By Tito Munoz
As a business owner, I was stunned to hear President Obama’s recent comments about people like me. Speaking here in Virginia, he said:
“If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there…If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
I couldn’t disagree more with the President’s remarks. And I know a thing or two about building—I work in the construction business, after all. I’ve been able to succeed the American way: through hard work, perseverance, and a lot of personal sacrifice and financial risk. Personally I found his remarks to be disrespectful and insulting.
Instead of proposing economic policies that empower entrepreneurs to start businesses like my own, President Obama has prioritized rewarding his campaign bundlers and political allies at the expense of taxpayers. With this administration, it’s not about what you can build, but who you know. From now-bankrupt Solyndra to Fisker and its empty factory, it’s clear that government giveaways are not part of a prescription for creating jobs and turning around this economy.
Indeed, President Obama’s neglect has resulted in painful realities for people across the country. Here in the Hispanic community, for example, we’re bearing the burden disproportionately, with unemployment at a staggering 11 percent. In Virginia’s construction industry alone, we’ve lost 26,500 jobs since this President took office. That’s not the change President Obama promised. And after three and a half years of his failed presidency, it’s time for a new direction.
Tito Munoz is the Owner of Deborn Construction, a small business located in Dale City, Va.
