Obama Says, “If you’ve got a business you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” Are You Kidding Me?
He’s Saying This To Justify Taxing Businesses At The Highest Rate In The World And Now Wants To Tax Them Even More To “Spread The Wealth”!
First, here’s the quote from Obama. Just click on the image to see it larger…
Over the past 30 years I’ve built 3 businesses and the government didn’t help me once! If anything, they passed legislation that made it harder, not easier. Seriously. And they passed legislation that increased my costs. Just look at the tax codes.
In the early years I handled my own taxes, but as the government continued to change the tax laws it finally got to a point where I had to hire a CPA to handle my taxes. I pay him about $5,000 a year, a cost I didn’t use to have.
Then there’s employment taxes like social security at 7.5% of their wages I have to pay for each employee which has steadily increased over the years.
And let’s not forget about the federal taxes I have to pay which are the highest in the world. It’s no wonder businesses hire people from India and other countries, or move their business to Canada or Mexico like GM did after getting the government bailout. For many it’s what they have to do for survival of America’s high cost to own a business.
If Democrats do anything for businesses, they make it really hard and very expensive to have a business.
In fact, I would’ve done a 4th brick & mortar company but decided I was done making peanuts for the hours I was putting in and the amount of money it costs to just start the business and get it up and running. It’s just not as profitable as it use to be so I’ll just stay retired and hope I have enough money to survive retirement.
Of course, to be completely transparent here, I have a few internet businesses that make me additional money so I’m actually in a pretty good spot and don’t need to start another local business.
Anyway, moving on.
If all of this isn’t enough, you’ve got Democrats thinking us business owners are getting rich while only paying their employees minimum wage. Seriously?
I’ve had a number of back and forth discussions with Democrats on this very topic on forums and article comments. My response is, “Go start your own business and see what it entails. Take your life savings and invest everything you’ve got into a business, and then when you make any money the government has their hand out for a huge portion of it, and just wait until you hire employees and all of the costs associated to that.”
It’s amazing how they don’t want to start their own business, but are quick to put their hand out and take a chunk of the money the business makes in the way of Entitlement programs, and then demand that the government tax businesses even more so they can get more freebies, or demand a higher minimum wage.
I could show ANYONE how to make $60,000 per year in their own business, and in fact have shown quite a few people how to do this. However, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about today’s society is too many people are LAZY and aren’t willing to do the work. That’s right, you have to put in the work … the effort and the time … to build the business. But, I’m getting off on a tangent.
The Government Completely Blew Off A Highly Qualified Person Starting A New Business Even Though He Has Over 25 Years Of Experience Including Having Helped Two Other Businesses Like His Become Leading Players In The Market!
I’ve got a close friend in his 50’s getting ready to start a new business this summer. He’s got over 25 years of experience with the business he’s building and has in fact already built two other businesses just like this, but for someone else. He was the strategist behind the other two businesses helped the owners of those businesses become one of the top three businesses in their market place. This guy knows what he’s doing!
Now he’s building a third business but this time it’s his business. He’s the owner.
I have no doubt that he will become the #1 player in his market place and will own the industry. With what he’s shared with me, I’m totally blown away. He’s coming out with a far better product than any of the other products available and is then pricing it at less than 80% of the other products on the market … he’s got price and product!
It’s truly an amazing product and marketing plan to own the industry.
Anyway, he was telling me that after investing over $1,000,000 of his own money he ran out of money so he went to the government and asked them for help. At the time his credit rating was almost 800 (excellent credit) and he had no debt.
The government absolutely would NOT help him! The SBA had incredible requirements and since he had no revenue coming in yet, they wouldn’t help him. If they did anything, they gave him the run around. I guess that made them feel good to think they were doing something.
He contacted his state Senator and Governor. They referred him back to the SBA, and even suggested Angle Investors. Seriously, Angle Investors?
Angle Investors were not an option because he didn’t want to give up any ownership of the company. You see, he doesn’t need any help with the company, he just needed some more money.
He spent 2 months putting everything together the SBA wanted to be told NO they wouldn’t help. I’m telling you, the SBA is a total joke for a start-up company!
Since the government would NOT help him he had to turn to another person for the money which cost him 30% of the company, the very thing he wasn’t interested in doing. So right out of the gate before making a dime he’s already going to make 30% less money now. That’s 30% less money to pay wages and provide his employees with a higher income.
So when Obama says, “If you’ve got a business you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” Who made that happen?
In the market place my friend is going into there are numerous competitors in it, but very few have ever even come close to the level of success the other two company’s he helped build achieved because they didn’t have the know-how to run their business, how to create a product the market was demanding or how to market their business. My friend knows all of this, and more.
WHO Is This “Somebody Else”?
So who exactly is this somebody else that made it happen?
My friend will be training all of the staff in this specialty business so it’s not like the employees will be coming to the table with the experience needed for this business, and we know the government is no help and even refused to help. So who is this “someone else?” I’d really like to know.
So many times I think Obama speaks out of his ass saying things that “sound good” to those who are listening but hold no substance or truth behind what he says.
Let’s just say my friend builds a multi-million dollar company that pulls a nice profit. Why shouldn’t he get paid really well? Did the employees risk their life savings for the business? Did the employees put in 120 hours a week for a few years and make $0 income during the creation of the product and company before a single cent was made?
No!
The owner takes ALL the risk, puts in unbelievable hours and is the primary investor into the business so why shouldn’t the owner benefit in a big way IF the business is successful?
In my businesses it was me who drove those businesses, along with working 100-120 hours a week and investing huge sums of money into the business to just build it and get through the first few years.
Did you know that the average new business doesn’t even make a profit in the first 2-3 years, and that 80% of new businesses will fail within 5 years?
It’s true.
For many new businesses employees make more money than the owner for the few first years. Owners accept this because they know they’re trying to build a business that they believe will provide them with a decent income in the later years. As a business owner we just accept this as being what it is as part of the price we pay to building a business.
It doesn’t mean we like it. We just simply accept it.
Of course, this all depends on the type of business you create. Some businesses have a huge upfront cost while some don’t. Some are much more difficult to get the name out due to heavy competition, and others may have a smaller potential customer base. There are a lot of dynamics to consider and every business is different.
This is why you really can’t categorize all businesses into one single group on these discussions. For example, my friend expects to make a profit in the first year where a lot of businesses don’t.
And just so you know, the #1 reason businesses fail is because of lack of cash flow. That’s right … they weren’t able to make enough money to cover all of their expenses. What’s ironic is the two highest expenses a business has is payroll and taxes!
There are so many ignorant people out there who have no idea, no concept of what a business owner goes through to even build a successful business.
Instead you have people say, “Yes, tax them even more,” or “take from the rich and give to the poor,” and the likes. It’s simply infuriating to hear this bullshit.
Excuse the french. It’s just that it’s us business owners who invest our life savings and take the biggest risk of our lives to start a business to hopefully provide many others with a job to make money, so why is it wrong that IF we are one of the businesses that actually make it and we pay ourselves a nice income? Especially when you consider the risk we took, the long hours we put into the business and the money we invested into the business.
EVERYONE has the same opportunity to start their own business. There are a lot of business a person could start with very little upfront outlay, if a person really wants to get into their own business.
But do NOT think for a second that the government’s going to help you because they’re NOT!
I’ll tell you what. You take your life savings and go buy a house. For many American, home ownership is a very exciting accomplishment. So you go buy a house, and then when you pay it off (or sell it) be required to give HALF of what the house is worth (or what you sell it for) to the government to give to others less fortunate than you who aren’t able to buy a house and tell me how you feel.
Don’t tell me you wouldn’t fight tooth and nail to stop this! This is in essence what’s happening to businesses.
Here’s the FEDERAL Corporate Tax Rate …
| Taxable Income ($) | Tax Rate |
|---|---|
| 0 to 50,000 | 15% |
| 50,000 to 75,000 | $7,500 + 25% Of the amount over 50,000 |
| 75,000 to 100,000 | $13,750 + 34% Of the amount over 75,000 |
| 100,000 to 335,000 | $22,250 + 39% Of the amount over 100,000 |
| 335,000 to 10,000,000 | $113,900 + 34% Of the amount over 335,000 |
| 10,000,000 to 15,000,000 | $3,400,000 + 35% Of the amount over 10,000,000 |
| 15,000,000 to 18,333,333 | $5,150,000 + 38% Of the amount over 15,000,000 |
| 18,333,333 and up | 35% |
Take a good look at it. Did you notice how a business that only makes $100,000 to $335,000 have to pay the HIGHEST tax %? This is what small businesses have to put up with, thanks to our lovely government!
You tell me how this is fair?
This group pays a higher % of taxes than a major corporation making over $15 million a year, or even the next tier of $335k to $10 million at only 34%. And you want small business to be taxed more, or for minimum wages to be increased which for many will put them out of business. Already American businesses have the highest corporate tax in the world.
Then, ON TOP of this, the owner has to pay taxes on the income he takes from the business. So a business owner pays up to 39% on the profits of his business, and then he pays another up to 39.6% (15% – 28% is the average for small business owners) on his personal income . And this is just FEDERAL and doesn’t even take into consider what he has to pay in taxes to the STATE he lives in.
And don’t forget the taxes he pays based upon the income he pays each of his employees.
Sheesh! That’s a whole lot of taxes!
To really bring my point about taxes home, check out what the corporate tax is in other countries. Here’s what a few countries close to us charge:
- Mexico: 30% highest
- Canada: 11%-15% (federal) + 0%-16% (provincial)
I am so sick and tired of hearing democrats get all excited about campaign promises to tax small businesses even more or to hear how minimum wage needs to be increased for the reasons I’ve shared. What they should be doing is HELPING small businesses. They should be looking at ways to make it easier to own a business and even provide tax breaks for the first couple of years which are the toughest years of any new business.
What they need to do is sit down with a panel of small businesses with less than 5 years of being in business to discuss those tough 5 years and then brainstorm ways to support the growth of new businesses. How can you fix a problem you don’t even understand? And believe me, politicians have NO CLUE!
By the way, back to my friend for a moment, he’s projected his business to hit 158 employees within 5 years. When he and I talk one of the top conversations we have is about his employees and everything he wants to do for them. He knows he has no choice but to pay them minimum wage in the first couple of years because of the tremendous cost of “building the business” and promoting the product to the market place.
His desire is once the company stabilizes he wants to massively increase his employees pay and provide them with one of the best working environments in his city. He wants his employees paid well and to really love working there. My friend really cares about his employees.
One of the things he’s planning to do is take a percentage of the company profits and paying it out as a “bonus” to his employees in the first couple of years when their pay will be lower due to the cost of building the business. Because he knows profits will go up and down monthly he doesn’t want to pay employees to high of a salary in the early years that would put him in a bad situation during the months when sales are down and he’s having to cover the business expenses from his own pocket book. The bonus strategy compensates for this.
This is very normal with most business owners that I talk to … they really care about their employees and have a desire to pay them well.
If you think you should get more entitlement money and benefits or a higher minimum wage then start your own business. Nobody is stopping you, and then you can experience what other small business owners experience. After 2 or 3 years of owning your own business it’ll be you writing this article.
Let’s also be realistic … some jobs like entry level jobs and fast food restaurant jobs are just simply minimum wage jobs. Jobs that don’t require any special skills and are basically a job just about anyone could do don’t pay high wages. You and I and the rest of America knows this so accept it.
If you want to make yourself more desirable then go to college and get a degree in a specialized field.
One of my kids got a 2 year vo-tech degree in HVAC. After 5 years in the field he’s now making over $60,000 per year.
However, he didn’t start at this income. He started out as a journeyman at close to a minimum wage and with hard work — yes, hard work — and continuing to learn the business by taking more industry specific classes he grew into the $60,000 per year income group.
There are others that graduated from the same class he did that are only make $20,000 to $30,000 per year because they’re lazy and don’t work nearly as hard as my son does, and they don’t want to invest into themselves by continuing to take additional classes to improve themselves and make themselves more valuable to their employer.
It’s a choice! If you’re not willing to put in the effort, work hard and continue to increase your skills you have nobody to blame but YOURSELF for not making more money.
Unfortunately, today’s young adults should be named the “entitlement” group because so many young workers (20’s to 30’s) don’t want to put in the effort and hard work to make more money. Instead they just expect it. They expect to get a high wage when they haven’t even earned it.
I’m telling you, it does NOT work that way!
This is also why I like hiring people 40 and above … they have “work ethic”, something so many of our younger workers don’t have. If I’m going to pay a starting wage of $2000/mo do I want to pay it to a person who’ll give a solid 40 hours of work a week or a person who’s constantly taking breaks and spends half his time socializing with other workers in the company and not doing their job?
If you were paying the salaries out of your pocket, who would you want working for you?
Do You Want To Be Dependent On Others And Controlled By Them or Independent and FREE To Live Your Life On Your Terms?
Here’s our biggest problem. You have politicians who are supporting people to be lazy and not improve themselves, and saying they should get the same pay as people who work hard and further improve their skills with more schooling. They’re called Democrats and they are building a lazy society of people who believe they’re entitled to the same income as those who have actually earned their pay from hard work and from going to higher education schools.
In my opinion, we seriously need a welfare overhaul! We should not be making it easy for people to be lazy and get something for nothing. We should not be punishing those who take the risk of investing their life savings into a business to create a business.
It’s not that businesses shouldn’t be paying their fair share of taxes because they should. I’ve never had a problem with paying taxes. What I’ve had a problem with is paying excess taxes just so democrats can give it to people who are lazy and are looking for a free ride in life off of the sweat and hard work of others.
Just so you know, I have two kids on Social Security and one of them also get Social Security Disability. I’m up to speed on welfare and entitlement programs. By July of this year one of the kids should be off of Social Security.
You see, I’m a firm believer of “Giving A Hand Up”, and despise “Hand Outs”. This is also what I’ve taught my children. People have periods of times in their life when something happens and they, for a short period, need some help to get back on their feet. These are the people I want to help, and I’ve helped a lot of them.
And then there are those who just want a free ride, who don’t want to work and who just want to run and play all day with no responsibilities. These people, in my opinion, need to be given an incentive to become independent. In the same way I will not “enable” my own kids, the government needs to stop enabling American citizens.
My child who will be coming off Social Security this July is so proud of herself, and I am very proud of her! I could’ve given her a free ride with the money I have in the bank, but I didn’t. I taught her to be independent and to look for solutions, and there’s always a solution!
Government alone is creating a lazy nation, a nation of dependent citizens who are believing they’re entitled to something for nothing.
In my opinion, what government should be doing is looking at how they can help people get back on their feet, Why should anyone try to become independent when they get free money, free food, free cell phones and free housing.
Instead, help American’s get their dignity back and it all starts by changing the “beliefs” of American’s that each person is worthy and capable of creating greatness, their greatness. Given the choice, most people would rather be self-sufficient and independent.
The Governor of Maine did something very cool … he requires people on food stamps to work just 6 hours a week. He says … “People who are in need deserve a hand up, but we should not be giving able-bodied individuals a handout,’’ LePage said in a statement. “We must continue to do all that we can to eliminate generational poverty and get people back to work. We must protect our limited resources for those who are truly in need and who are doing all they can to be self-sufficient.”
This affected 12,000 people. However, there are also those who just want something for nothing. In the end, only 2,500 decided they’d be willing to put in a few hours of volunteer work per week. I find this very interesting. You can see just how lazy people are with 9,500 people not willing to put in some work to get food stamps. Wow.
In my opinion, the worst thing that ever happened to America is far left Democrats. They’re stealing our dignity, or independence and our desires & rights to be independent. Democrats are all about bigger government, less freedoms and less opportunities to create & build a business.
Democrats are about power (government power) and less freedoms and opportunities for citizens. And the way they’re getting away with it is by using the most powerful work in marketing … FREE! Free money, free food, free housing, etc. It’s a system of “control” and you’re paying for these freebies with your freedom, which you’re losing!
But what American’s do not understand is these freebies cannot be sustained. Something has to give. For the first time in America there have been more business closures than new business startups.
Then on top of this we have more people on entitlement programs — and growing — then ever before. It’s said over 50% of American’s are on some sort of entitlement program.
Middle class has all but been wiped out. Now there are the poor and the rich.
Government, and primarily Democrats, have been stealing the American dream from us and making American’s dependent upon others, namely on the government. What will you do when entitlements STOP when America goes broke and doesn’t have the money any longer to provide entitlements. At $18 Trillion dollars of debt for America it’s going to happen sooner than you think.
Something has to give!
The Democrats goal is American’s won’t get smart and wake up before it’s too late. A point will come when there will be no turning back, and when that happens and the damage has been done to America turning it into a socialist society, entitlements will end except for those who “work for the governement” who will own all of the businesses, and those who aren’t working won’t get anything. Poverty will be rampage.
And then our government will go from a Democracy to Dictatorship. We won’t have any more elections for our Dictator since it’ll just stay in the family. They’ll be our “Royalty”.
This is the evolution of the Democrats approach to government, although they’d never admit it. Just use some common sense here. With Democrats it’s about big government and less freedoms for the citizens. Just go look at the definition of what a Democrat is and what they believe.
This is why the Constitution was written the way it was, and the very reason why far left Democrats like Obama (and Hillary Clinton) are going against the constitution and trying to change the very fabric of what America is all about.
Democrats want “power” and “control”. But they knew they couldn’t just openly say that. So instead they knew they had to make American’s dependent upon the government and what a better way than to allow you to get something for nothing. Have you ever noticed how entitlements go up during the years when a Democrat is president?
It’s about power. It’s about control. But the only way they could make this happen is by changing our beliefs, using cliche’s like “the rich keep getting richer so we need to spread the wealth” to invoke your emotions.
Free Enterprise was important to our founding fathers. Not having big government was important to our founding fathers. We are being destroyed from within through manipulation, lies and deceit.
I know you’re having a hard time believing me if you’re one of those people on the receiving end of governrment entitlements. I just hope you wake up and realize what’s going on before it’s too late.
Each of us has the ability to create greatness in our lives no matter what the obstacles are in front of us, and we all have the ability to be independent and FREE. It’s time we took our lives back and made America GREAT once again.
Okay, for this article, I’m done. I hope you’ve had a chance, if only for a moment, to stand in the shoes of a small business owner and get a small taste of what they have to endure to try and make a buck.
Have some thoughts about all of this?
Share them in the comments below.