Toledo
Blade...
Area
business owners bash Obama’s remarks
Event 1 of
24 set up by Romney camp in swing states
By Tom Troy
Citing
vision and hard work by themselves or other family members, several
small-business owners joined the Republican effort Wednesday to condemn
President Obama’s campaign remarks that they say suggest entrepreneurs
didn’t
build their own businesses.
The
anti-Obama, push-back event in Holland was sponsored by the Mitt Romney
campaign and was one of 24 “We Did Build This” events staged by the
Romney
campaign in election swing states.
“To say I
didn’t build this, I take as a personal insult,” said John Eldred,
president of
Midwest Tape, a wholesaler of DVDs and CDs based in Springfield
Township.
Democrats
argued the Obama Administration has provided tax credits and loans to
help
small businesses prosper and has backed legislation to “level the
playing field
between Wall Street and Main Street.”
Mr. Eldred
said he went “from bank to bank to bank” to get a $25,000 loan and
cashed in a
401K to start the precursor business renting videos in 1983. He said he
worked
every day but Christmas and now has 360 employees.
“I built
this. They built this. Obama didn’t build it. I don’t think the man has
any
idea what it is to run a business,” Mr. Eldred said.
Mr. Eldred
acknowledged he does almost all his business with public libraries, but
said
they are not “a government agency.” In Ohio, libraries are funded by
state
funds and locally voted tax levies.
Also speaking
were Anna Mills, president of the Toledo Real Estate Investors
Association;
Mike McAlear, chief executive officer of the Service Spring Corp. in
Millbury
and Monclova Township; Richard Hylant, executive vice president of
Hylant Group
insurance company, Toledo; Ed Nagle, president and chief executive
officer of
the Nagle Cos. trucking business, and Michael Birmingham, president of
Birmingham Limousine Service.
Business
owners claimed they and the economy would be better off with less
government
involvement, not more. They said the economy has not rebounded under
President
Obama.
“I’m the
one that took the risk. I’m the one that works 16 to 20 hours still
today, even
though I’m retirement age,” Ms. Mills said. “Without all these
regulations,
without all these taxes, small businesses -- I -- could hire more.”
President
Obama said during a campaign speech in Virginia on July 13 that
business owners
owe other people for their success.
“Somebody
helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that
allowed
you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges,” Mr. Obama said.
“If
you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that
happen.”
The Romney
campaign has seized on the President’s words as evidence he favors big
government
over capitalism, while Democrats claim his comments have been taken out
of
context.
Image:
Youth Institute on Race and Ethnicity
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