Small Business Owners Demand Apology from Obama [VIDEO]

A number of business owners and supporters of presidential campaign came out swinging against President recent comments about business owners not building their companies.

The president’s speech, which was held at a firehouse in Roanoke, Va., on July 13, has sparked a firestorm of controversy, with Republicans saying the comments show that the president doesn’t have a clue when it comes to the difficulty of running a business and Democrats saying the comments were taken out of context and the basic premise – that businesses and the wealthy should pay more taxes to fund the infrastructure of government – has merit.

The business leaders, who all openly support Romney, acknowledged that they had employees who contributed to the success of the businesses. They also stated that they used public infrastructure to bring goods to market. But they called the president’s remarks patronizing and offensive, with one leader even requesting an apology.

Harold Baldwin, a co-owner of Secure Care Products in Concord, an electronic medical device manufacturer, said he and his partners have never received financial assistance from any government entity and at one point, in the late 1980s, mortgaged their homes to keep the business running. He said it was their hard work – not the existence of government – that was responsible for the company becoming a profitable, successful entity.

“Through the hard work of our employees, my partners, and myself, a lot of determination and long hours, we grew from two employees to 65 employees today,” he said.

Baldwin said the company would like to hire more employees. But the uncertainty around tax policy, potential increases in regulation, and the proposal, also known as , led Secure Care from holding off on hiring more employees.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Baldwin noted. “I really don’t understand the logic behind President Obama’s policies. If he really wants to improve the job numbers, he should get out of small businesses’ way. It is time to wake up. We’re at the turning point.”

Baldwin said small businesses were the engine of the American economy, with his 65 employees using their pay to buy goods and services around the community. He claimed that the Obama presidency was penalizing the successes that small businesses made. Baldwin added that corporate and personal taxes paid to build infrastructure, not the government.

“The government doesn’t produce a thing,” he said. “They take our tax dollars and do with it what they will. So we paid for those roads and bridges, as well as our businesses. That’s a fact.”

Anne McPhillips, the human resources manager for the company, said since Secure Care was more than 50 employees, regulations and costs were going to increase under the Affordable Care Act. She stated that Obama was “clearly disconnected from small businesses” and the company was looking for new ways to prepare for the “negative impact of ObamaCare.” McPhillips said the company currently provided a generous benefits package to employees but was considering “reshaping business models, reclassifying the workforce, increasing cost containment strategies, and financial incentives for opt-out programs” to counter the increased cost of doing business.

State Rep. , R-Manchester, the president of an insurance agency, said it had been a tough decade running his business. He said he had never been so angry at the president after listening to the entire speech a number of times. Infantine said everyone had mentors and teachers but those roles in life didn’t replace the hard work he and others put into their companies. Infantine said Obama didn’t seem to understand that point.

“He clearly got off message,” he said. “’You didn’t build this … you didn’t accomplish this …’ That really offends me. I’d like an apology.”

Infantine said he often didn’t know how he was going to make payroll or pay for healthcare increases, didn’t take the vacations he wanted to take, and was up early in the morning and late into the evening running his business.

“I’m the one that took the risk,” he said. “I don’t think our president understands these concepts. I don’t think he understands what it takes to be a small businessman. I hope the president will do the right thing and apologize. He made a mistake, OK, come clean to the fact that business owners do build it themselves.”