that quote is not the entirety of what the President said. i believe it’s the portion FOX news idiots used to take what he said out of context. Obama was talking about building the America we really upon to be able to build our businesses. he was talking about schools and universities we attended to learn so that we can be productive and build businesses.. he was talking about roads and highways we drive on every day, infrastructure and police and firefighters whose salaries we all pitch in to pay. so no. when i built my business i didn’t build the schools i attended that gave me the education i needed to build it nor the subway system, airports and highways i needed to do business related travel and that is what he was talking about. 

in fact in my opinion it is people like Romney and Trump, both of whom who have said they didn’t even get help from their fathers when they started their businesses. as one person put it, Romney likes to tell people he hit a triple when in fact he was born on third base. no help from their fathers? who raised them and gave them everything they needed and probably most everything they wanted? 

@imTHEmeowMIXcat - it is ignorant and it is deceitful politicking. ironically i watched Romney give a speech in the last hour. in his speech he said almost exactly the same things President Obama said, that we need to appreciate teachers, etc. and he was cheered for it by his crowd. still, i recall a speech he gave in which Romney said (i’m paraphrasing) “Obama wants to hire more police, more firefighters and more teachers. it’s time the government stops spending and starts doing something for Americans.” what does Romney think police, firefighters and teachers are, Chinese? 

and you’re welcome. thank you 

@justfinethanku - Obama’s message was and is we are one nation and this nation became great because people worked together, gave back when they were successful and we all pay our fair share. 

@firetyger - i agree with what you say but this is also what Obama said and has been saying all along. Obama has on many occasions praised business owners and successful people for innovation and hard work. he said it’s what makes America great, that America gives people the opportunities to succeed. you have to put this in the overall context, a battle between Obama and Romney, a man who said Obama wants to hire more police, firefighters and teachers rather than doing something for Americans. i don’t know where you live or what things are like there but everywhere i’ve lived police, firefighters and teachers are Americans and very patriotic Americans at that not to mention what they do for us every day. 

i worked for nearly 8 years at Lehman Brothers and i remember vividly when the firm began outsourcing because my wife (who also worked there) and i were asked to secretly put together the graphic proposals to outsource jobs to India. they wanted us to do the work because we were good but more because we were a married couple who between us covered the entire week. they also trusted us to keep the secret between us. when i said i wouldn’t do it i was told by the vice president of Lehman’s global computer graphics that the presentations were meant to show outsourcing would not make sense at which point i said ok. it turned out i had been duped. outsourcing happened in wave upon wave. i saw colleagues disappear, unannounced. our own department was gutted. those of us left and some whose jobs were outsourced had to train people from India before they lost their jobs to the people they trained. then this happened. an assistant vice president called us into a meeting to tell us how great the outsourcing program would be and he thanked my wife and i for working on the project. i was livid. i stormed into his office after the meeting and told him never to do that again. we were lied to about the intent and now we were heralded in front of our colleagues as part of the reason they were pissed off. 

how did outsourcing work out for Lehman Brothers? it turned into a money loser because over 80% of the work that India did had to be corrected or done over entirely but us but guess what. at the end of the first year of outsourcing the CEO got a $5 million dollar jump in his year end bonus based on the perception he’d saved the firm money by outsourcing. the top execs also got huge jumps in their bonuses for the same reason. in several years, for other reasons, Lehman Brothers became the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history. October 14th, 2008. it marked the official day of the economic collapse. 

i could go on about decent, honest, hardworking people vs. people who don’t work hard but get promoted in the corporate world for ass-kissing. it happens all the time. my point is that just because someone is a business lead and Dick Fuld, CEO of Lehman was one of the biggest does not mean they are job creators nor good for America. 

Obama has been trying to cut taxes and has some for small business owners but he’s been opposed at every turn by filibustering republicans. FOX and congressional republicans have been spreading the myth that healthcare reform will cost small businesses money when in fact many small business owners have come forward to say their employee healthcare costs have stopped rising by 16% a year, leveled out and in some cases the cost has dropped in the past year. 

Obama’s tax plan raises taxes for those making over $250,000/year but does not raise taxes on their first $250,000. another plan he proposed would have raised taxes on people making over a million a year not on their first million. at the same time it lowers taxes on the middle class. in fact right now under Obama we are collectively paying the lowest tax rates in over 30 years. i’m sick and tired of FOX and congressional republicans lying to the American people. 

and several years ago Frank Luntz, the guy who scripts republican talking points, told republicans in Congress if democrats are ever allowed to pass a healthcare reform bill it will be a disaster for republicans because democrats will be in power for a long time. thus all the propaganda about “pulling the plug on grandma” and raising taxes on small businesses. the individual mandate was originally a republican idea. it came out of the Heritage Foundation and it’s purpose was and is to keep people who can afford health insurance from freeloading. when someone goes to the emergency room for the flu or for being in an accident and they don’t have insurance the rest of us pay for their care and emergency room care is the most expensive cost in healthcare. but today the individual mandate (personal responsibility) is a dirty word among republicans. go back to Frank Luntz on that one. 

the internet was invented in a university and first used by the military. it was at the time called Telnet. a friend of mine, a covert operative who took the time to teach me how to use a computer showed me how to access Telnet. by that time it was no longer used by the military. it was or is if it still exists a DOS program. he and i sometimes communicated over Telnet just for fun. would Bill Gates be as wealthy as he is without the government subsidized invention of the internet? maybe. the thing is Bill Gates gives back to the community and the world and has said he is all for paying more in taxes. he realizes he is part of the world and the world and America has been good to him. Kudos to him. i have tremendous respect for him. and unlike republicans in Congress who have the best healthcare (single payer) in the U.S., who are paid by every day by Americans and who get great perks also paid for by us don’t want us to have the same, President Obama says again and again people like himself should pay a little more in taxes to help this country. i don’t see anything wrong with that.

Romney? his company, while he still led it, helped outsource jobs to China and other countries.

@mtngirlsouth - but thank you for making my point to this point. Obama is the Commander in Chief but without the Navy Seals, trained to the max, we would not have taken out Bin Laden. Obama has said the same many times and he gave the credit to the Navy Seals. it’s the same in business. i worked on special projects which Dick Fuld, CEO of Lehman Brothers signed off on. he could never have done the work i did. thank you 

@mtngirlsouth - and as for party lines….i’m registered as an independent 

@firetyger - here is the thing though. people who cannot afford healthcare insurance will not be penalized. they will be given the option to be helped by the government to get healthcare coverage. small businesses will be given tax credits for supplying healthcare insurance to employees. yes this is taxpayer money but it is far more expensive for taxpayers to pay for someone without healthcare who shows up in an emergency room. under healthcare reform insurance companies are required to cut their bureaucracy or face reimbursing customers for using more of their customer’s premium money than is necessary. private healthcare bureaucracy is more costly than medicare bureaucracy. part of the reason is private healthcare pays people to find reasons not to cover people who have paid premiums, re preexisting conditions. how is it that we pay 50% personally more for healthcare than any other advanced nation? 

i’m thinking any business owner who complains about rates not rising or in some cases lowering as opposed to rising 16% a year, anyone who complains about getting coverage even with a “preexisting condition” and able to get insured would have to be fiscally nuts 

i’ve been in emergency rooms 3 times. all 3 times doctors later told me they were surprised i lived. two of those times they brought out “the cart”. i had health insurance all 3 times. would you rather i didn’t have health insurance and you would have paid for bringing me back to life? i can tell you it was expensive. if your answer is you would have let me die you’re not on the same page with doctors and nurses who take an oath to do whatever they can to heal.

@mtngirlsouth - i think logically but you sure are good for taking up FOX talking points

@mtngirlsouth - and i wouldn’t mind your lack of logic and reasoning except you’re fucking with peoples’ lives based on your narrow minded opinion

@firetyger - ok my healthcare bills for emergency room care would have been in the hundred of thousands. that’s not something most people would be able to pay off in a lifetime. i was brought back from the brink of death. as for car insurance i believe it too is necessary. what if i am in an accident caused by me because i was texting or talking on my cell and the other guy or girl is turned into a parapalegic or killed? this happens. it’s why i don’t take my cell out while i’m driving. it’s why i don’t tailgate but where i live now i see all kinds of idiots who do. i have more respect apparently for life than many Americans who think it’s more important to get where they’re going a minute or two sooner than they have for a child who might run out into the street. libertarians….not government speed limits. no government stop signs. oh…does a libertarian want those things? not truly libertarian are they? 

the healthcare reform bill is not perfect but neither were many bills that passed through Congress. it’s something to build on though as we’ve done with other bills. it does bring costs down though. many small business owners have said so. they’ve said their bills were going up 16% a year. this year they didn’t see a raise and some say their bills went down a bit. how is that bad?  

do you want to have a car accident without insurance? good luck spending the rest of your life paying for whatever happened out of pocket. good luck to the person, maybe you, trying to get reimbursed for damages 

and oh the complaints from conservatives who would have to pay for my emergency room instances and my automobile accidents if i had any. no you can’t say you don’t want to carry insurance and expect others to pay if you complain you have to pay for the insurance of others  

@firetyger - as i believe i pointed out earlier, the individual mandate is a conservative idea. it came out of The Heritage Foundation during the Clinton years in opposition to the plan proposed by Hilary. it was implemented in Massachusetts under then Governor Romney who called it a mandate for people to take personal responsibility. it’s funny how the individual mandate idea became evil in the eyes of conservatives after Obama said, okay let’s go with your idea. 

@firetyger - i have to go but quickly, the government does not own GM. it rescued the American auto industry with a loan which has been paid back. GM is back on top, run as a private company and is making better cars than ever. i’ve read from the CBO the reform bill will bring down the deficit by $1 trillion in 10 years. i’ve heard many small business owners say their employee insurance costs have not only stopped going up by 16% a year as they were but have leveled out and some have seen reduction in coverage costs. 

thanks for chatting. i have to run