Romney’s ‘We Did Build This’ Events Feature Businesses Built With Government Subsidies And Contracts (OOPS!)

In my lifetime it is hard to remember a campaign that is so dishonest as that of Mitt Romney and so non-transparent.  What was the RNC and the so-called establishment thinking getting behind his nomination?  Was it the big donors because they (RNC) needed to fund the Convention and campaign?  Have news for them if they had held fair debates, same rules for all states in the primary, and not supported a culture of win at any costs for the Romney campaign including cheating, we wouldn't be at this spot today.  They would have had the money from honest donors who didn't want anything in return.

Anyone who says a businessman does everything on his own without help to build the business is a buffoon.  Romney told Olympic athletes that they had help which they all acknowledge.  He has given speeches about the help businesses receive from the Government and infrastructure.  Guess the businesses in today's Romney World are different because they did in all on their own using their own hands according to this ad:




OOPS!  There is a slight problem:

In “These Hands,” the Romney campaign repeated the out-of-context quote, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else did that.” Jack Gilchrist, the owner of Gilchrist Metal Fabricating in Hudson, New Hampshire, incredulously asks, “My father’s hands didn’t build this company? My hands didn’t build this company? My son’s hands aren’t building this company? …Through hard work and a little bit of luck, we built this business. Why are you demonizing us for it?”  

In context, Obama’s speech was not “demonizing” small business owners but simply challenging the idea that wealthy and successful individuals have never benefited from government services.

And, as it turns out, Jack Gilchrist is no different. The New Hampshire Union Leader reports today that Gilchrist benefited from millions of dollars of government loans and contracts to get his business on its feet: 

In 1999, Gilchrist Metal received $800,000 in tax-exempt revenue bonds issued by the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority “to set up a second manufacturing plant and purchase equipment to produce high definition television broadcasting equipment,” according to a New Hampshire Union Leader report at the time…

Last year, Gilchrist Metal also received two U.S. Navy sub-contracts totaling about $83,000 and a smaller $5,600 Coast Guard contract in 2008, according to a government web site that tracks spending. 

The businessman now famous for the ad admits he did take Government help to build the business. Nothing wrong with that as that is what these programs are for but what is terribly wrong is to represent that you had no help and built the business with only your hands and hands of family members.  Guess his family built the building where  they are located only with their own hands as well.

Fox News and Rush Limbaugh led the Romney camp in the direction they wanted him to go even it was a total misstatement of what the President said due to the editing of Fox News.  It is like Limbaugh is a puppet for Fox News today and Romney is a puppet for Fox News and Rush.  Romney or his surrogates run out to make fools of themselves routinely parroting what Fox News or Rush has to say with no fact checking.  Fox News is about the last place I would quote today.  If you want to find investigative reporting with links, you now have to use more liberal sites.

It is simply mind boggling what has happened to Conservatives who are backing Romney.  They turn into pretzels and refuse to hear anything negative about the man or positive about Obama.  Facts don't matter today.  The people on the right who yelled the loudest about Obama not releasing his college records (he should have released them) are the ones turning into crickets on Romney's tax returns and Bain Capital.  We are not supposed to go after the "perfect" candidate in their minds.

Is this what happens to a political party when it is taken over by the followers of Ayn Rand, who make up a large portion of the far right and Tea Party, along with big donors like the Koch Brothers?  Truth doesn't matter, it is the narrative?

The Romney's "We Did Build This' Events are not exactly what they imagined as the info below points out.  Seems these business people rounded up by the Romney camp did have help which was exactly what President Obama was saying.  The Romney camp has proved Obama's points were correct when you get passed the redacted Fox News/Limbaugh spin: 

Romney’s ‘We Did Build This’ Events Feature Businesses Built With Government Subsidies And Contracts 

By Aviva Shen on Jul 25, 2012 at 3:12 pm 

Today, the Romney campaign is hosting an entire series of campaign events based on President Obama’s misinterpreted comment about small businesses. While Obama’s full speech made a “no man is an island” argument, the Romney campaign has seized on the quote, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that” as evidence of Obama’s disdain for small business owners.

 Romney, ignoring the fact that he has echoed this same sentiment on multiple occasions, organized 24 “We Did Build This” events in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Virginia, Ohio, Iowa, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Nevada. At each event, local business owners are speaking about their self-sufficiency in running a business and how government is hindering their growth. 

But, like the New Hampshire business owner showcased in Romney’s attack ad on the issue, many of these business owners have received significant support from the government, a ThinkProgress analysis finds.

• Ball Office Products hosted the “We Did Build This” event in Richmond, Virginia. The company received a loan of $635,000 through the Small Business Administration in 2012, according to USASpending.gov. The company was also awarded a lucrative $52,525 contract with the General Services Administration just a year after its founding.

• Midwest Tape, a media distributor of Holland, Ohio, was showcased at a local event and has been contracted by the Department of Defense since 2008, earning a cumulative $13,659.

• Columbus Truck and Equipment was featured in a neighboring event and has received $6,643 in contracts with the Department of Defense.

• Cranston Material Handling Equipment Corporation, the owner of which spoke Wednesday morning at a campaign event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has reaped a total of $61,729 in contracts with the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs since 2007.

• Systems Engineering Co.The owner of Systems Engineering has received a total of $180,200 in DOD contracts, as recently as last year.

• Brady Industries in Las Vegas has received $54,425 in contracts with Veterans Affairs since 2009.

• Pennsylvania business PRL Industries Inc. received a $167,847 contract through the Department of Homeland Security for ship and boat propulsion components for the U.S. Coast Guard in August 2008. Janis Herschkowitz, who spoke on behalf of PRL, Inc. used to be a director of the National Consumer Cooperative Bank, which, defined in Herschkowitz’ own words, was created by Congress “to meet personal, social or business needs, especially in low- and moderate-income communities by forming cooperatives.”

• An Iowa event featured Competitive Edge, Inc. which was contracted by Veterans Affairs for $3,543 to make informational refrigerator magnets.

• J & W Cycles of Missouri was awarded $25,808 in contracts from the DOD and Department of Interior.

• Total Resource, featured in a Sparks, Nevada campaign event, has been a federal contractor since 2010, and received a $11,200 contract from the DOD in 2009.

• Applegate Insulation, which hosted one of the events in Michigan, benefited from an energy saving federal tax credit worth 30 percent of the installation project, up to $1,500.

• Home Instead Senior Care supported Romney in Roanoke, Virginia, even though home health care companies receive 75 percent of their funding from public programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Home Instead franchises in Virginia have received at least $3,613,549 in federal funding through the Department of Veterans Affairs since 2008. Chris Head, who represented Home Instead at the event, has previously lamented the low Medicaid reimbursement rates in Virginia and told the Roanoke Times that he wished state funding had helped save the now-defunct local Mill Mountain Theatre.

• Ed Nagle of Nagle Trucking in Ohio also took issue with Obama’s speech, which mentioned roads and bridges as examples of essential government support. But less than a year ago, Nagle protested an idea to privatize the Ohio Turnpike, noting that the privatized Indiana toll road “has diminished in its quality and it’s become a lot more expensive.”

While the “We Did Build This” event was intended to “allow small business owners the chance to respond to President Obama’s claim,” it is clear that many of these owners exemplify the combined powers of individual effort and government support that Obama — and Romney — have praised. 

Additional reporting by Steven Perlberg.  

Source:  Think Progressive

Once again Romney and his campaign are proving to the American people they will say and do anything for votes even knowing it was a lie from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh that started this.  It is the narrative which the Romney campaign plays by and in the process have thrown truth and honesty out the window with the win at any cost mentality.

Does he have an enemies list like Nixon?