I wrote yesterday about the new MoveOn ad against Mitt Romney:
"Mitt Romney Doesn't Care About Jobs; He Cares About Money!"
I worked in a steel mill in Kansas City for over 32 years. Then Mitt Romney and Bain Capital came in a took the place over and eventually shut it down. We lost our jobs; they made millions. Businesses, they were all gone. Jobs we'll never see again.
Mitt Romney wants to call himself a “job creator”? Mitt Romney doesn’t care about jobs; he cares about money.
Today, Reuters had a great story on the layoffs:Special report: Romney's steel skeleton in the Bain closet
Less than a decade later, the mill was padlocked and some 750 people lost their jobs. Workers were denied the severance pay and health insurance they'd been promised, and their pension benefits were cut by as much as $400 a month.
What's more, a federal government insurance agency had to pony up $44 million to bail out the company's underfunded pension plan. Nevertheless, Bain profited on the deal, receiving $12 million on its $8 million initial investment and at least $4.5 million in consulting fees.
PROFITABLE FAILURES
In his campaign for president, Romney has championed free markets and vowed to shrink the role of government. The Republican has argued that his business acumen makes him the best candidate to fix the nation's economy and bring down the stubbornly high unemployment rate. Romney's opponents point to his business career as evidence that he is willing to cut jobs and benefits.
The story of Bain's failed investment in the Kansas City mill offers a perspective on a largely overlooked chapter in Romney's business record: His firm's brush with a U.S. bailout.
http://www.reuters.com/...
MoveOn has another video today with the same theme: Danny Box, who was in yesterday's ad, and Glen Patrick Wells, both former workers at the Kansas City steel plant Romney bled dry for his own profit and then closed. Hell, the federal government had to bail out the pension plan because Bain Capital underfunded it.
When Mitt Romney says President Obama does not understand the American economy, he means that the President is not a bloodsucking corporate raider who destroys companies for his own profit. That's the Reagan economy, the You're On Your Own economy. In contrast, President Obama knows: "We're All In It Together." Obama did not use his Harvard law degree to become incredibly wealthy. Instead, he worked to make a fairer, more decent nation, he helped people. Romney epitomizes Greed writ large. And we know which side Mr. 1% is on.
The new video is about two minutes, but it shows how much ammunition there is in this story (and others where Romney destroyed good jobs). It's worth sampling or watching it all.
Does Mitt Romney Care About Jobs or Just Making Money?
Here's some comments from Mr. Wells:
"I spent 34 years in this steel mill. They walked out of here with millions. They left us with nothing. .... They tell you he wants to come in and help this country. He'll raid this country and leave it with nothing, just like he did with our jobs. That's what he does"
Greg Sargent at The Plum Line reached Mr. Wells, one of the workers in the video, and he turns out to be a conservative who voted for George W Bush twice (2000 and 2004), and for McCain in 2008, "detests" Obama, but who won't vote for Romney.
I reached Wells today, and unlike Box, he tells me he’s a conservative, who has switched back and forth from Republican to independent, and says he voted for George W. Bush for president in 2000 and 2004 and John McCain in 2008. (He has also supported Claire McCaskill for Senate.) Yet despite his leanings, he was willing to conspire with MoveOn to produce this video, which is a pretty good preview of the sort of thing you’ll be seeing in ads in struggling Rust Belt communities against Romney, should he become the GOP nominee.
Indeed, Wells says he’s so furious with Romney that he says he’s open to appearing in TV spots against him in order to make the case he makes in the above video — even if it would mean helping Obama.
“Right now, if Romney gets in, I am so disgusted that I will probably vote for Obama and I detest him,” Wells says. “Anyone who is willing to put a predatory capitalist in office deserves to get Obama.”
While I wish Mr. Wells had learned a few better lessons that to support the Republican war on workers by voting for Bush and McCain, this shows how vulnerable Romney truly is.
From the Chris Mathews show, Bain & Co: The 1994 Ad By Sen. Ted Kennedy Which Will Floor Mitt Romney in 2012
Romney is very vulnerable.
Fired Up and Ready to Go!
Background data From MoveOn Political Action
“Donny Box worked for GST, at a steel mill in Kansas City, Mo., for 32 years. A few years after Bain took over, the company went belly-up and the plant closed. Box says Bain ruined the community and his friends' lives." NPR, October 6, 2011.
http://www.wbur.org/...
“In 1993, Bain Capital bought the company GST Steel, which later filed for bankruptcy protection and closed a steel plant in Kansas City, and a string of smaller companies also ran into trouble after being acquired by Bain Capital.” Politico, July 14, 2011. http://www.politico.com/...
“As head of private equity firm Bain Capital LLC, Romney was the lead deal-maker, buying and selling companies to make money for investors. Whether companies boomed or filed for bankruptcy, the Boston-based firm found profits for Romney, its other executives and investors. Romney, who spent most of his career at Bain, estimated his wealth in 2007 at as much as $250 million.” Bloomberg, July 20, 2011. http://www.bloomberg.com/...
“More than 700 workers were fired, losing not only their jobs but health insurance, severance and a chunk of their pension benefits. GSI retirees also lost their health insurance and other benefits. Bain partners received about $50 million on their initial investment, a 100% gain.” The Los Angeles Time, December 3, 2011. http://articles.latimes.com/...
“In 2001, the company shut the Kansas City plant, which it said was losing money. More than 700 workers lost their jobs. Retirees and those eligible to retire lost their health benefits and life insurance, said John Wiseman, a staff representative with the United Steelworkers.” Bloomberg, July 20, 2011. http://www.bloomberg.com/...
“Although Romney was CEO of Bain during that period, he has said he had no involvement in the layoffs and the plant closure.” NPR, October 6, 2011.
http://www.wbur.org/...
‘”Guys lost houses, guys lost cars, and I'll tell you what — the ... number of people that had been married 30, 35, 40 years that split up. There were quite a few people that committed suicide,’ Box says.” NPR, October 6, 2011. http://www.wbur.org/...
“Romney often equates good performance with job creation. ‘We added tens of thousands of jobs through the businesses we helped support,’ Romney said during a debate at the Ronald Reagan presidential library last month. ‘That experience — succeeding, failing, competing around the world — is what gives me the capacity to help get this economy going again.’” NPR, October 6, 2011. http://www.wbur.org/...
“What Romney skips is his experience in eliminating jobs.” Bloomberg, July 20, 2011. http://www.bloomberg.com/...
“Some quick background: Private equity firms like Bain are known for raising money from outside investors; using that money to buy up struggling companies; restructuring the companies (think layoffs, slashing worker benefits, and selling off pieces of the business); and finally selling the (supposedly) leaner, meaner businesses for a profit.” Bloomberg, July 20, 2011. http://www.bloomberg.com/...