This is an article posted to the Easton StarDem last week, by Dan Bongino, Republican candidate for US Senator from Maryland.
Dan Bongino – Another Republican candidate buying into Romney’s fraudulent TV ad
Recently, I awoke at 5am to the sound of my six-month old daughter Amelia crying. When I entered her dark room to soothe her, I saw my wife, struggling to stay awake, holding Amelia in one arm as she was attempting to work on her barely lit computer screen with her other arm. My wife Paula is an entrepreneur and a small business owner. She also happens to be a first generation immigrant, who suffered through much chasing her American dream–all of her hard work culminating in her pledging allegiance to our flag as part of her citizenship ceremony. We both remember this as one of the proudest days of our lives.
I am writing of this incident because it succinctly describes a scenario repeating itself all over America today. Small business owners are making incredible sacrifices in their struggles to keep their businesses afloat. This is the reason why the President’s “you didn’t build that” comment has infuriated Americans across the political spectrum. The simple fact is that my wife did build “that.” She built her business, through countless hours of hard work and a commitment to a quality work product. I marvel daily at the countless hours she spends at her home office designing and repairing small business websites. She is the very epitome of the American dream, collectively enhanced but most importantly, self-made and personally driven.
The President’s statements are equally infuriating because he is attempting to create a fissure between Americans where there isn’t one. No Republican I am aware of is running for office on a platform of no taxes, no roads, no teachers and no military. I cite these examples because the President chose to mention the use of roads, the work of good teachers and the development of the backbone of the modern internet, through a military research initiative, as examples of how government should be the primary recipient of accolades for individual success. This is absurd and displays a backward logic which is hard to justify. It is the very success of people, such as my wife, willing to put their names behind a business endeavor, with no guarantee of success, that finance the government projects which the President speaks of. It is my wife’s, along with millions of others struggling for a better tomorrow, sweat, toil and willingness to take a risk that has made America exceptional amongst nations, not its roads.
The economy is clearly struggling. Americans are hurting and they are scared. Scared that for the first time, yesterday may have been the best it was ever going to be. This outlook has never been a component of our national psyche. The President’s statements will haunt him in this election as they echo all over our vast country. As my wife and I struggle through this historically poor economic recovery, I feel the pain of Americans hoping and praying that there is a better tomorrow and I ask the President to stop creating division by asking who built what, and to focus on getting our growing legion of unemployed Americans, just asking for a chance to build anything, back to work.
Dan Bongino, a devoted husband and father, served in the United States Secret Service for more than a decade, in which he was assigned to the elite Presidential Protective Division. He represented the U.S. as a lead government security official in over 25 countries. Holding graduate degrees in Business Administration and Psychology, Dan has gone on to start several successful businesses in Maryland. As an entrepreneur, he understands the role small businesses play in establishing a framework for continued prosperity and economic growth.
Comments on: "“Who Built That?” – Another Spasmodic Approval of Romney Fraud!" (1)
It’s clear that Mr. Bongino shares the same ability to distort and misrepresent, as his mentor and idol, Mitt Romney. It is obvious to anyone who has taken the time to read the President’s speech…in its entirety…that when he said, “You didn’t build that”, he was specifically pointing to the roads and infrastructure that supports both small and large businesses in our country. He certainly was not pointing to the businesses built by entrepreneurs such as Mr. Bongino’s wife and myself.
The truth is that Romney took the President’s speech, then proceeded to cut and paste it, editing his words to create a fiction that is as good as the new movie, “Abraham Lincoln:Vampire Hunter.” Does anyone really believe that our beloved 16th President was a vampire hunter? Then, you shouldn’t believe the fictional account of what the President allegedly said…it comes from the same objective: to create a story that isn’t true.
Romney’s TV ad, highlighting a small business owner, complaining of the fictionalized account of the President’s speech, was a practice in hypocrisy. This business person, who wants you to think he “did it” all himself, actually received $800k in government bonds and another $400k in government contracts, to help build his business. Of course, that isn’t mentioned in the ad, or by Mr. Bongino.