A 10 minute speech that could be a very big deal.

Sher Valenzuela, GOP's 'We Built It' Speaker, Received Millions In Government Loans (5.00 / 1)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

But there's one problem for Republicans, who hope to align Valenzuela's story with the convention's "We Built It" theme: She didn't actually build her company without the government's help.

Valenzuela's company received roughly $17 million in federal loans and contracts and she's openly encouraged other business owners to rely on taxpayer funding, Media Matters reported Thursday.

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"That it ceased to exist, I'll grant you, but whether or not it failed cannot be definitively said." - Metropolitan (1990)

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by: Patrick @ Tue Aug 28, 2012 at 23:00:09 PM UTC

It gets even worse. (5.00 / 1)

http://www.delawareonline.com/...

First State Manufacturing also receives preference as a minority-owned contractor, a certification that its owners proudly advertise. Eli Valenzuela's husband grew up in Corpus Christi and is of Mexican descent. Valenzuela is Slavic in heritage. "We almost mention the certification before we say 'hello,'" Sher Valenzuela told The News Journal in 2006.

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"That it ceased to exist, I'll grant you, but whether or not it failed cannot be definitively said." - Metropolitan (1990)

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by: Patrick @ Tue Aug 28, 2012 at 23:11:09 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Loans. (5.00 / 2)

Those are something you have to, like, pay back, right?

Oh, and"
"Valenzuela's company received roughly $17 million in federal loans and contracts"

Yeah.

$1.8 million in loans.

$15 million for a tangible product that her firm produces and that the government needs.

I say she built it.

Of course I fully expect that the mouth breathers at huffington post will probably disagree with me.

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by: geo999 @ Wed Aug 29, 2012 at 01:31:12 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Great info. (0.00 / 0)

Thanks

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by: Term Limits @ Wed Aug 29, 2012 at 02:19:52 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

So... (0.00 / 0)

you apparently support SBA government back loans where the Govt Guarantees the banks they'll get their money back if they loan to a small business.

And, as Patrick pointed out, no doubt govt rules encouraging their contractors hire sub contractors had something to do with her getting contracts.

Why can't you folks admit that we as a community--in the form of government--acknowledge that government helps people grow businesses...whether it is taxpayer funded education; taxpayer funded infrastructure or programs like the SBA.  You NEED to adhere to a strict ideology, it forces you to deny the obvious.  

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by: Simple J. Malarkey @ Thu Aug 30, 2012 at 02:59:55 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

And to add... (0.00 / 0)

...this "help" does not take away the accomplishments of this woman and other successful people.  A vast majority of her success is solely attributed to her hard work, smarts and savvy.  Some of her success I'm sure was luck...there often is luck and another small part is the opportunity we as society create to foster economic growth.  

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by: Simple J. Malarkey @ Thu Aug 30, 2012 at 03:03:05 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

That's good to add (0.00 / 0)

But it doesn't make up for the insult of the first comment. It's great to show some respect for a business owner's smarts and hard work but it should not be grudging belated half-respect that treats people as fixed people who can't help being smart and hard working. The respect has to be there from the start, and not slighted by comments implying that the government is more responsible.

The important thing business owners have more than smarts and hard work is the motivation to apply them, and motivation can be easily snuffed out by disrespect. Pointing out that someone's business owes more to the road the business is located on and the education of the workers is disrepectful, and could turn people from someone motivated to start a business into someone who just waits around for other people to take that initiative. The fewer people taking initiative and being motivated, the worse off everyone is. We can spend billions on roads and teachers but if people aren't motivated to put a business on the road and hire some of those people, it will be a waste of money.

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by: John Howard @ Thu Aug 30, 2012 at 17:17:20 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Why can't YOU folks (5.00 / 3)

admit that everyone has access to taxpayer-funded education, taxpayer-funded infrastructure, etc., but these people did something over and above what the vast majority of others with the same opportunities do - they took a risk (sometimes investing every asset they own), busted their humps and built a business. Not everyone is willing to take that risk. And the thanks they get from their president is to say they couldn't have done it without all the things we as a society, through our governments, choose to do together. If that were the case then why doesn't everyone do it? These are exceptional people who deserved his praise as the engine of our economy. Instead they get told they don't matter.

Our ideology doesn't discount the need for government in our civil society. You're creating a straw man when you indicate otherwise. Our ideology does, however, want to limit that government to the smallest size consistent with individual liberty and free enterprise.


G.O.P. Growth. Opportunity. Prosperity. For all Americans.

Karl (TLC)Weld

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by: TLCWeld @ Thu Aug 30, 2012 at 18:51:35 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Are you sure geo999? I mean Patrick did get his info from the Huffington Post! (0.00 / 0)

Molon Labe

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by: Republican Ram Rod Radio @ Thu Aug 30, 2012 at 16:32:56 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Also, business is located on a public road! (0.00 / 0)

Couldn't the GOP find some radical libertarian who built a space-based business that's not on any road, selling asteroids to the aliens or something?

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by: John Howard @ Thu Aug 30, 2012 at 17:19:46 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Also, business is located on a public road! (0.00 / 0)

Couldn't the GOP find some radical libertarian who built a space-based business that's not on any road, selling asteroids to the aliens or something?

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by: John Howard @ Thu Aug 30, 2012 at 17:19:47 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Consistent (5.00 / 1)

For consistency, we should also socialize responsibility, say for someone accused of robbing a bank:

Court: how do you plead?

Perp:  I didn't do it, so innocent.  The gun was perfectly legal and properly licensed by the state, I drove in a car fueled with subsidized oil and gas, to the bank on public state and federal roads and received, at the point of a gun, bills authorized and printed at the direction of US Treasury and I received those bills from a bank employee who received a subsidy from the Treasury in the form of the Earned Income credit.

I didn't rob that bank!

Elizabeth Warren: a bankruptcy professor, bankrupt of ideas

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by: gary @ Thu Aug 30, 2012 at 18:28:34 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Just saw/heard her (0.00 / 0)

The poster child for everything that is right about America.  I thought the same thing you did: hope she gets major play in the coverage.

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by: Barbara Anderson @ Wed Aug 29, 2012 at 00:23:39 AM UTC