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MSNBC Small Business Panelist: ‘Insane’ To Think You Built It ‘All By Yourself’

Sep. 18, 2012 11:06am Benny Johnson

In an apparent defense of President Obama’s gaffe this summer where he told business owners “you didn’t build that,” MSNBC host Melissa Harris Perry hosted a panel of small business owners on Sunday to discuss the highly controversial comment.

Perry called the notion that businesses are built by individual initiative “a myth,” noting a broad liberal talking point about how one’s success is “supplemented” by “taxpayers who pay for schools, roads, laws and institutions that make business possible.” Perry went on to say entrepreneurs who get upset with the government just “may not understand” how important the government is for their success.

Perry then asked her panel of small business owners a rhetorical question: “self-made myth or built together” which one are you?

The first panelist to speak was Karen Tappin of Karen’s Body Beautiful. Tappin said “of course” you need other people to build your business “that’s insane to think you did it all by yourself with all the thoughts in your head.” Tappin went on to say “there is no way I could build the business I have by myself” mentioning her husband was her business partner:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

President Obama said in a campaign stop on July 13th:

“Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.”

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Comments (123)

thegoldman
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:26am
There were no roads until pioneers made a path, which in time became a trail….

Farmers followed the trails and homestead the area…

Farmers made the roads, cutting trees, moving rock to get his wagons to market to sell his goods…

Ware was government then ?

It was staying out of peoples business !

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- MODEL82A1
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:31am
  Hey Mrs. Tappin, you couldn’t have built your business without Slavery either. OUCH! ZING!!!!!!
  
  Report this comment
- calebjim
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:52am
  From the looks of this panel, they are probably students of get all you can without doing anything to get it. A bunch of freeloaders with speaking jobs.
  
  Report this comment
- Anonymous T. Irrelevant
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:00pm
  They did not create the language of which they use to do business with, European-Americans did, therefore, part of her money belongs to European-Americans. We can go down this ridiculous road as far as you want to take it.
  
  Report this comment
- StrykerPhoenyx
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:16pm
  Absolutely! Let’s go back to making our own roads so people can buy our goods! I don’t need no government handout highway systems. Sure I’ll only be able to reach customers in my immediate neighborhood, but I don’t need help from anyone, I can do it myself!
  
  Government-created currency? Forget it! Let’s just go back to a trade-based economy! Stay out of my business government!
  
  Then people will be able to say without a doubt they truly did build their own small businesses.
  
  Report this comment
- BSdetector
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:44pm
  So the taxpayers built the businesses, not the entrepreneurs?
  
  Who are the taxpayers?
  
  NOT the people who would say “You didn’t build that”…
  
  Report this comment
- seeker9
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 1:01pm
  What the H is the point? An argument for big government? Looks like two extremes – the government does everything vs the governmant does nothing. The real argument is how big the government SHOULD be. Conservatives believe in limited government, libs /progs believe in essentially marxism. In my opinion the government should be limited. Don’t comprehend why the government should be concerned with what individuals earn. Everyone benefits from roads and bridges etc., so everyone shouls pay at least something.
  
  Report this comment
- The Jewish Avenger
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 1:09pm
  This is why the first 10% belongs to God
  
  Government just think they’re above that.
  Probably why they charge more.
  (Remember, 33% is a good thing!)
  
  Report this comment
- banjarmon
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 1:29pm
  I have this BIG OAK I wanted to use…by the time I GOT through the GOVERNMENT RED TAPE, I made ONE TOOTHPICK!!!!
  
  Report this comment
- Palter
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 2:25pm
  I don’t get it, why building roads and bridges makes the gov. Socialist? It’s called infrastructur! One of the foundation that people want to invest or able to build their business and prosper, is having a good infrastructure. That is why big companies coming mostly coming from developed countries ,rather than in out of no where african desert where there’s no proper highway, electricty, bridges, security (you know, infrustructure that gov. Provided, granted funded with tax money of course). So, Why suddenly now this is labeled as socialism?!
  
  Report this comment
- michael48
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 3:23pm
  a panel of professional panhandlers…well then you should redistribute your net worth…daily…be the good lemming- comrade you profess to be…chirp…chirp…
  
  Report this comment
- DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 7:49pm
  The small business owners themselves helped pay for those roads and bridges and internet.
  
  Report this comment
- sillyfreshness
  Posted on September 19, 2012 at 2:16am
  These Bolsheviks are such idiots. If you want to have collective responsibility-a communist idea, then have collective punishment too. If she fails at her business, then it’s everyone fault but her as well. If someone murders someone, it’s the collective’s fault just like if someone succeeds at business it’s everyone’s doing.
  
  Report this comment
- Ballot_Box_Revolution
  Posted on September 19, 2012 at 8:26am
  Business would be conducted with or without roads…
  
  Report this comment
- propel7
  Posted on September 19, 2012 at 10:54am
  You mean all those black slaves whose cousins sold them to those slavers to get rid of their lazy arses and make a quick buck while they laughed? If anything but cotton was picked by these slaves, I will kiss your arse! Talk about being conditioned and manipulated by big media. This country wasn’t built by slaves, nor is the blood that was spent. As I recall there are over 600,000 WHITE men that laid down their lives to FREE the so-called slaves. You would assume that the slaves own blood bought their own freedom if you just happened to land here from some other planet. The thankless attitude for those 600,000 is EXACTLY why your cousins wanted to get rid of you. They had to support your ancestors that wouldn’t work either. Better to take the opportunity to unload some real dead weight. Better learn the REAL history of this Nation and it’s People before you repeat your programmed parrot talk. I am sick of hearing about this when there have been just as many or more whites in this country that lived with no more and LESS than any of you ever had, so cut the crap! You don’t like it here, maybe we can do what Lincoln was so graciously planning to do for you before he was killed and give you all a ticket straight back to your beloved and caring Nigeria! There are Africans and there are Americans. You better choose ONE!
  
  Report this comment
NHwinter
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:26am
The father of modern confusion, Karl Marx, was once called one of the most evil men of the 20th century (even though he lived and died in the 19th Century). He was the quintessential liberal, code-named political manipulator. He developed a widely used system of deflecting public scrutiny and once taught followers, later called communists, how to confuse opponents. He said, “Accuse people of what you do to them.”…..

This is all the Dems/Progressives are going to do this election. And pick apart every word Romney says. I’m so sick of everything that is going on and the MSM. Maybe Fox should show the movie 2016 Obama’s America during prime time viewing. Do they really want a socialist America, one that is run right down into the gutter? I guess the MSM actually does want that.

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- RobbieTLHughie
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:38am
  Almost all the information in your comment is false and anyone who does the slightest studying could see that. Karl Marx was not an evil man, his ideas do not work and never have but evil? Hardly.
  
  Report this comment
- DeniseR55
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 1:49pm
  Robbie, maybe it is you who needs to study more Marx.
  
  About the above article. This woman has lived her live depending on government; affirmative action has destroyed black American’s; so she would not understand the phrase, earned by merit. It’s another reason why Obama talks his fair share BS.
  
  Report this comment
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:26am
Of course she didn’t build it by herself, she doesn’t know how to use power tools, knows nothing about putting in tile or carpet, can’t do plumbing, but does know how to decorate. Her husband does know how to build a webpage, and she has a friend who deals drugs, so he has bank connections. There was also the banker that gave her the loan, and the politician that years ago, strong arming him into giving her a loan. Of course you have to give your thanks to that illegal alien that crossed through miles of desert just to hang her drywall and frame the building, and of course those union thugs who will deliver her goods through the trucking company, but for a price, and don’t bother them on their break.

But the one who made it all happen, the One, the Kenyan Tingler, the Appologizer In Chief….BHO. If he didn’t make the oceans recede, bless the crops, soothe racial tensions, and bring peace to the middleeast, she would never had built her business. But is she fails, it’s all her fault, and Romney and Bushes fault.

So, I can see why she didn’t do it by herself, mostly because she couldn’t poor water out of a boot, if the instructions were written on the heel. I also heard her husband had to tell her the tampon went in the “Other” hole, so she isn’t very smart.

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- woodyee
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:33am
  Choking with laughter!
  
  Report this comment
- The_Veteran
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:02pm
  OMG, this has to be the best post of the year for me! I laughed so hard I cried.
  
  Report this comment
- pissantno.10
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:06pm
  if you sell to the goverment , state or federal a large precent of the product your making has to come from minorty compneys so yes the goverment is helping them by forceing another compney to buy there products at high prices. then you make the goverment buy your product at a hight price and that would be your tax dollars at work.
  
  Report this comment
- 13th Imam
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:49pm
  And her afro. Did she build that? Or was that the farmers, truck drivers, store clerks that brought her food to market?
  
  Report this comment
- Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 1:37pm
  @13th Imam
  She does her afro by sprinkling bird seed on her head, and letting the birds go to town. So the birds built that.
  
  Report this comment
- 13th Imam
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 1:59pm
  Sheia’ Pet?
  
  Report this comment
- razhunter100
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 2:31pm
  love it …zinger as always.
  
  Report this comment
- Palter
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 2:53pm
  Tampon, “other” hole…. Got to love the comments in the blaze.
  Matthew 15:18 “….But the words you speak come from the heart–that’s what defiles you.”
  
  Report this comment
inxy
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:25am
I hate to tell these twits that I started my lawn service business out of the trunk of my car all by myself.. As far as roads, etc., my tax dollars contributed to that. Our tax dollars have paid for this government, we own it and are getting a lousy return for our investment.

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- SovereignSoul
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:57am
  Did you invent and build your own lawn mower? This whole argument is silly on both sides. Government is to too big and meddlesome and no one accomplishes much as a lone wolf. Enough hyperbole!
  
  Report this comment
- The_Veteran
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:06pm
  The point Odumbo was making is that government helped you build that. Did the government build the lawnmower? Did the government transport the lawnmower to the store or refine the gas to go into it? The only thing the government ever does is get in the way. That’s why the Constitution was written that way, because our founding fathers knew this.
  
  Report this comment
maranamom10
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:24am
The problem is, I’ve been working since i was 16, i have paid taxes (road, emergency responders, home & sales tax) so since it took me over 5 months (due to gov. over-involvement) to just get a license, i say…I DID BUILD THAT!!!! If you build roads (like out here in my community) & no business comes (due to higher taxes of a small town) than the homeowners get a nice $350. a year road tax on their annual taxes report. So, again, who built that business? NOT GOVERNMENT!!! PEOPLE DID!!! and we can’t continue if the taxes & government keeps slowing us down!

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blazemama
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:23am
I guess the 47% that pay absolutely no income taxes built the roads and bridges. Where do these nuts think the tax money that built the roads and bridges comes from? Duh. Those who work and pay taxes. Duh. Why is this hard to understand?

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- Popp40
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:57am
  The money came from “Obama’s stash”
  
  Geesh you didn’t know that?
  
  Report this comment
StormRider
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:23am
Hey Dumb-azz it might not be a good thing to add more fuel to the fire, but if you must then by all means stoke away. I bet this sets well with tne small business owners, NOT !, but you just couldn’t leave it alone. Liberals, they step in dog crap, then go step in it again just to make sure it was crap.

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mtcountrygrl
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:23am
If infrastucture was all it took to be successful, everyone would be successful. Success is the result of brains and hardwork. The libs better not keep defending this.

My husband gave up his weekend with his family to complete a project that was behind, if we didn’t get it done and paid, we wouldn’t have enough money to make payroll on Monday. Where was his employees, home with their families. Where was government, well they were the ones who delayed the project with an extra week of the permit process. We did build that!

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Detroit paperboy
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:22am
Call them all what they are ::::::::THE DEMOCRAT MEDIA::::::::::PERIOD.

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floridareader
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:22am
That is just a way to justify BHO’s words. But BHO is not her husband. So she did built that with her partner in life, not the government.

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HOOT_OWL
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:22am
Hey Karen ,the diso duck called from the 70’s and wants his wig back.
Just between one quack to another.

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woodyee
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:22am
We read on The Blaze yesterday, that Shell Oil is pulling out of Alaska, after having spent something like $42 BILLION in license fees.

They’re not building NOR hiring because Gaybama & the Gobblement STOOD IN THE WAY.

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woodyee
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:19am
Perhaps Karrin Tappin need all the help SHE could get, but to make the general statement that business owners didn’t do it by themselves is at least ignorant.

To make a ridiculous statement that the roads were put in for small business is just as asinine…

Gee…”ignorant” and “asinine”…sounds just like something Gaybama would say! This is nothing more than MSNBC trying to put a cork in Gaybama’s leaky dam, like the ones he fixed in Louisiana…

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Popp40
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:19am
It’s Melissa Harris-Perry show….what did you expect?

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RLTW
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:19am
Progressives believe business is spelled B-U-R-E-A-U-C-R-A-T.

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- NHwinter
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:32am
  “No candidate can beat the combination of 95 percent of the African-American vote and 99 per cent of the MSM vote. So, Obama’s in.”
  
  Ben Stein
  
  Is it even possible to beat those odds? I pray enough conservatives vote to change those odds.
  
  Report this comment
- RLTW
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:48am
  NHW
  
  I have higher hopes in the black community, case in point I overheard a group of young Black Americans at a restaurant in Baltimore in 09 the discussion was about taxes and Gov killing business.
  
  Also Blacks make-up 13% of our population, 95% will not equal 12% if the turnout to BHO events is any sign of voter turnout Barry is left with voter fraud.
  
  As to the MSM, are you talking about the 10 people that watch msnbc?
  
  Report this comment
- Anonymous T. Irrelevant
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 2:41pm
  My daughter is dating a bi-racial kid. So far, he has said, twice, that he is glad that one of his people is finally in the White House. I keep telling him that Oblameus is not “your kind.” I told him that Owebama would not even turn his head if you called out to him. He is above you and doesn’t care a bit about the black population, just getting their vote is all he cares about. If he really cared about his “own kind” they would not have such high unemployment and high abortion rates.
  IMO, Owebama’s “own kind” live in the middle east.
  
  Report this comment
Angel_light
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:18am
“that’s insane to think you did it all by yourself with all the thoughts in your head.” – no it’s insane that you think someone else deserves the credit when you did all or most of the work for.

“self-made myth or built together” – if this isn’t bias then I don’t know what is. this is so pathetic and belittling. way to encourage all the people who have a dream to sustain, never mind build their business.

hey perry, what have you done for any business to help build it besides use their products or whatnot? that’s what I thought- nothing. you don’t seem to be helping your employer much with ratings either

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razhunter100
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:18am
instead of this bs…

Fluoride sold as pesticide; Chinese factories export to U.S. cities for water fluoridation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X0a8xSL8s4&feature=player_embedded
Fluoride warning! Much of the fluoride dumped into U.S. water is imported from chemical factories in China. Those factories warn that fluoride is TOXIC to human health.

Why doctors are more dangerous than guns – Health Ranger investigation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=Jhj3u3LoooM
This investigation by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, reveals why you are 6200% more likely to be killed by your doctor than by a homicidal shooter. This is based on U.S. government statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, combined with doctor-caused deaths published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

These data show that FDA-approved prescription drugs kill 290 Americans every single day, meaning that for mass shootings to approach that number, you’d have to see a Colorado Batman movie massacre take place EVERY HOUR of every day, 365 days a year.

the truth is out there…

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jblovesAmerica
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:18am
Who shared the idea who shared the money
who shared the hours
who opened the shop
who closed the shop
how many sleepless nights were shared
henry ford needed roads-there were no roads

Obama does not know what it takes.
never had a job
never hand his hands dirty
he was with the silver spoon
Would you trust Obama with your business small or large

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Stelex
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:17am
It took them this long to find one air head business owner to agree with Obama’s take on small business……….She’s the best example they’ve got. I’m sold

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RodT82721
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:16am
How appropriate for MSNBC, their business panel, a Huff&Puffer and big hair, a member of Barry’s proven voting block, proving that the messiah really does know what he is preaching to his choir.
Could you call this a cheering section?

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Obama Snake Oil Co
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:15am
Dear Leader….I did build my business and the only thing the government did, was make it more difficult!

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- djeffcoat
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:38pm
  Government does help……….it helps itself to your profits.
  
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mayancalendar2012
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:15am
This artcle and these clips are a vivid illustration of how far MSNBC and the rest of the media will to get their guy re-elected. Like Rush says, you have to be a contortion artist these days if you want to explain these liberal “positions”.

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MODEL82A1
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:15am
How do you chose to appear on National TV looking like that and expect to be taken seriously?

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nocalifornia
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:14am
And what would one expect from the lack of hope and no change campaign? After all they do work for the Obumer campaign, they were paid with “lack of stimulus” monies!

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CatB
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:14am
MSNBC = INSANE … enough said …

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