FACT CHECK: The Start of Romney’s Convention Re-Invention
FACT CHECK: The Start of Romney’s Convention Re-Invention
August 24, 2012
FACT CHECK: The Start of Romney’s Convention Re-Invention
In Friday’s Wall Street Journal, Mitt Romney began his attempt at a convention re-invention. But we already know that Mitt Romney’s tenure as a corporate buyout specialist was not about creating jobs, it was about creating profits for himself and his investors, no matter the cost to workers, companies, or communities.
In several cases that he doesn’t list in the Journal, Romney’s firm loaded companies with debt in order to pay itself millions in fees and dividends, and then walked away with a profit while the companies were forced into bankruptcy, putting workers jobs, benefits and pensions at risk. Some of his companies were even outsourcing pioneers, shipping jobs to Mexico, India, and China. Now he’s promised to bring that same economic philosophy to the White House – a philosophy that is focused on turning a quick profit for investors, not a philosophy that would help grow America’s economy over the long term, create jobs, or strengthen the middle class.
Here’s some of what Mitt Romney wrote in his op-ed, and why his attempt to re-invent himself 70 days before an election with stakes this high just won’t work:
1. What Romney wrote: “Staples is one of many businesses we helped create and expand at Bain Capital, a firm that my colleagues and I built. The firm succeeded by growing and fixing companies.”
The Truth About The Myth Of Staples As Bain Capital’s Business Model: While Romney pretends that he made his fortune at Bain Capital from small investments in companies like Staples, the truth is that Staples was one of the smallest deals that Bain Capital did during Romney’s years with the firm. Under Romney, Bain Capital made more than 70 percent of its gain from just 10 deals, and four of those companies went bankrupt. A separate analysis even showed that Romney and his partners made $400 million from just four companies that they loaded up with debt, driving them into bankruptcy.1
2. What Romney wrote: “That was true of companies… we helped turn around, like the Brookstone retailer and the contact-lens maker Wesley Jessen.”
The Truth About Making Millions At Wesley-Jessen By Cutting Hundreds Of Jobs: Romney and his partners bought Wesley-Jessen with the agreement that 430 jobs would immediately be cut. They then went out and acquired another company by loading Wesley-Jessen with debt and cut 123 jobs and shortly thereafter closed a San Diego plant, cutting another 300 jobs and moving production to Puerto Rico. While Romney and his partners may have found this deal successful, communities and hundreds of workers lost.2
more: http://www.barackobama.com/press/release/fact-check-the-start-of-romneys-convention-re-invention
