Liberal, Irreverent

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Could Romney's Attack on Obama's Jobs Re








Could Romney's Attack on Obama's Jobs Record Backfire?









Why the candidate's new ad criticizing the president on unemployment may end up highlighting his own corporate-raider past.









Certain political ads are hard to fact-check—but that doesn't make them accurate.



Before the Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire on Monday night, Mitt Romney's campaign released a spiffy campaign video/ad that had all the politico wags going gaga. It was a slap at Obama—but it also provided Romney's fellow GOP presidential wannabes with ammo to use against him.



The less-than-two-minute-long spotnotes that "millions have lost their jobs under President Obama" and jabs at the president for recently stating, after the release of a lousy jobs report, that "there's always going to be bumps on the road to recovery." The video then shows about 15 people—of all shapes, sizes, and colors—lying, face-up, on a desert highway in what appears to be the middle of nowhere. One by one they rise, stare into the camera and hold up a Romney campaign placard with a shorthand description of their particular plight handwritten on it. "Mark" notes, "I want a job when I graduate." "Shirley" reports, "Over 50, starting over." "Kevin" proclaims, "The company I worked for just went bankrupt." And each of them solemnly intone, "I'm an American, not a bump in the road." 
 



When the non-bumps finish, the music swells, the camera pans toward the heavens, and these words appear: "Believe in America. November 6, 2012."



The message: Obama doesn't care about you; Romney does. And at the debate on Monday night, Romney proclaimed that Obama has "failed the American people on jobs creation."



This is all in keeping with the general notion sweeping GOP circles that the best way to beat the president next year is to not be the president. That is, any GOP nominee who can pose credibly as the non-Obama—without having to defend a boatload of negatives about him- or herself—will have a decent shot. Which may well be true.



Yet there might be some restraints on how far any candidate can depart from his or her own background to assail the president. This Romney video implies that he gives a damn about the "bumps in the road"—meaning typical American workers. His record as a former head of Bain Capital, a private equity firm that bought and sold firms, though, is at odds with this characterization. Here's how the conservative New York Post recently characterized his tenure at Bain:





The former private equity firm chief's fortune—which has funded his political ambitions from the Massachusetts statehouse to his unsuccessful run for the White House in 2008—was made on the backs of companies that ultimately collapsed, putting thousands of ordinary Americans out on the street. That truth if it becomes widely known could become costly to Romney, who, while making the media rounds recently, told CNN's Piers Morgan that "People in America want to know who can get 15 million people back to work," implying he was that person.



Romney's private equity firm, Bain Capital, bought companies and often increased short-term earnings so those businesses could then borrow enormous amounts of money. That borrowed money was used to pay Bain dividends. Then those businesses needed to maintain that high level of earnings to pay their debts.



In 2007, the Los Angeles Timesreported:





From 1984 until 1999, Romney led Bain Capital, a Boston-based private equity group that earned jaw-dropping profits through leveraged buyouts, debt hedge funds, offshore tax havens and other financial strategies. In some cases, Romney's team closed U.S. factories, causing hundreds of layoffs, or pocketed huge fees shortly before companies collapsed.



During the 2008 campaign, CNNnoted,





Critics note that Romney's tenure as CEO of the leveraged buyout firm Bain Capital resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs through layoffs and bankruptcies. Romney, the wealthiest candidate in the 2008 presidential race, ran Bain Capital from 1984 to 1999, during which time he earned the bulk of his fortune.



Bain Capital specialized in buying companies in distress and revamping them, often by cutting jobs and closing plants. Some of Bain's purchases became more efficient and successful businesses, while others, loaded with debt from Bain's fees, were forced into bankruptcy, costing more jobs.



That same year, the Boston Globereported on a Bain deal involving a firm named Ampad, noting that Bain Capital





slashed jobs at the office supply manufacturer stands in marked contrast to his recent pledges to beleaguered auto workers in Michigan and textile workers in South Carolina to "fight to save every job."



Throughout his 15-year career at Bain Capital, which bought, sold, and merged dozens of companies, Romney had other chances to fight to save jobs, but didn't. His ultimate responsibility was to make money for Bain's investors, former partners said.



Much as he did when running for Massachusetts governor, Romney is now touting his business credentials as he campaigns for president, asserting that he helped create thousands of jobs as CEO of Bain. But a review of Bain's investments during Romney's tenure indicates that job growth was not a particular priority.



When Romney was in the public sector, as governor of Massachusetts, his record on jobs creation was not much better. After he claimed during a GOP primary debate in 2008 that while he was governor, "we kept adding jobs every single month," Factcheck.orgnoted "that's just not true." Moreover, the political fact-vetting site reported:





Romney's job record provides little to boast about. By the end of his four years in office, Massachusetts had squeezed out a net gain in payroll jobs of just 1 percent, compared with job growth of 5.3 percent for the nation as a whole.



Romney's latest ad, an impressionistic powerhouse, cannot be vetted in similar fashion, for it asserts no facts about Romney or his past actions while in the executive suite at Bain or in the state house in Boston. Team Romney is delighted with the spot, believing that this sort of attack will force the Obama crowd to respond by contending that the economy isn't that bad or that things could be worse—assertions that turn off already skeptical and anxious independent voters.



But the video does depict Romney as something that is out of sync with his history: a champion of jobs creation. And this is a claim that can be used by his GOP rivals (when they tire of bashing Romney for enacting a health care insurance mandate in the Bay State). Their oppo research folks can read the above-mentioned stories and formulate the easy criticism: when he had the chance, Romney did not evince concern for the "bumps." A prominent challenge for Romney, the supposed frontrunner, has been authenticity, as he has flip-flopped on critical issues (gay rights, gun rights, abortion) to better position himself to win a GOP contest. Yet as he tries to exploit the issue of jobs, he risks drawing attention to his own past as a corporate bulldozer who rode over bumps in the road on the way to profits. In fact, there's an ad just waiting to be made: real people who lost their jobs, on a desert highway, noting that Romney and Bain stranded them.



Muslims despised today by GOP; tomorrow,



From Politico





Roger Simon: Muslims despised today; tomorrow, you

Simon says Republican candidates who despise Muslims today may despise you tomorrow.


read more:  http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/57075.html



Wednesday, June 15, 2011

FactCheck GOP NH Debate: Incorrect, Misl

From FactCheck.org:



In the first New Hampshire debate among 2012 presidential hopefuls, we

found a number of incorrect, misleading or shaky factual claims:



Pawlenty was wrong when he boasted that he was "one of the few

governors" to respond to a Bush request to send guardsmen to the

southern border. In fact, all 50 states participated in that border

operation.



Romney claimed that "we didn't raise taxes in Massachusetts" to pay

for his health care law. In fact, his successor imposed a $1-a-pack

tax increase on cigarettes to pay for the new law.



Santorum claimed a Medicare advisory board created by the new federal

health care law will result in a rationing of care for seniors. The

law specifically says the board “shall not include any recommendation

to ration health care.”



Santorum was wrong when he said the Obama administration is "against

any kind of exploration offshore or in Alaska." The administration has

approved 296 new permits for new offshore oil wells since taking

office, and it is considering granting the first permits in Alaska

since 2004.



Bachmann claimed the Congressional Budget Office "has said that

Obamacare will kill 800,000 jobs." That's a distortion. CBO said some

Americans would work less or leave their jobs if they can get health

insurance outside the workplace.



Pawlenty said that "[if] Brazil can have 5 percent growth, then the

United States of America can have 5 percent growth," showing his

economic plan is not unreasonable. But the fact is, World Bank figures

show Brazil has failed to achieve 5 percent growth for 23 of the past

30 years.



Gingrich again tried to rewrite history by claiming that his words

"right-wing social engineering" were "totally taken out of context."

In fact, he called Paul Ryan's plan "too big a jump" and "radical"

change as well.

FactCheck GOP NH Debate: Incorrect, Misl

From FactCheck.org:



In the first New Hampshire debate among 2012 presidential hopefuls, we

found a number of incorrect, misleading or shaky factual claims:



Pawlenty was wrong when he boasted that he was "one of the few

governors" to respond to a Bush request to send guardsmen to the

southern border. In fact, all 50 states participated in that border

operation.



Romney claimed that "we didn't raise taxes in Massachusetts" to pay

for his health care law. In fact, his successor imposed a $1-a-pack

tax increase on cigarettes to pay for the new law.



Santorum claimed a Medicare advisory board created by the new federal

health care law will result in a rationing of care for seniors. The

law specifically says the board “shall not include any recommendation

to ration health care.”



Santorum was wrong when he said the Obama administration is "against

any kind of exploration offshore or in Alaska." The administration has

approved 296 new permits for new offshore oil wells since taking

office, and it is considering granting the first permits in Alaska

since 2004.



Bachmann claimed the Congressional Budget Office "has said that

Obamacare will kill 800,000 jobs." That's a distortion. CBO said some

Americans would work less or leave their jobs if they can get health

insurance outside the workplace.



Pawlenty said that "[if] Brazil can have 5 percent growth, then the

United States of America can have 5 percent growth," showing his

economic plan is not unreasonable. But the fact is, World Bank figures

show Brazil has failed to achieve 5 percent growth for 23 of the past

30 years.



Gingrich again tried to rewrite history by claiming that his words

"right-wing social engineering" were "totally taken out of context."

In fact, he called Paul Ryan's plan "too big a jump" and "radical"

change as well.

Monday, June 13, 2011

BOEHNER'S SPECIAL EXPENSE ACCOUNT



From Politico





 -- Roll Call investigative ace Paul Singer finds that John Boehner more than doubled his own monthly expense account when he moved from minority leader to House speaker this year. 'Boehner now receives a monthly $2,083.33 direct payment for expenses,' Paul writes. 'While Congress has set aside $235,000 a year to cover the expenses of House and Senate leaders, Boehner now appears to be the only Member of the House accepting this money in direct payments each month.' That's $25,000 per year in personal expenses -- or more than 24 percent of American households earn in a year, according to the Census Bureau. 



Friday, June 10, 2011

HOW THE GOP LEARNED TO HATE TAXES



From Politico





 - WP's Lori Montgomery: "The Republican Party once had a home for the thinking of Tom Coburn, Mike Crapo and Saxby Chambliss. But that party is long gone. The three U.S. senators banded together a few months ago in support of higher tax revenue as a means of balancing the federal budget. ... Such reasoning was common in the GOP circa 1963, when Republicans denounced tax cuts proposed by President John F. Kennedy as a road to red ink and rampant inflation. But today's GOP adheres to a 'no new taxes' orthodoxy that has proved far more powerful than the desire to balance the budget. ... 

As House Speaker John A. Boehner has said: Raising taxes is 'unacceptable and a non-starter.' This orthodoxy is now woven so deeply into the party's identity that all but 13 of 288 GOP lawmakers in Congress have signed a formal pledge not to raise taxes. The strategist who invented the pledge, Grover G. Norquist, compares it to a brand, like Coca-Cola"http://wapo.st/mvycjx