At the heart of Mitt Romney's campaign is the competence he demonstrated while running Bain Capital. But this week at the heart of his campaign were Romney's claims about having not actually run Bain -- at least not from 1999 to 2002. What makes this particular time period significant is that during these years the private equity firm managed companies that were "pioneers" in outsourcing American jobs and steered multiple others into bankruptcy. The Obama campaign framed the inconsistency as "a big Bain lie" and suggested the GOP candidate had either lied to the SEC or to the American people. Romney insists he left Bain in 1999 to run the 2002 Winter Olympics. This week he takes the gold medal for his marathon sprint from his own record. You can tell he's been training: he shaved three years off his time at Bain.
Add your voice to the conversation on Twitter: twitter.com/ariannahuff
According to this point of view, Big Business not only saves money on wages by shipping American jobs overseas but ALSO saves money in several other ways.
Here are advantages in addition to low wages for Big Business in outsourcing jobs to foreign workers, according to Conard:
"We don't pay for their pension costs if they don't save for retirement. We don't pay for their children's public education. Nor do we pay for their out-of wedlock children, their unemployment benefits and worker's compensation, their slip and fall torts, their wear and tear on the public infrastructure, and the cost of their drunk driving, drug use, and other crimes."
"We outsource pollution, its adverse effects on our health, and its cleanup costs. Neither their employers nor their employees are here to seek political handouts"
Got it, all you American workers?
I owned my own small business for decades. I am not rich by today's standards, but I never came close to declaring bankruptcy either. My business survived the many "boom and bust" cycles that businesses endure. When times were bad, I personally worked hundreds of hours without pay, and put much of my own money back into the business to help it survive. THAT to me, is good business.
Making millions of dollars by forcing over 20% of the businesses you manage into bankruptcy is NOT.
How about all the debt holders that got stiffed? Do you think THEY think Romney is a "good businessman"?
The employees that lost their jobs?
The elderly that lost their pensions?
What has happened to business ethics in this country?
If "making money" is the sole qualification to become president of the United States, then I would like to nominate Bernie Madoff.
I don't see where he and Mitt Romney are really that much different. When all you care about is making money, you might become rich, but that doesn't make you a "good businessman".
By Bain's own admission, they had a "failure" rate of either 12% or 20% (I've heard they had an 88% success rate or an 80% success rate). I don't want a "business" with a "failure rate"; I want a successful business. Successful in that it stays in business, not success that is measured by how much money you take out of the business once you have driven it into the ground.
IMO, once again, republicans have twisted the meaning of what a "business" is.
Those investors who got "stiffed" were private investors who knew the risks. They also knew that, with Romney, there was a high chance for reward. That's why most of those "stiffed" private investors came back for more, and they profited 80% of the time. So, yes, they certainly do think Romney is a "good businessman."
At 20% of those firms, employees lost jobs and benefits, which means 80% didn't. And that's a far cry from 100% job losses, which was entirely possible without the intervention of Bain and Romney. If you want to twist the record, then you focus on the 20% and ignore the 80%. You also ignore the tens of thousands of new jobs created by the surviving companies.
I would say that business ethics are about the same as the ethics in any other segment of society. A good example would be politics, where a President, who cannot run on his record, instead, uses half-truths, lies, and innuendo to smear his opponent.
So, If lying is the sole qualification to become President of the United States, then I would like to nominate Pinocchio.
I don't see where he and Barack Obama are really that much different. When all you care about is your reelection, you may win the presidency, but that doesn't make you a "good leader."
But these technicalities are lost on voters and the damage is done or being done. It's unfortunate. And Romney has EVERY right to distance himself from Bain from his departure point -- why should he take responsibility for the company's poor decisions AFTER he left? If anything, it speaks well of his leadership while there.
If Romney left Bain Inc. in Febuary 1999 why do all these new entities, these "Bain Companies" listing him as the "Bain Reporting Person" (both SEC phrases - not mine), keep showing up under his name and beyond that date? Like here on pages 24-25:
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/861878/0000950131-99-006448.txt
Why is he still issuing reports as a manager from a Bain entity well after he "left" Bain?
http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/Bain2002.pdf
Regardless of there structure or name, the "inc/llc/lp" formations are all Bain companies.
Your deflection is a red herring at best, but to the SEC these disconnects are probably an issue of fact to be determined by a jury.
However, there is NO crime. It's absurd to say there is a felony charge here, it is idiotic.
from factcheck.org A Project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center:
Statement from Bain Capital, July 12:
Due to the sudden nature of Mr. Romney’s departure, he remained the sole stockholder for a time while formal ownership was being documented and transferred to the group of partners who took over management of the firm in 1999. Accordingly, Mr. Romney was reported in various capacities on SEC filings during this period.
Jill E. Fisch, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School said Romney would not have committed a felony by listing himself as managing director ...There is no legal obligation to describe how active one is in the day-to-day management of the company."
This is just a distraction. It's all the dirt they have on Romney, which speaks well of Romney.
"Romney's dirt" is piling up into a major barrier between him and the White House. His own character flaws will do the rest. Obama will be a two term President.
Some of our issues are being addressed. Might be worth voting for.
I heard yesterday that Ann Rmoney had said that Mitt traveled between Olympics and Boston .....so if the FBI checks the flight records , it should be easy.
Also the way he denied haveing meeting and even phone calls " I CANNOT RECALL " is the legalistic evasion.
It looks and sounds IMPOSSIBLE that a man who created BAIN should be not wanting to have input or feedback or advice to his BABY company !!
Obama has out sourced more jobs than Bain ever did...
Let's put this in "Bain terms".
Mitt would never buy a company without looking at the financials. Well, we want to see Mitt's tax returns - his financials if you will.
Mitt would never hire someone he couldn't trust - someone that lies. We want to know if Mitt's lying when he said he left Bain in 1999 when evidence keeps indicating that he didn't.
http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/Bain2002.pdf
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/romney-demands-obamas-apology-responsible-post-1999-bain/story?id=16775137
The thing is the SEC has an interest now because Mitt SWORE that disclosures he made to them - stating that he held executive level positions beyond 1999 - were true.
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/861878/0000950131-99-006448.txt
In your "anybody but Obama" thinking, these issues may not matter.
But if Mitt were hiring, these issues would matter to him. And they matter to the American people.
Romney. A lie is a lie you may fool a small minority of the people ... I assure you are not fooling the
majority of our great country.
He's done nothing wrong, nothing illegal and his record at Bain is stellar. If this country had any clue left, we'd elect a guy with actual business experience for once.