Commentary
During the 2012 presidential election campaign, President Barack Obama notoriously told business owners “You didn’t build that.” He was trying to justify hiking taxes on “the rich”—meaning the productive and successful.
“You didn’t build that” was not original with Obama. He may have borrowed it from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and she likely lifted it from earlier Democratic politicians or from academic leftists. Nevertheless, in this essay I’ll call it the “Obama argument.”
Although this episode happened a decade ago, I’m sure we’ll see the Obama argument again. Sound-bites like that re-resurface whenever politicians want to raise taxes. So let’s examine it more closely. That way, when it comes up again, we’ll be ready….