American Elephants

President Obama famously said, on video, in his own voice, with his own lips moving in producing those words that:”if you’ve got a business — somebody else made that happen.” Democrats are anxiously lining up to assert that he didn’t say that.” “He was talking about infrastructure,” but  he did say it, and he meant just what he said.

Paul Ryan, Chairman of the powerful House Budget Committee, commented on Facebook:

The President recently suggested that a central government – not individuals – deserves the credit for building successful businesses. This sentiment makes for terrible economics, but also reveals a confused morality. In a free community, everyone co-operates by voluntarily offering unique gifts: some invent, some invest, others labor, or sell while customers reward the best producers and providers by buying their products and services. Government has a critical role to play in this process: establishing rules that enable open competition and securing peace and order with courts, defense forces, first responders, teachers, infrastructure, and a safety net for the most vulnerable. Government helps create the space for innovation and prosperity, but government does not fill that space – and it should not try to, as the last few years have shown us. Only free citizens create things that improve our lives. A free economy and strong communities are the best means to reward effort with justice, to promote upward mobility, and to build solidarity among citizens. The President’s vision of a government-centered society – reflected in both his troubling rhetoric and his failed policies – belittles fair rewards for labor and enterprise. To renew prosperity and rebuild our communities, we must recommit to the American Idea of freedom and justice for all.

That’s pretty good. I know that Democrats are inclined to believe that everything is better done by government, because ordinary people are so stupid and incompetent, but there is no evidence that government does things better, only that in better times government has deeper pockets. There really isn’t anything that they do well, there are just some things that only a government can do—however badly.

The federal government did not build the Golden Gate Bridge as the president claimed, they fought it tooth and nail. Henry Ford didn’t get highways built for him. He used the same roads that buggies and wagons had been using for years and he built the Model T to cope with bad roads.  Only free citizens create things that improve our lives.