Earlier this week, I
gave Mitt Romney “two cheers” for going to the NAACP convention
and delivering a speech lauding free enterprise. What the speech
was missing was a strong condemnation of the monstrously
wrong-headed set of policies espoused by Barack Obama — and
cheered by the NAACP and most others on the left.
Now it is time to give Romney that third cheer. His speech in
Irwin, Pennsylvania, was stunning. Speaking without a teleprompter,
and glancing down only occasionally at his notes or text, Romney
socked it to the president as someone who wanted to “crush economic
liberty” and “make Americans feel ashamed of success.”
Obama laid himself open to this devastating onslaught with his
remarks in Roanoke, Virginia, a few days earlier, saying that
nobody built his own business… because, as he suggested, no one
could do it without the helping hand of government in building
roads, bridges, and the like.
Here are a few passages from Romney’s thunderous rejoinder:
Romney: The idea to say that Steve Jobs didn’t build Apple, that
Henry Ford didn’t build Ford Motor, that Papa John didn’t build
Papa John Pizza, that Bill Gates didn’t build Microsoft? You go
down the list. To say something like that is not just foolishness,
it’s insulting to every entrepreneur, every innovator in America .
. .
Audience: (wild applause)
Romney: and it’s wrong!
Romney: I don’t think anyone could have said what he said who
had actually started a business or been in a business. And my own
view is that what the president said is both startling and
revealing. I find it extraordinary that a philosophy of that nature
would be spoken by a president of the United States. It goes to
something I have said from the beginning of this campaign, that
this election is to a great extent about the soul of America. Do we
believe America is great because of government, or do we believe in
an America that is great because of free people allowed to pursue
their dreams and their future?
Audience: (thunderous applause)
Romney went from there to talking about how Obama had stood the
American dream of building a better future for one’s self and one’s
family on its head:
I’m convinced he wants Americans to be ashamed of success. I
want Americans to welcome success and encourage people to reach as
high as they can — and, in some cases, to build enterprises. I
don’t want government to take credit for what the individuals of
America have accomplished. Whether they work in government or the
private sector, it’s the people of America who make America the
unique nation, the exceptional nation that it is …
Romney proceeded to outline a five-point plan for restoring
American exceptionalism. This includes:
1) Pressing ahead with development of oil, gas, and coal
reserves here in the United States. Romney recounted how the Obama
administration wanted no fracking, no off-shore drilling, and no
coal. Said Romney: “These things cost jobs and they’ve got to
stop.”
2) Expanding trade with other nations. Here he pointed out that
European, Asian, and Latin American nations had concluded dozens of
free trade agreements over the past three and a half years. The
score under Obama’s presidency: Zero.
3) Moving toward a balanced budget. He pointed out that the
enormous debt burden used to finance runaway government spending
under Obama had been a major factor in slowing economic
growth.
4) Expanding choice in our schools. He pointedly observed: “Kids
first, and unions behind them.”
5) Restoring economic freedom in a major way. Said Romney: “Our
economy is driven by people pursuing their ideas and dreams. It’s
not driven by government. And what the president is doing is
crushing economic freedom.”
And those were not the only highlights. Romney also noted how
the Obama administration had a shameful record of rewarding
businesses that have provided campaign contributions with loans and
loan guarantees.
And he scoffed (just as Bastiat did in my article) at the notion
that governments created wealth whenever they built a road or
bridge or other public project. Who paid for that road or bridge?
Romney asked (as Bastiat did before him). It is the taxpayer —
whether as an individual or as a business. Should the taxpayer pay
twice for the same road or bridge?
We have a president who has no experience in the world of
commerce and who has no use for business or free enterprise. He has
never met a payroll or earned a profit — and he seems to think
that anyone who tries to do those things is most likely to be out
to cheat his customers and to treat his employees with contempt. As
Romney has said, he has “the most anti-business, anti-investment,
anti-jobs administration I’ve ever seen.”
If there is one thing that this nation cannot afford — a bigger
calamity even than our $15 trillion national debt — it is four
more years of Barack Obama.
Let’s hope that Mitt Romney continues to make that point loud
and clear.
