Responses to Obama's "You didn't build that!"

This is an addendum to my last post, "We have met the enemy and he is us." In today's Wall Street Journal  (July 23, 2012) many readers wrote to disagree with President Obama's take on success where he stated in a speech in Richmond, VA, "You didn't build that."

If you don't get the WSJ, you're missing out on the best newspaper in America, so I wanted to share the most stinging letters with you here: 

I want to thank you and your ilk, Mr. President, for my success in starting eight million-dollar businesses since 1974. And since you are responsible for my success, then you must also be responsible for my failure. While you were wasting your first two years ignoring the economy, I was unable to get financing for my last business and lost $1.5 million of which $750,000 was personally guaranteed by me, and by you, I hope.
Please give me a call, Mr. President, and I will tell you where to send the check for your fair share.
Dick Raddatz
Mequon, Wis.

The president's remarks clearly illustrate his jealousy and disdain for those who have made it on their own, and, they fall right in line with his mentality of parasitic entitlement.
Bob Franklin
New Hyde Park N.Y.

If Obama can cry, "you didn't build that," someone needs to tell the president, "then you didn't kill bin Laden."

Maura Schreier-Fleming
Dallas

If you hold an elected office, you didn't build that. Someone helped you get there. Maybe it was a teachers union whose compulsory dues paid for a negative ad for your campaign. Maybe it was a venture capitalist with an interest in a solar-energy company who bundled funds for you. Or maybe it was programmers who figured out how to use the Internet to create critical mass for raising small amounts from many donors. Or, quite possibly, you got help from employees of a private-equity firm whose success you vilify but whose dollars you gladly accept.
Mike Walsh
Chicago

President Obama's belittling the success of smart, hard-working people is so telling. It President Obama's belittling the success of smart, hard-working people is so telling. It makes one wonder about how much "help" he received in achieving his own success through affirmative action and preferences. We'll never know, however, because he refuses to release his college or graduate-school records.   

Crawford C. Campbell                                                                                             Windham, NH      

                                                         

If I didn't build my business, please find the "somebody else who made that happen" and begin taxing them.

Tom Marini

Racine, Wis.

Regarding your editorial "'You Didn't Build That'" (July 18): I would like to pose a question to President Obama. If we assume that you are right, Mr. President, and the lion's share of my success in business is due to the help I got from the government more than what is due me because of my willingness to work harder than others, take risks that others did not want to take, being more resourceful and inventive than others were, then how come not everybody took advantage of that government help and became successful entrepreneurs? 

I came to this country 30 years ago with practically nothing. I always believed that the difference between the U.S. and other countries is that everybody has better opportunities in this country than anywhere else. I am sorry to learn that you, my president, don't share that point of view.

Ruben Mirensky
Jacksonville, Fla.