Promoting entrepreneurs instead of crony capitalism

Congressman Paul Ryan:

President Obama recently made a stunning remark about owners and workers under free enterprise. He said, "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."

Who? Ultimately, the government.

Free enterprise empowers entrepreneurs who have ideas and imagination, investors who take risks, and workers who hone their skills and offer their labor. Our exceptional country was built up by the ingenuity, capital, and sweat contributed by individuals who risked it all to build a brighter future for their families. America was founded on the shared belief that government's primary role is to safeguard our God-given freedoms, as individual initiative and a strong civil society are what make prosperity and flourishing possible. America is exceptional for this very reason -- no other country in the history of mankind was founded on such a powerful idea.

The President's policies have stifled this commitment to economic freedom, resulting in millions of Americans facing painful economic hardships. In the President's revealing rhetoric, we gain insight into why the economy remains so anemic and the future looks so bleak.

In this President's telling, success is a function of government beneficence -- not individual initiative. His outlook not only makes for terrible economics; it also reveals moral confusion. The issue that separates our President from our Founders is a moral one: freedom and individual initiative, or big government alternatives to freedom?

President Obama's comments reflect an ideology that casts the private sector as an arena driven by greed and indifference to the well-being of others. In government-directed economies, the collective takes priority over the individual. The moral ideal is equal results.

That approach could not be further removed from the real world.

Every successful individual knows that his or her achievement depends on a community of persons working together. We strengthen our bonds with each other as we offer our unique gifts to others: some are inventors, some investors, others are laborers, managers, or marketers while customers reward the best producers and providers by buying their products and services. We work to advance the common good through our free association with each other, not through a coercive government directing our actions. Each human being has inherent dignity and unique gifts. Meaning is derived as we voluntarily share our individual gifts and talents with each other, in mutual assistance to meet our neighbors' needs, thriving in ways we could not if isolated individuals as caricatured in the President's distorted view of America's commitment to free enterprise.

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There is more.

Paul Ryan maybe the most articulate spokesman for conservatives ideas today.   Obama can't squirm away from this logic on some "context" basis.  Obama has revealed who he is and why his policies have been such failures.  Romney could really use someone like Ryan on his team.