OK, he didn’t say that in so many words. But at a town hall meeting today, Mitt Romney bought into exactly the argument that Elizabeth Warren and, more recently, President Obama have been making – namely, that nobody in America builds a business in a vacuum, and that many of the conditions required for building a successful business (good roads, good schools, fire and police forces, etc.) are paid for by taxes. Which would seem to undercut the attacks that both Romney himself and all of his surrogates have been trying to level at Obama for the last couple of days.
Don’t believe me? I didn’t believe it either, until I watched it for myself. So here you go.
In an unrelated story, Huffington Post is claiming that “several current and former Bain executives” told them that Romney wouldn’t have run for president if he thought it meant releasing his tax returns, and that his personal preference, should doing so become politically necessary, might be to drop out. Hard to know how much stock to put in the story, but still, it’s remarkable.
danfromwaltham says
Isn’t what Mitt saying is sure, govt. provides the basics, but as inividuals, we choose our own paths in this country and not to be dismissive of the things Steve Jobs Or Henry Ford accomplished. Obama said “you didn’t build that business” which was a naive thing to say.
David says
What Obama said was along the lines of “you didn’t build the road.” Dave Weigel – no liberal – takes care of it pretty cleanly.
mike_cote says
Paragraph 4 of the speech.
SomervilleTom says
I know most folks know this, but some may not — the meme originated with Hillary Clinton, in 2006.
She was talking, accurately, about children. The concept is the same.
Sooner or later, Mitt Romney will either release his tax returns or withdraw from the race. The more he stonewalls, the more questions will arise. Nobody says he did anything illegal — that’s the point.
The point is that the tax system is already heavily biased to help wealthy individuals like Mitt Romney plunder even more wealth — the proposals of Mr. Romney and the GOP will accelerate that wealth concentration (as if he and his ilk haven’t already killed the economic prospects of the 99%).
danfromwaltham says
Also, CBS/NYT poll has Mitt 47%, Barack 46%. I told you it would not work.
Hillary looks young in that book, was it 96 or 2006?
SomervilleTom says
As Christopher observes below, the book now available is the “10th anniversary edition”.
Christopher says
You’ll notice the cover pictured says 10th anniversary edition. The phrase hardly originated with HRC, however; it’s an old African proverb.
As for polls, national polls are meaningless because of the EC, and I’ll be happy to say that when the President leads too. I much prefer EV scores.