PolitiFact took on Mitt Romney’s constant claim that President Obama is anti-business. Romney’s attack on the President stems from a statement Mr. Obama made a few weeks ago, where he said – among other things -” If you have a business, you didn’t build that.”
PolitiFact – a fact checking organization that analyze political statements of both Democrats and Republicans – checked Romney’s attack and found Romney is, once again, lying.
From PolitiFact : Romney cherry-picked a quote that made it sound like Obama was dismissive of businesses when in fact he was making a point that success comes from the combination of “individual initiative” and the fact that “we do things together.”
The biggest problem is that the Romney campaign has left out the lead-up to the statement — that “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.”
These words indicate that Obama was referring to infrastructure and educational opportunities that were paid for by taxpayers through the government — things that established a necessary foundation for making private businesses successful.
We think his meaning is clear — that both business people and government play a role in the American enterprise system, not purely one or the other.
Our ruling
In speeches and videos, the Romney campaign has repeatedly distorted Obama’s words. By plucking two sentences out of context, Romney twists the president’s remarks and ignores their real meaning.
