Mitt Romney Has Major Investments at Goldman Sachs (for 3/17/12)

In December, leading GOP Presidential contender Mitt Romney said, "I am not a Wall Street guy, classically defined."  He tried to emphasize that his firm, Bain Capital, was different from JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and other Wall Street banks that caused the financial crisis.  But, Romney has significant investments in these banks, with the largest of these being in Goldman Sachs.  He reported on disclosure forms last August Goldman investments between $17.7 million and $50.5 million.  Romney's investment portfolio dwarfs those of other GOP Presidential candidates, who are not Goldman Sachs clients.  Accusations made by Michigan Senator Carl Levin against this firm include pushing investments predicted to fail onto its clients and lying to Congress.  This leads one to believe that Romney would serve the interests of Goldman Sachs before he serves the needs of the American people as Goldman Sachs as already infiltrated the U.S. Government with many former employees and hires former high-ranking U.S. officials in return.  This allows people in this inner circle to perosonally enrich themselves as everyone else in this country gets poorer.

http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/mitt-romney-goldman-sachs-investments

Romney Supporter: Billionaires Have Too Little Political Influence

Ken Griffin, a Chicago-based billionaire hedge fund manager, is a Mitt Romney supporter who thinks the super-rich have an "insufficient influence" over American politics, even though he thinks politicians should pay so much attention to CEOs.  He also believes the Obama Administration is at fault for the social unrest over income inequality and that China is pulling people out of poverty by embracing policies favoring the private sector.  He also believes that there is nothing wrong with billionaires, hedge fund managers, and other super-wealthy individuals spending unlimited amounts of money to influence elections.  It took a fraction of this campaign spending to get policies that benefit only the upper part of the top 1% and these lack of spending limits are designed to keep the system from changing.  Although he thinks companies should not directly harm others, he does not want government picking which businesses succeed and which ones fail.  But, he is out of touch by applying this way of thinking to this recent Chicago coal plant closings.  In response to the overwhelming neighborhood and community pressure to shut them down, he does not believe that "the company that injures people to be shut down and for the government to start a competing enterprise."  Which must means that he want business and government to work together, even if it means screwing over other people's health.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/03/10/442067/billionaire-romney-backer-ultrawealthy-have-an-insufficient-influence-over-politics/; http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0311-confidential-griffin-web-version-20120311,0,2604121,full.column

Another Romney Gaffe - Wife Has 2 Cadillacs

Leading GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney cannot stop flaunting his wealth and finds new ways to show how out of touch he is with average Americans.  In a speech on Friday in Detroit, Michigan, the city home to the auto industry that he wanted to go bankrupt, he said that his wife Ann drives two Cadillacs.  Mitt said he has a Ford Mustang and a Chevy pickup truck.  But, in a recent poll, 71% of registered voters believe Romney cannot see the economic realities that average Americans  currently face.  He lived in Michigan in his youth and his father successfully led this state as its Governor.  But, that is meaningless to unemployed workers in Michigan, which has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the country.  While someone pursuing the Office of President should be very successful, a man of his wealth ought to do much more in terms of charity or philanthropy than he does in order to connect with people of average income.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2012/0224/Another-Mitt-Romney-clunker-Ann-drives-a-couple-of-Cadillacs-actually

Law Firm Office Representing in GM in Bankruptcy Hosts Romney Fundraiser

Mitt Romney's campaign held a fundraiser last week in New York at the law firm office of Weil, Gotshal, & Manges, which got wealthy off of fees from GM to represent it in bankruptcy.  Even though Romney opposed the bailout of GM and Chrysler to save the auto industry, he could not pass up an opportunity to get his hands on more money for his campaign.  This lust for money can best be described as a type of personal profiteering that is more ruthless than the business practices of Wall Street Banks, since they invested nothing to bail out the auto industry.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/02/16/427288/romney-fundraises-office-gm-bankruptcy/

Romney: Private Sector Should Have Bailed Out Carmakers, But Bain Didn't Invest (for 2/21/12)

Mitt Romney thought that the private sector should have bailed out GM and Chrysler to save the American auto industry in 2009.  Romney thought those companies should have been liquidated, not reorganized in bankruptcy proceedings.  No private investors, not even Bain Capital, stepped up and provided the needed capital.  While Romney was not at Bain when this happened, the knowledge he gained there should have told him that investors would not step up and bail them out.  But, the Obama Administration went ahead and bailed out them out.  Romney surely wanted to break the unions and make the Detroit's auto workers take deep cuts in any bailout of the industry.  He would not care about the damage it does to Detroit's economy. This will make many voters, especially those in Detroit, reconsider Romney's private sector experience as a strength of his.  If the private sector does not step up and hire unemployed Americans, it makes the public suspicious of any candidate who touts his private sector experience.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/21/1066929/-Mitt-Romney-says-auto-bailout-should-have-come-from-the-private-sector-But-Bain-refused-to-invest-?via=siderecent

Billionaire Romney Donor Bullies Critics

Frank VanderSloot, an Idaho billionaire, is a huge donor to Mitt Romney's campaign and is its Finance co-chair. In 2004, Forbes magazine accused VanderSloot's company, Melaleuca, of being a pyramid scheme in selling dietary supplements and cleaning products. VanderSloot has filed costly lawsuits against Forbes, Mother Jones, and others that led these publications to remove articles that cast him in a harsh light for his anti-gay activism. Even local Idahoan bloggers have felt his wrath as he sued for infringing on copyrights by publishing a harsh letter his lawyers sent them. He now seeks to take this approach nationally. Billionaires who can use their riches to initimdate people in this way are threat to them and freedom of speech guaranteed in the First Amendment. Often called "Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation" (SLAPP), these actions are used by billionaires to protect their wealth when they feel threatened. Nearly 30 states have anti-SLAPP laws. All Ameircans should have the ability to investigate individuals like VanderSloot, especially when they can secretly contribute unlimited money through SuperPACS to Presidential campaigns. http://www.salon.com/2012/02/19/billionaire_romney_donor_uses_threats_to_silence_critics/singleton/

$10,000 Mitt Romney Policy Roundtables

Mitt Romney met with wealthy supporters who last week to discuss policy ideas with those who donated at least $10,000. They talked about energy, education, international relations, and healthcare among others. In other words, he is selling policymaking to the upper part of the Top 1% and ignoring the ideas of average Americans. For example, Dominion Power CEO Thomas Farrell was present and likely discussed what American energy policy should be. L.E. Simmons, another wealthy donor, has experience with private equity investments in energy and likely gave Romney ideas on both financial and energy policy. http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/02/11/422858/romney-10k-policy-roundtables/ http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/romney-holds-a-policy-round-table-but-attendees-must-raise-10000/

Sheldon Adelson's Income: $3.3 Million Per HOUR (for 2/9/12)

The biggest contributor to Newt Gingrich's campaign, Sheldon Adelson, recently gave $5 million to a Gingrich Super PAC. This helped Gingrich to an unexpected GOP primary win over Mitt Romney in South Carolina. Adelson's income last year was $7 billion. This wealth came from his ownership of Sands Corporation, a big casino and resort operator based in Las Vegas. This shows the staggering income inequality that exists in America. If he worked just 40 hours per week, his hourly wage rate would be $3.3 million per hour. He met with Gingrich for several hours at The Venetian earlier this month. Adelson earned much of this money from stock gains in his casinos and resorts in Asia, particularly China. He would also be open to supporting other GOP candidates such as Mitt Romney. Last year, the median American household earned $49,455, an hourly rate of $23.77 on 40 hours weekly. This comes out to a rate of almost 140,000 times to one. This inequality and concentration of wealth fuels social unrest and understandable class envy. Even if he kept $1 billion of income for himself last year, he could give one million full-time workers in Sands' hometown of Las Vegas an hourly wage increase of $2.80 per hour. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/08/newt-gingrich-sheldon-adelson-income_n_1263249.html

GOP Attacks Chrysler Ad; Mitt Romney Wanted Detroit to go Bankrup in 2008 (For 2/6/12)

During the Super Bowl, Chrysler aired a Super Bowl ad, known as "half-time in America" starring Clint Eastwood. It highlighted Detroit's recovery from the financial crisis. Republicans such as Karl Rove criticized President Obama for robbing taxpayers to give free advertising to automakers that his adminstration bailed out in 2009 for a total of $12.5 billion. Just as significant, Mitt Romney wrote an editorial in 2008, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." He argued that Detroit Automakers would continue to lose jobs and global market share due to product deficiencies. They have labor and pension costs that are too much for the market to handle. Therefore, he thought they did not deserve the bailout they got. However, much of the problems Detroit Automakers had resulted from the financial crisis that hit the stock market that year and rising healthcare costs during the last ten years. When all people nationwide lost much of their savings due to the September 2008 stock market crash, they cut back on big items such as new cars. All of sudden, the revenues of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler dropped sharply in late 2008. Since one in ten American jobs is linked to these manufacturers, there was public pressure for a bailout in early 2009 after Wall Street got theirs. When Romney wrote this editorial, America was losing 700,000 to 800,000 jobs per month and headed for a Second Great Depression. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/9065539/US-Election-2012-Clint-Eastwood-defends-himself-over-political-Chrysler-Super-Bowl-ad.html http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/opinion/19romney.html

Obama Has Huge Electoral Vote Advantage Despite Failures (For 2/4/12)

In spite of high unemployment, a very flawed healthcare reform bill, extending all of the Bush Tax Cuts through the end of this year, and failure to break up the Big Banks, President Obama still is likely to get re-elected this November. He has also signed bad trade deals, still has not ended all of George W. Bush's wars, expanded offshore oil drilling, and failed to reform the tax code. Twenty states with 259 electoral votes have him currently leading the Republican candidate. Republicans have only 106 electoral votes from 15 states in good shape for November. There 173 electoral votes up for grabs. Bill Clinton had 153 votes from 14 states at the same time in 1996 and cruised to re-election. The Republicans are fielding their worst field of candidates in a long time. Approval ratings are at 35% for Mitt Romney and 30% for Rick Santorum. Only 26% of the public approves of Newt Gingrich. Stephen Colbert, as a comedian who uses his sarcasm to do great impressions of conservatives, has a 38% approval rating. Most conservatives, though, do not see how bad he makes them look. Most Occupy Wall Street protesters, on the other hand, want the GOP to realize their failings. They certainly would like to see an opposition party that challenges Obama to come up with better solutions and bolder ideas to our economic problems. http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/11449339-shocker-obama-holds-huge-electoral-vote-advantage-in-statebystate-polling-

Romney: "Not Concerned About the Very Poor" (for 2/2/12)

In a gaffe televised in an interview on CNN, leading GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney said, "I'm not concerned about the very poor." The Wealthy were not of his worries, either, and says everyone in between should be the primary concern. He also thinks "Safety Net" programs, such as housing vouchers, food stamps, and Medicaid should be fixed as needed. Conservatives ripped him for both not putting a plan to wean them off the "Safety Net" and giving Democrats the ability to portray Republicans as incompassionate. But, given his history of flip-flopping on many issues, Romney is likely moving the goalposts here. He has domestic cuts, but none to defense, in his budget. He plans to get rid of tax credits for the working poor and wants to block grant domestic programs in fixed amounts. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2012/02/mitt-romney-very-poor-criticism-rush-limbaugh-/1 http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/On-the-Economy/2012/0202/What-Mitt-Romney-s-poor-gaffe-really-means

Romney Revising Tax Disclosures for Offshore Funds (for 1/27/12)

Mitt Romney's campaign staff is changing federal ethics disclosure forms to include some investments held offshore, but not reported on his taxes last year. Last year, he did not include an investment held in Switzerland's UBS Bank worth million of dollars on his return. He also added funds from the Cayman Islands, Ireland, and Bermuda to his returns. Romney has about $250 million in wealth. These forms require Presidential candidates and their spouses to diclose all of their total assets and income. In other words, Mitt Romney hides his money all over the world to avoid paying taxes and will not disclose his wealth unless he needs to do it for political gain. In truth, revising disclosures like this should trigger a scandal that deems him unsuitable for office. http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/26/10244809-romney-revising-disclosures-for-overseas-accounts

Mitt Romney Could Have Waited Decades to Pay His Taxes (1/22/12)

Mitt Romney pays an federal income tax rate of about 15% and says he is "not going to apologize for being successful." Someone who earns a wage of $60,000 also pays about this rate. Dividends and capital gains, which comprise most of his income, have tax rates of 15%. As someone who manages an investment partnership such as Bain Capital, Romney can make income now and report it as carried interest. This allows him to defer tax payments for decades. He promises to release many years of his tax returns. He put $100 million aside for his sons. What he is paying taxes on will remain a mystery if he does not release tax returns from 1984-1999, when he ran Bain Capital. This will surely spur the debate for serious tax reform. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/22/column-what-romney-tax-re_n_1218453.html?ref=business

Mitt Romney's Investments Scattered Around The World (1/18/12)

Mitt Romney his hiding his tax returns for a very good reason. They will not help him win the November 2012 Presidential election. While at Bain Capital, he probably moved much of his wealth to accounts abroad to take advantage of various tax breaks used by only the wealthiest bankers and investors in the Top 1%. Bain funds have key international connections for moving money offshore. Romney shifted his wealth to Delaware, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Hong Kong, and Ireland. Romney's family got over $1 million in 2010 from one Cayman Islands investment, Bain Capital Fund VIII. What does this mean for President Obama? In the 2008 campaign, he ran into Joe the Plumber, who questioned why Obama wanted to raise his taxes. Obama can effectively use the phrase, "spread the wealth," and have more credibility than Romney, who spreads his wealth -- around the world, that is. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/yet-another-tax-advantage-for-romney/2012/01/18/gIQAvh017P_blog.html

Romney: My Tax Rate is Lower Than Most Americans (for 1/17/12)

Mitt Romney says he pays about 15% taxes on his income. The investments he previously made comprise much of his yearly income over the past decade. He also gets income from his book and giving speeches. Noted investor Warren Buffett has railed against the 15% rate for being lower than average Americans and wants Congress to stop favoring the wealthy. For the year ending February 2011, Romney received over $300,000 for giving speeches. This is not much for him, which speaks to his immense wealth. Tax rates for dividends and capitol gains are only 15%. Democrats do not like seeing people who teach, keep our streets safe, or do hard, physical labor pay higher income tax rates than multi-millionaires like Romney. Even Newt Gingrich wants Romney to make his tax returns public. This should spur tax reform to make the Top 1% pay higher minimum taxes. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57360230-503544/romney-admits-he-pays-lower-tax-rate-than-most-americans/

Romney Profitted from Tax Breaks, Subsidies (for 1/13/12)

During Mitt Romney's tenure, Bain Capital invested in Steel Dynamics to help its steel mill grow to over 6,000 jobs now in Indiana's DeKalb County. He has not told the public how Indiana and DeKalb County provided Bain with very favorable tax breaks and subsidies. Bain made a June 1994 investment of $18.2 million in Steel Dynamics and reaped $104 million off it five years later. Bain received $37 million in subsidies for the mill and despite citizen opposition, DeKalb County raised income taxes for infrastructure upgrades to benefit Bain, which also received $23.4 million in property tax relief from the County. State tax credits of $4.4 million also went to Bain. GS Industries, another Bain Investment, was based in Kansas City and went broke in 2001. Bain reaped huge dividends from GS Industries while taking away paychecks, health insurance, and some retirement benefits from 700 workers. Bain wanted the U.S. Government to back $50 million on this investment. Stories like these will drive the public to demand real tax reform that gets rid of subsidies that benefit corporations, investors, and the wealthy. The Cato Institute, a free-market think tank, has even decried these as example of "corporate welfare." http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bain-subsidies-20120113,0,1268299.story

Jon Stewart Points out GOP Candidates' Hypocrisy over Romney's Bain Capital Record (for 1/11/12)

Jon Stewart points out the hypocrisy of other Presidential Contenders launching attacks in the GOP debates on Mitt Romney over his track record of firing thousands of people while at Bain Capital. Stewart says, "Mitt Romney answered the Republicans' eHarmony ad" for the Presidential nomination. On The Daily Show, he played clips of all the contenders talking about free markets, deregulation, and lower taxes. http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/jon-stewart-romney-answered-gops-e-harmony-ad-and-now-rivals-hate-him.php http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/jon-stewart-gop-hypocritical-class-warfare-mitt-romney_n_1196232.html?ref=comedy

GOP Presidential Candidates Attack Romney's Greed (for 1/10/12)

Independents, Democrats, liberals, and anybody else who does not have a right-wing viewpoint regularly attack Mitt Romney for cutting jobs to make massive profits for himself. In the GOP debates however, his rival contenders have gone after him and broke ranks with current GOP economic thought. Romney started Bain Capital, a prviate equity firm, in 1984 and was its first CEO. Of 77 companies Bain invested in over 15 years, 22% of them went bankrupt as Bain bought them, ran up lots of debt, sold them off, and laid off thousands of workers. Jon Huntsman said, "he likes firng people." Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry both believe Romney raided businesses, destroying jobs to enrich his investors. But, he remains the leading GOP Presidential Candidate to win the nomination. Which suggests that most GOP voters do not have a problem with all of the jobs going overseas and dismiss it has a harsh reality of the mythical free market capitalism that they believe in. Which also suggests that they do not believe that Romney's tactics as a corporate raider do not harm the economy, despite evidence to the contrary. http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/01/09/400769/republican-pile-on-bain-capital/ http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/09/400404/romney-bain-bankrupts-billions/

Romney: Only the Wealthy Should Run For Office (for 1/9/12)

Mitt Romney suggests only the Wealthy, a.k.a. The Top 1%, should run for Congress. In the NBC/Facebook GOP Debate, he said his father was wise enough to tell him to never run for any elected office "if you need to win an election to pay a mortgage." Only Rick Perry's campaign team took offense among GOP Presidential contenders. Romney ought to tell that to the hundreds of thousands of American kicked out of their homes in the wave of foreclosures over the past 6-7 years. They would seek reparations for all those kicked out of their homes and not just tougher regulations to prevent banks from pushing bad mortgages on unsuspecting homeowners. They would seek topunish them, too. http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/mitt-romney-dont-run-for-office-if-you-need-the-salary.php

Romney Tax Plan Least Generous to Top 1% Among GOP Candidates (for 1/8/12)

Mitt Romney wants to give millionaires and billionaires even more tax cuts they don't need. But, among GOP Presiential candidates the least generous to the Top 1% of the wealthiest Americans. He would still tax a millionaire's income at an effective rate over 25% on everything above $1 million. Newt Gingrich's plan would see even steeper tax cuts for the wealthy, as nobody would face a rate over 18%. Millionaires would face an effective tax rate of 11-12%. Under Rick Perry, Nobody would face a rate of ovr 20% and millionaires would face a rate of 15%. Under Herman Cain and his infamous "9-9-9 Plan", millionaires would pay the lowest tax rate of everyone. This is the worst plan of all as everyone from $35,000 to $200,000 would face the highest tax rates. Millionaires currently face a top rate of 35%. They are not suffering. They cannot get more tax cuts with the possibility of Medicare or Medicaid cuts in the near-future. That would be inhumane. http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/01/06/relative-to-gop-field-romney-tax-plan-gives-less-to-the-rich/