Here's a modest proposal to turn President Obama's "you didn't build that" around.
Don't be defensive and react with "what I really meant was..."
Go on the offensive.
This could be turned into a big plus.
Follow me over the squiggle.
Big business in this country depends upon the infrastructure, roads, bridges, education, safety, that this country has built, paid for by the people's taxes. It depends upon the freedom that this country has always offered its citizens.
For some successful businesses to take the profit they make in this country and stash it in offshore accounts to avoid U.S. taxes, the very taxes that built the country that makes their success possible, is wrong.
To build a prosperous business with the help of hardworking Americans and then turn around and ship those jobs overseas when you become profitable, is not what this country needs or deserves.
This could be part of a new Obama stump speech. It gets the same point across, about businesses depending on U.S. infrastructure, but turns it into something people understand on a visceral level. He's not telling small mom and pop corner stores "you didn't build that", which is the meme the Romney campaign is trying to push. He's telling big businesses "don't turn your back on the country that allowed you to be successful".
The added bonus is it gives a nod and a wink to Romney's own offshore accounts and history of Bain's outsourcing.
It's a two-fer. And it puts the Obama team back on the offensive on this topic.