Pious baloney from National Review:
Mitt Romney ran a firm that invested in struggling businesses, made money, and never asked for a bailout — and Romney’s rivals apparently expect Republican voters to regard that as a liability.
Never asked for a bailout? Uh:
Republican Senate nominee Mitt Romney's rescue of a business consulting firm was achieved in part by convincing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to forgive roughly $10 million of the company's debts, according to sources close to the deal and federal records obtained by The Boston Globe.
Romney, whose business acumen has been the cornerstone of his campaign, has said saving the Bain & Co. consulting firm from the brink of bankruptcy in 1991 was the accomplishment that most convinced him he had the mettle to be a US senator.
That's from The Boston Globe, October 25, 1994 (via Nexis). So not only did Mitt Romney ask for a federal bailout—he received one. And unlike loan guarantees, Romney sought—and received—the equivalent of cold hard cash. Romney apologists will say that the FDIC is funded by financial transaction fees, but taxpayers provided the backstop, and even though Bain & Co. went on to make millions more in profits, the fund was never replenished.
That's not the only bailout in Romney's past, however. When a steel mill backed by Bain collapsed, not only was the entire workforce out of a job, but the federal government was on the hook to the tune of $44 million to bail out the mill's pension plan. Bain, however, made nearly $10 million on the deal, profiting handsomely from failure.
I can't say that I'm surprised that Mitt Romney and his allies have conveniently forgotten about these bailouts ... but I am a little puzzled about why his Republican rivals haven't brought them up yet. They don't have much—if any—more time.
