Thursday, August 16, 2012

Romney and Bain Capital

It seems that Mitt Romney is at odds with President Obama on Mitt's record at Bain Capital.  A very brief background on this situation goes something like this; Mitt Romney was a founding member of Bain Capital, an equity investment firm.  During his time at Bain the company took over other companies, often selling them off in pieces or apparently outsourcing their workers to other countries.  Romney left Bain in 1999 to run the Winter Olympics.

Unfortunately for Mr. Romney, Bain itself doesn't entirely agree with his story.  According to filings with the SEC, Mr. Romney continued to be the sole share holder and Corporate Manager of Bain as late as 2001.  Mr. Romney claims that Bain's outsourcing of jobs outside the United States happened in 2000, when he was no longer with the company, but the SEC filings show that he was still with the company.

Mr. Romney also claims that he has created 100,000 jobs in the United States.  He does not say where these jobs are and, like his claim the he pays 13% annually in income tax but he won't release his tax returns to substantiate this claim, we are simply supposed to take him at his word.  Bain Capital employees roughly 400 employees, which leaves 99,600 jobs to account for.  Mr. Romney has a long way to go.

The GOP has been stating for years that raising taxes on the wealthy is a bad idea because the wealthy are the job creators.  Mr. Romney is extremely wealthy.  So, where are the jobs he is supposed to have created?  So far, his verifiable tally is 400.  Does that many jobs warrant a 13% tax base when the majority of us are paying closer to 30%?

Had Mr. Romney started a company that manufactured widgets, built a plant in the United States, hired American workers and built up that company to be successful, then he could run on the platform of being a job creator.  Since he built a company that destroys other companies and outsources jobs to other countries, Mr. Romney's platform should be as a job destroyer.  Unless he's running for office in either China or India because he has apparently done a fairly good job of keeping their citizens employed. 

Electing Mr. Romney to the highest office in the land based on his business record is a huge mistake.  Mr. Romney has clearly demonstrated that his first priority is his own wallet and not the welfare of this country or its citizens.