Altoona (WQOW) - President Obama will most likely never see the birthday gift Republicans showed off on Saturday in Altoona, but that wasn't the point. The GOP was hoping to make a statement.
Saturday was the president's birthday. He turned 51. At a GOP gathering in Altoona, Republicans displayed a gift for him as they criticized his lack of business experience. They bought the game Jenga, which is a box of wooden blocks. "Mr. President, we know it's not a small business, but you've gotta start somewhere," said Ben Sparks, the Wisconsin communications director for the Romney for President campaign.
Sparks was referring to the speech the president gave last month in Virginia, one that has become a focal point of the race for the White House. In that speech, President Obama said the following, "If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together."
Critics have called the "you didn't build that" line an insult to small businesses. President Obama says his words were taken out of context. "We realize we have some shared services together, but not understanding that yes, we did build this... It was sacrifice, it was risk, it was long hours. He's never been in a business before, never started a business, he doesn't understand how regulations and taxation can negatively impact what your basic business is, which is trying to sell a good or service," said Ryan Steinmetz, the owner of Steel-toe-shoes.com, based in Eau Claire.
"What I like about Governor Romney is he's been in business, he's built a business, started from scratch. He knows what that's all about. He understands the crushing impact of taxes and regulations have on business, the extra cost, extra burden it puts on people like us to make the basic part of our business work... selling products, selling goods, selling services and the negative impact of higher taxes and regulations on our business," said Steinmetz.
Taxes are at the heart of the debate right now in Washington. The GOP-led House of Representatives voted to renew the President Bush-era tax cuts for everyone. President Obama supports preserving the tax cuts for the middle class, but also wants the wealthy to pay more. "On Wednesday, they voted to hold these middle class tax cuts hostage, unless we also spend a trillion dollars over the next decade on tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans. What we should do right now is give middle class families and small business owners a guarantee that their taxes will not go up next year. When families have the security of knowing their taxes won't go up, they are most likely to spend and more likely to grow the economy," said President Obama.
The tax cuts expire at the end of the year.
