Summer Recovery was supposed to be last year.....and we're still waiting.

@Keith Best
Walker has been hiding out of state.

Kelly Steele ‏@steelekelly

No tweets from @GovWalker on brutal WI jobs #s. Figured he'd at least blame Obama or some foreign government. #wiunion

Didn't I read somewhere that she had married into money? In which case, she really didn't get there on her own.