Small Business Tells Obama "We Did Build It" in Nixa Rally

NIXA, Mo. -- Recent remarks by President Obama have prompted some small business owners to speak out.

The Mitt Romney campaign sponsored "We Did Build It" rallies across America Wednesday, including one at Nixa Hardware & Seed.

The president recently said "If you've got a business, you didn't build that." Some suggest he meant that a business can only start and exist because public infrastructure plays a role.

Several business owners at the rally in Nixa say while good customers and willing lending partners play a role, they built their own businesses without help from the government.

"Going to school 18 hours a semester and working up to 60 hours a week is really how my wife and I got the money to start our business," says business owner J. Howard Fisk. "We worked as hard as we could for as long as we had to."

The Romney campaign sponsored rallies in 11 other battleground states Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Obama campaign has stepped up its defense, launching a wide-scale response featuring direct, repeated responses from the president himself at events and in a new television ad.

"Those ads, taking my words about small business out of context, they're flat out wrong. Of course Americans build their own businesses," President Obama said in his new TV ad, referring to Romney's ads attacking him. "What I said was is that we need to stand behind them as America has."

The Obama campaign also says they are holding numerous events in battleground states countering the Romney campaign's efforts.

Read More: Obama, Romney Not Letting up on "You Didn't Build That"