Report: Romney talks tough on China, but Bain was key player in outsourcing trend

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

UPDATED 3:45 p.m. ET

(CBS News) While Mitt Romney campaigns on "getting tough" with China, the firm he founded nearly 30 years ago, Bain Capital, was a key player in the acceleration of the outsourcing trend that has shifted millions of American jobs overseas, the Washington Post reported Friday, citing its analysis of the financial company's securities filings with the government.

"While Bain was not the largest player in the outsourcing field, the private equity firm was involved early on, at a time when the departure of jobs from the United States was beginning to accelerate and new companies were emerging as handmaidens to this outflow of employment," the newspaper wrote.

The newspaper noted that outsourcing jobs has negative effects on individuals, specific firms and some communities. It has also lowered prices for American consumers and made many U.S. companies more profitable from the global supply chain it has created.

"Bain played several roles in helping these outsourcing companies, such as investing venture capital so they could grow and providing management and strategic business advice as they navigated this rapidly developing field," the newspaper said.

That reality is in sharp contrast to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's rhetoric in his 2012 bid for the White House.

Speaking to workers at a Toledo fence factory in Ohio earlier this year, Romney said China has "been able to put American businesses out of business and kill American jobs."

"If I'm president of the United States, that's going to end," he said.

The Romney campaign issued a statement denouncing the story.

"This is a fundamentally flawed story that does not differentiate between domestic outsourcing versus offshoring nor versus work done overseas to support U.S. exports," said Andrea Saul, spokeswoman for the Romney campaign, adding that if Romney wins the White House, "he will implement policies that make it easier and more attractive for companies to create jobs here at home."

And President Obama's campaign predictably touted the report as evidence that Romney does not care about average workers, calling it a "breathtaking hypocrisy" in a press release early Friday morning.

"It's particularly egregious coming on a day when Gov. Romney began running an ad in Ohio promising to stand up to China, demanding a level playing field for our businesses and workers, when it turns out his companies were actually involved in shipping jobs to China and India," Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod later told reporters on conference call.

Mr. Obama plans to reference the report in a speech Friday afternoon at a community college in Tampa, Florida.

"Today it was reported in The Washington Post that the companies [Romney's] firm owned were 'pioneers' in the outsourcing of American jobs to places like China and India. Pioneers!" Mr. Obama plans to say, according to his prepared remarks. "Tampa, we don't need an outsourcing pioneer in the Oval Office. We need a president who will fight for American jobs and American manufacturing. And that's what my plan will do."

Additional reporting by Jillian Hughes.

[pablosanchez1966]

Ever heard of a solar panel manufacturer named Sun Power Corp.? Taxpayers will be on the hook for $1.2 billion, yes that's 1,200 million dollars, when it goes bankrupt. It lost $46 million last quarter. This company will make Solyndra look like child's play. Obama's investment in the company on "behalf" of the American taxpayer was fraudulent, as the manufacturing operations of the company are located in a barrio slum in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. The company pays its workforce from the nearby slums $1.00 to $1.50 an hour. The only ones that really benefitted from this operation were Obama's chronies connected with Sun Power. Now who is an outrageous example of a thuggish outsourcer? I wish CBS News would pay Sun Power a visit in Mexicali.

[TruthBeKnown770]

From the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/4-pinocchios-for-obamas-newest-anti-romney-ad/2012/06/20/gJQAGux6qV_blog.html?wprss=rss_fact-checker

"Regarding the outsourcing claims, we have frowned on these before. The Obama campaign rests its case on three examples of Bain-controlled companies sending jobs overseas. But only one of the examples — involving Holson Burns Group — took place when Romney was actively managing Bain Capital.

Regarding the other claims, concerning Canadian electronics maker SMTC Manufacturing and customer service firm Modus Media, the Obama campaign tries to take advantage of a gray area in which Romney had stepped down from Bain — to manage the Salt Lake City Olympics — but had not sold his shares in the firm. We had previously given the Obama campaign Three Pinocchios for such tactics.

The Modus Media case is also not an example of shipping jobs overseas. The company closed one plant in California and transferred the jobs to North Carolina, Washington and Utah. At the same time, it opened an unrelated plant in Mexico. The Obama campaign once trumpeted the fact that we had dinged a conservative Super PAC for making the same leap in logic.

The claim that Romney outsourced jobs as governor is equally overblown."

Shame on CBS for such biased and misleading reporting.

[thebob-bob]

"During the nearly 15 years that Romney was actively involved in running Bain, ..., it owned companies that were pioneers in the practice of shipping work from the United States to overseas call centers and factories making computer components."

That's the kind of leadership America doesn't need. Hi, my name is Mitt, I'll help you get rich by firing your workers in America and moving your entire operation to China where the workers have no rights (they're Commies, remember!) and they work for pennies. Then you can use your profits to support the anti-Union rightwing ideologues running for Comgress so that we can enjoy the pollution, low wages and cruddy living conditions they enjoy in China!

Why does Mitttens want to turn America into China???

[PeacefulAssembly]

This is silly. Is Romney guilty of being a capitalist, yes. If you haven't been able to accumulate capital, you are a failure and have nothing to contribute to the economy regardless of the destruction of home equity, value of saving or hard work. The alternative is a president that talks a good game but delivers little. The tax structure hasn't changed, health care reform is a joke and immigration laws are a pawn to be wasted on a boost in the polls. They both suck and I wouldn't blame anyone for staying away in November.

[1pheasant1]

There will never be a shortage of third-world countries to exploit for slave labor. The fact that they are practicing this in other nations allow them to hold their head up high, as if they were acting in an ethical manner.

[PeacefulAssembly]

I don't expect candidate Romney will be able to apply business experience to government service. The goals and raw power are fundamentally different. As a private sector businessman he has a responsibility to his investors, screw anyone else. As a politician he needs to look out for the common good, a much larger and more fractious group.

[sweetcakesmaria]

People need to recognize that Romney is the biggest flipflopper in the history of politics. He's taking a strong line today because he's not the President. If he becomes President, i predict the Chinese will walk all over his flipflopping Arse.

[URNSO2]

In fact Romney is the first and only politician to say one thing during a campaign and do something differant after being elected.

He has a track record that clearly demonstrates he is ineffective.

Romney's record shows that he founded a successful asset management and financial services company, turned around a failing Olympics, and passed major bipartisan legistration as a Governor.

Certainly we should expect that at no point in his political life should he be allowed to contradict himself.

[gaultjohn83]

Obama and Romney rimind me of Animal Farm. Obama is Napolean, Romney is Snowball. David Axelrod is squealer. 2 legs good, 4 legs bad!

[buttwhatif]

for decades i have been asking retailers why they fail to offer many products that were made in the usa , and they just look at me shaking their empty heads . i would be willing to pay more for an equal product if it was made here . however i remember the products that i could find that were made here years ago were better than the ones that said made in china or whatever . am i supposed to be grateful to companies that sent the jobs overseas because now we have a cheaper product (quality and price) ? well i am not because now i have no job , like millions of american workers . if i have no job , that puts cheaper products even further out of my reach than the more expensive products ( better ) when i had a good job . i always heard the reason the jobs left in the beginning was they could get cheap labor there (sweat shops) . companies could send tons and tons of our steel thousands and thousands of miles to make a cheap product then send it all the way back across thousands and thousands of miles and then sell it for less money than the products that were made right here . and this was all blamed on our unions. they said the unions were too expensive , driving up the prices on american made products . well what prompted the unions to form before there were unions ? making unsafe working conditions for employees to maximize profits for the company . not paying their workers enough money for the dangerous work they wanted done . GREED pure and simple . now when the workers in china start to make more money and the costs of manufacturing go up , then who will be able to afford them ? not us . our way of life will be wiped out .

[URNSO2]

Buttwhat,

you have some good points. I always try to buy US made products now that I have a good job. Don't forgot the USA is still the largest manufacturing country in the world. In China US products are highly desirable. With there growing economy and increased standards of living we have a new market for our products. Keep hope alive.

[hillzhavays]

butt, unions were very important when they came into being. Now, with worker safety laws in place and minimum wage, the need for unions is waning. Take Wisconsin for example - Scott Walker eliminated the mandatory requirement that public employees (like teachers) join the AFSCME. After he passed the law, AFSCME membership dropped by half and most of the rest refused to pay their dues.

Liberals try to demonize corporations for trying to make their business models more efficient and more profitable. It's not greed, it's just business. If they don't, then they go out of business because their foreign competitors will definitely streamline and become more profitable. And then the domestic corporation will go out of business because it can't compete. Then what to you suppose happens to all the jobs at that domestic corporation?

[treeman210]

Stop Polluting the Air. Stop propping up failed businesses. And by golly get rid of your police state mentality with all the friggin conditioning that generations of Americans have had to endure with the gay media's favorite programming mechanisms. What happened to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Gordon Gecko: and the greed is good mentality. What good is global capital without culture? Go ask Gordon, and his Federal counterparts; they can tell you.

[URNSO2]

Gordon Gecko is a fictional character