On Thursday at a campaign stop in Richmond Virginia, Mitt Romney told the story of how President Barack Obama’s bad economy and regulations helped create the economic climate that forced Bill’s Barbecue to close two months ago. Bill’s had been a Richmond fixture for more than eight decades, Many small businesses across the country have suffered Bill’s Barbecue’s fate the last four years.
Earlier in the day, the Romney campaign released a powerful ad featuring Bill’s Barbecue, which can be seen below.
Romney said the restaurant once employed over 200 people but the owner, Rhoda Elliott, told him that taxes, regulation, and Obamacare pushed them out of business. “The cost per employee was too much,” Romney said of Obamacare while noting that “big business can handle regulations but small business cannot.”
Romney’s campaign event was held at Doswell Park, where Secretariat, the legendary thoroughbred that won horse racing’s Triple Crown, was born. When introducing Romney, Republican Senate candidate (and former Governor and Senator) George Allen said he was hoping for the “triple crown” on election night in Virginia — with Rep. Eric Cantor winning reelection and Allen and Romney winning their respective contests.
Romney’s campaign ad, which can be seen below, features Elliott, who says in the ad that “when President Obama took office there was a lot of hope that things were going to change. Well, he didn’t change anything.”
The ad ends with these words appearing: “Bill’s Barbecue couldn’t take four years under President Obama. Can we afford four more?
The Richardson family, in a press release, signed off on 82 years in the family business in September by saying, “We give our utmost thanks and appreciation to our loyal employees, customers, and friends. May God bless you all.”
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