Romney attempts to soften his corporate side

By: Sarah B. Boxer
Topics: Campaign 2012

(Credit: Michael Justus,AP Photo/Spartanburg Herald-Journal)

Aiken, S.C. - After a sustained attack from his rivals for his work in corporate mergers and takeovers at Bain Capital, Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney tried to put a softer focus on his work at the private equity firm.

The Romney campaign released a television ad in South Carolina in the morning trumpeting Bain's record of job creation while Romney was at the helm in the 1980s and 1990s. And on the stump, Romney described his efforts to create jobs.

"A lot of people want to talk about how we create jobs. By the way, it's not to walk away from free enterprise," Romney said at a campaign rally, where he appeared with Republican Gov. Nikki Haley. "It is not to say that there's something wrong with the free market system. No, instead it's to hold fast to that system and make it work for the American people."

Romney, who regularly includes in his campaign speeches his ideas for helping the shrinking American middle class, also made reference to the government's responsibility to help people below the poverty line. "I'm concerned about our poor in this country. We have to make sure that the safety net for our poor is always strong and always able to help those that can't help themselves," he said. "I'm not terribly worried about the very wealthiest in our society, they're doing just fine."

Romney's rivals, particularly former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, have portrayed Romney as a wealthy elitist and cold venture capitalist who made millions of dollars at Bain by gutting companies and downsizing people out of jobs. The attacks threaten to hurt Romney as he attempts his third consecutive primary win in South Carolina, a state with a nearly 10 percent unemployment rate.

"If you've been out of work for a long period of time, you know these numbers are not just statistics," Romney said, blaming the Obama administration for the economic misery. "These numbers are real people, and real suffering. And he's going to say the economy is getting better. Thank heavens it's getting better! It's getting better not because of him, it's in spite of him, and what he's done."

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Sarah B. Boxer
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by nearl451 January 14, 2012 8:44 AM EST: So....his new line is: "I don't really enjoy firing people......"instead of "I like firing people.......".????

Is that it?; Reply to this comment


by obwan222 January 14, 2012 4:52 AM EST: Scene from "Pretty Woman":

Vivian {Julia Roberts}: You don't actually have a billion dollars, huh?

Edward (Richard Gere): No. I get some of it from banks, investors... it's not an easy thing to do.

Vivian: And you don't make anything...

Edward: No.

Vivian: ... and you don't build anything.

Edward: No.

Vivian: So whadda ya do with the companies once you buy 'em?

Edward: I sell them.

Vivian: ...You sell them.

Edward: Well, I... don't sell the whole company, I break it up into pieces, and then I sell that off, it's worth more than the whole.

Vivian: So, it's sort of like, um... stealing cars and selling 'em for parts, right?

Edward: Yeah, sort of. But legal.; Reply to this comment


by obwan222 January 14, 2012 4:46 AM EST: Matt Lauer: Are there no fair questions about the distribution of wealth without it being seen as envy, though?

Romney: You know, I think it's fine to talk about those things in quiet rooms and the discussion of tax policy and the like.

Romney might soon find that 77 percent of Americans (including 80 percent of independents) believe there is "too much power in the hands of a few rich people and large corporations" and 61 percent say that "the economic system in this country unfairly favors the wealthy".

And those people will not settle for keeping their beliefs behind closed doors, in quiet rooms.

Romney is fighting to represent the GOP and THE ONLY TAX INCREASE THE GOP IS IN FAVOR OF IS ONE ON THE WORKING CLASS.

So,it's no wonder that Romney wants to keep talk of tax policies and fairness on the down-low.; Reply to this comment


by obwan222 January 14, 2012 4:18 AM EST: Here's the description of a classic success in Romney's business record:

In 1996, Bain invested $27 million as part of a deal with other firms to acquire Dade International, a medical diagnostics equipment firm, from its parent company, Baxter International.
Dade wound up laying off more than 1600 people and filed for bankruptcy protection in 2002, amid crushing debt and rising interest rates.

The company, with Bain in charge, had borrowed heavily to do acquisitions, accumulating $1.6 billion in debt by 2000. The company cut benefits for some workers at the acquired firms and laid off others. When it merged with Behring Diagnostics, a German company, Dade shut down three US plants. At the same time, Dade paid out $421 million to Bain Capital's investors and investing partners.

And since Romney was an "investment partner" he paid a tax rate of only 15% on the money sucked out of Dade, instead of paying taxes at an income tax rate.

Small wonder he's a big supporter of cutting taxes for rich "job creators" that don't create any jobs and instead dismantle American companies and sell the assets to foreign companies.; Reply to this comment


by ajcVeteran January 14, 2012 12:36 AM EST: My fellow voters, please be wary and be very scared of Mitt Romney carney salesman of the Bain Capital carpetbagger company. Romney's extremist vulture capitalist job wacking ender approach is NOT 'what' Reagan's pro-business approach was about. Reagan's conservative business philosophy was about creating quality high paying jobs, not acting like Darth Romney and Bain factory busters whom swept down on struggling companies, took their double edge boot knives out and gutted them and their poor fellow Americans of ours...down to their skeletons. As your co-workers and you head for unemployment, off they go running in the other direction with millions in profits, preying on any company they can gleefully sack. He doesn't want to save your or America's soul...he wants to collect your dying hopes in his personal cookie memory jars---owning it in a way that you will never get it back.

Sadly, it was two US government bailouts that Romney/Bain applied for and utilized...that saved their company so they could then destroy more folks dreams.

In Gaffney, South Carolina for example, Bain's company, Holson Burns Group Inc, shut down a company while raking in $24 million dollar, doubling their initial investment as the South Carolinians he pink slipped...stayed home empty handed. As Romney-Bain said recently, he "like(s) to fire people". Indeed he does! When a business is run by ethical leaders and in the right hands, capitalism is a great job creator and community uplifter...just not in Romney-Bain's. In gaffney, after he shut down that company...a community of 12,000 suffered the side negative affects. You see, shutting down factories instead of saving them, harms lots more than those whom got let go...

Below link to actual copies of financial documents regarding this shut down and sale:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/275058-holson-burnes-documents.html

https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/275058/holson-burnes-documents.pdf

Romney-Bain collectively, gave conservative family values and what is respectable about America's business tradition a back eye and a bad name. Candidate Romney-Bain is no Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, etc...Not by liberal mile.

As a combat veteran myself I believe---the Romney-Bain approach is robbing the suffering and giving them the middle finger as Romney-Bain and his family roll around their many home's palacial beds, luxuring in your hard earned money they hijacked from you.

Do fear, yes that's right---FEAR Romney Gecko swooping upon your city ripping apart everything you have left.. If he gets in, he'll take away everything that you and your family hold dear. In both Iowa and New Hampshire, 60% of the Republican voters voted AGAINST Romneycare man.

Fellow GOPers, your vital voting duty moment is near. It's up to each and every one of you---to stop Romney's carried out scorched earth conservatism.

One day he is for abortions, the next day he isn't. One day he tells T
Ted Kennedy I'm not for Reaganism, but today..he claims he loves Ronald Reagan. Our future voting, must enjoin to stop this poser.

This time, pretty...is just too pretty to be true. I know Ronald Reagan, and Mitt the Hun workforce terminator, is no Reagan. Good luck and God bless you!!!; Reply to this comment


by obwan222 January 13, 2012 10:17 PM EST: [Romney said... "It is not to say that there's something wrong with the free market system. No, instead it's to hold fast to that system and make it work for the American people... I'm concerned about our poor in this country. We have to make sure that the safety net for our poor is always strong and always able to help those that can't help themselves... I'm not terribly worried about the very wealthiest in our society, they're doing just fine."

So Romney wants capitalism that is tempered to provide a safety net for the poor and doesn't coddle the rich?

You mean Romney is going to run against a Democratic President using the Democratic platform? He must have gotten that speech by copying the talking points memo from the DNC.

I guess he must really think he has the nomination in the bag and now he's shifting to the middle to gain the votes of the general electorate.; Reply to this comment


by msimamaji January 13, 2012 8:08 PM EST: "It pains me to fire you," so Mitt Romney told the New York Times, justifying his gambling gambits as CEO of Bain Capital. *
Of course this is what vulture capitalists like Mitt Romney do. When "investments don't work and you're not successful", vulture capitalists, like Mitt romney, fire their employees to give themselves a bonus. Then to give themselves a golden parachute, they loot the employee pension fund.

But hey, that's the way the free market works.

Elect Romney for president and guess what you'll get.

"It pains me to shut down your social security."

"It pains me to take away your Medicare."

"It pains me to let my Bankster buddies in Bain Capital loot your 401K."

"It pains me to let oil companies poison your air and drinking water."

"It pains me to eliminate minimum wage laws so that you wind up on food stamps." And later, "It pains me to take away your food stamps."

"It pains me to give corporations tax breaks for off-shoring American jobs."

Ad nauseum.... And add nausea.
After all, what's a little "pain" when you can rake in millions of dollars and buy the presidency? That's just what Mitt Romney is doing

*(Source: an article by Ryan Grim, Huffington Post, January 7, 2012; Reply to this comment


by msimamaji January 13, 2012 7:58 PM EST: 100,000 jobs in the 28 years or so that Bain has been in existence.

That amounts to 3571 jobs a year. Of course Romney has not told us how many jobs he created during the years he was CEO. He doesn't explain how many jobs he destroyed or off-shored - or how much money he made or how much he got in tax breaks.

Also he doesn't explain to us the wages and working conditions that workers in his restructured companies received. And of course, he hasn't released his income tax records for last year.

And let's remember the big reason for Bain Capital is not to create jobs - it's to make gobs of money. The folks in Bain Capital have said this over and over again.

Basically Romney is lying to the public. The whole GOP is nothing but a "Hou$e of Lies." and Romney will win the GOP nomination only because he is the "slickest."

Obama's 2009 stimulus program generated a lot more jobs per year than Bain Capital. So would Obama's Jobs Now program if the GOP in Congress hadn't blocked it. Both of these proposals are rather timid when you read the 2009 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Lest I forget, Obama will generate more jobs by enforcing the EPA guidelines requiring retrofitting for coal fired power plants to eliminate mercury emissions.

Our infrastructure is falling to pieces and global climate change is going to wreak additional havoc on our infrastructure. We'll need to spend more to maintain our infrastructure, not less. We also need to free ourselves from fossil fuels - or we will face a real horror story.

Neither Bain Capital nor Mitt Romney will produce these jobs. Remember, Bain Capital doesn't exist to provide jobs. It exists only to bring a profit to the 1 % - like Mitt Romney

If we want jobs, let's re-elect Obama. Let's fire the GOP.

Let's tax the greedy to provide jobs for the needy.; Reply to this comment


by skyk801 January 13, 2012 7:34 PM EST: It is really hard to believe that the 1% are going to shove this guy right down the throats of the Tea Party and the rest of the Republican Party. LMAO I have news for those Corporate Big Money Clowns. You think Newt was rough on this Plastic Piece of Human Sleaze?? Man YOU ain't seen nothing yet. The ENTIRE Town I live in has been WIPED out by his kind. They stripped this Town, it's workers and the Company of EVERY single dollar they could blackmail out of them, then they just shut them down. Raped their Pension Plan, putting off the legal responsibilities of that Pension on the Tax Payers. HE/They are the Scum of the earth! I have a PERSONAL score to settle with that Scum and Mittens IS one of them.; Reply to this comment


by TJphoto January 13, 2012 6:54 PM EST: I told my daughters going up, "True colors always come shining through." Mr. Romney will be no exception.; Reply to this comment