Weigel

Small Business Owners: History’s Greatest Monsters?

The following are four questions asked of voters in the new Rasmussen Reports poll. See if you can guess what they refer to.

Generally speaking, who does the most to create jobs and economic growth—entrepreneurs who start small businesses, big business, state and local government programs or federal government programs? Who provides a more valuable service to the community—small businesses, big businesses, state and local governments or the federal government? Are people who start small businesses primarily responsible for the success or failure of their businesses? Compared to other workers, do small business owners work harder, not as hard or about the same as a typical worker?

You probably guessed right. It’s awfully hard to understand the English language and think that Obama’s “didn’t get there on your own” riff meant that he literally didn’t think small business owners worked hard. As Jake Tapper (via John DiStato) points out, it’s actually a bit of a challenge to find a businessman who had no help from anybody, at any point in his life, and can thus be called on to describe pure self-reliance.