Small-business owners across the city are lashing out at President Obama, saying they built their companies with their own money and sweat — and without the government's help. Their scathing reaction came after Obama, at a Virginia campaign stop last Friday, launched an all-out assault on entrepreneurs:
“If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen,” he declared outside Roanoke Fire Station No. 1 to applause from a faithful crowd.
“If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there.”
Local business owners said Obama just doesn’t get it — that when entrepreneurs start a company, they take on all the risk.
“You take second mortgages, lines of credit, extend yourself personally on credit cards. There are huge risks and other people relying on you,” said Democrat Gia-Marie Vacca, co-owner of Manhattan-based Fulcrum Promotions, a five-employee corporate-marketing firm.
Guy Gabi dropped out of college 17 years ago so he could take over his father’s Chelsea-based locksmith business and make it a success.
“For somebody to say it was given to me is a total load of crap,” Gabi said of President Obama’s small-business remarks.
When he inherited his dad’s company, it was a fraction of the current size, but Gabi began focusing on commercial — as opposed to residential — clients and branched out into doorway buzzers and safes. He eventually took the business from four employees to 18.
“We made something out of nothing,” fumed Gabi, a Republican. These days, he’s fearful that what he made could vanish — because of ObamaCare.
“The health-care reform will hurt my business. We wouldn’t be able to afford to keep a lot of our staff. Taxes keep going up,” he said. He also said Obama’s policies favor big businesses — and not the guys making it work on their own.
“I feel like there is no help for small businesses,” he said. “Big businesses reap all the benefits. I feel like the government doesn’t have my back.”
