MSNBC's Scarborough Revives “You Didn't Build That” Myth To Attack Obama

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough pushed the long-debunked falsehood that President Obama told Americans “you didn't build that.”

Scarborough's claim is based on a right-wing media falsehood that Obama told business owners that they didn't build their own businesses. That falsehood became so pervasive that Republicans adopted it as a theme for their 2012 convention. However, in the relevant remarks, Obama touted the role that infrastructure, education, and individual drive play in business owners' success.

Scarborough claimed that Obama “believes that we didn't build it, that individuals don't cause the economy to explode.” Scarborough added that Obama believes that “you let the federal government spend trillions of dollars and good things will happen. We Republicans disagree.”

But contrary to Scarborough's suggestion, Obama has proposed both tax cuts and spending to jumpstart the economy. For instance, the 2009 stimulus contained $282 billion in tax relief, and the American Jobs Act, which Obama proposed but Republicans have blocked. has more tax cuts than new spending.