The Bane that Bain Was
Vice President Biden today will be reminding voters of the carnage Bain left and of Mitt Romney’s ineffective business leadership.
He thinks that because he spent his career as a “businessman,” he has the experience to run the economy.So let’s take a look at a couple of things he did.
He’s raised it. So let’s take a real hard look at it.
In the 1990s, there was a steel mill in Kansas City, Missouri. It had been in business since 1888. Then Romney and his partners bought the company. Eight years later it went bankrupt.
After a couple of years, because of the way things were being run, the employees went on strike and negotiated an agreement whereby, if anything happened to the company, they would still get their health care and their pensions.
In the meantime, Romney’s management team added debt on the company. When they bought the company it had only $13 million of debt. By the time it filed for bankruptcy, its debt had increased 40 fold to over $533 million.
Even the CEO of the company said it was far too much debt for a company of that size.
I don’t have to tell you in Ohio that in the late 1990s, the steel industry hit tough times. With high payments to make on all that debt, the company couldn’t weather the storm.
And when the company finally filed for bankruptcy, they reneged on their contract with the workers. No health care, lower pensions. Everyone lost their jobs.
But not everyone got hurt. The top 30 executives walked away with $9 million. And Romney and his partners walked away with at least $12 million.
Romney made sure the guys on top got to play by a separate set of rules, he ran massive debts, and the middle class lost. And folks, he thinks this experience will help our economy.
Where I come from, past is prologue.
So what do you think he’ll do as President?
Tags: 2012 Presidential Election, Bain, Joe Biden, Mitt Romney
I love Biden the campaigner. He really knows how to make a connection with voters.
We’re going to need a lot more of this to break out of the “dead heat” narrative. I think Obama will need to be ahead by at least five points – in Rasmussen – for the press to stop reporting a dead heat.
At some point though voters will get Bain fatigue, and Republican counter-attacks claiming Obama is anti-business and anti-success will get some traction.
So Obama is going to need something besides Bain. Fortunately with Romney there is a lot to choose from; Obama just needs to find a way to make it work.
Boehner wants to pick a couple of fights (breaking the debt deal, and debt limit brinksmanship). They reason that Obama will be the grown up in the room and give in.
Another possible outcome would be that team Obama decides to run 100% against the GOP house Republicans. I’d love for that to be the plan, but who knows. He likes his image as the compromiser in chief.
“Another possible outcome would be that team Obama decides to run 100% against the GOP house Republicans.”
As much as I’d like to see that, running against Republicans isn’t enough; you also have to govern against them. If he had done that in 2010 he might not be in this pickle now.
“He likes his image as the compromiser in chief.”
Now there’s a position I’d like to see him evolve on. It really hasn’t been tested since he began his new more progressive tone.
Vice President Biden is about to experience the carnage that Mitt Romney leaves first hand. He is about to loose his own job, thanks to Mitt Romney. Then he will have real first hand knowledge of the Carnage created by Mitt Romney
Rusty, did you come up with that one on your own?
He laid off his brain, and outsourced his thinking a long time ago.
I wonder if Biden has plagiarized any speeches lately or insulted more Asian Americans with the verbal vomit he spews.
But wait, he’s Joe Biden. He can do no wrong!! My bad.
Oh..yes! ha! Conservative humor! Did you hear the one about Andrew Jackson and the wheel of muenster cheese? It is a real knee slapper!! You know, these chesnuts never lose their comedic punch.
“Preston”: Wrong tree, Fido. This is no temple of Biden worship.
Geez, my bad, sir.
Waiting for Preston to brag on Warren Harding
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/23/more-than-you-want-to-know-about-warren-harding/
Suppose Romney picked Margo Bane as his running mate?