Mitt Romney

Donald Danner, President and CEO for the National Federation of Independent Business, recently accused the government of making it more difficult to start a business. Danner said this right after Obama made a controversial comment in a campaign speech that he gave recently.

In his speech to small business owners, Obama highlighted the power of hard workers and government initiatives. In addition to that, Obama pointed to roads and the internet as government-made resources that are used by people who have become successful.

However, a single phrase in Obama’s speech sent the wrong message to Danner and that phrase was the following: “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.” Those were the words spoken by Obama that led Danner to give this response to CNBC: “I think it’s a slap in the face of every entrepreneur out there who had a dream and risked everything he or she had to build a business.”

In addition to that, Danner added, “Entrepreneurs are special people. Not everybody works 15 or 16 hours every day. Not everybody is willing to risk everything they have to see their dreams come true.” Danner also argued that entrepreneurs need to be encouraged and that less government is the solution.

“The president doesn’t understand that the government doesn’t create jobs – individuals do,” Danner added, stating also that the people who have struggled and take risks to build businesses are the ones who create jobs. Danner believes that Mitt Romney, who is running against Obama in the coming election, will make it easier for people to start businesses and get jobs.

“We fundamentally don’t believe raising the top rate on S-Corps and LLCs is going to help create jobs. It’s going to cause people in small businesses to not invest and lose jobs,” Danner said. Danner also stated that Obama supports raising the top rate whereas Romney is against it.

The one thing Danner did say was that, when you put the president’s comment in context, the point is legitimate. Danner agrees that it is harder to start a business in a country without a government that has invested in infrastructure, like roads and education, which was the original context behind Obama’s comment.

Source: MSNBC – Small business leader says Obama insults entrepreneurs