Romney profit from bailouts: hege fund pay days $12.9 billion from US taxpayers.

Mitt Romney/AP

Review of article From The Nation

 "Once the hedge funders, including Singer—a deep-pocketed right-wing donor and activist who serves as chair of the conservative, anti-union Manhattan Institute—took control of the firm, they rid Delphi of every single one of its 25,200 unionized workers. Of the twenty-nine Delphi plants operating in the United States when the hedge funders began buying up control, only four remain, with not a single union production worker. Romney’s “job creators” did create jobs—in China, where Delphi now produces the parts used by GM and other major automakers here and abroad. Delphi is now incorporated overseas, leaving the company with 5,000 employees in the United States (versus almost 100,000 abroad)."

The Nation published an excellent article explaining how the auto industry bail out, the one that Romney blasts all the time during his campaign, has helped make him millions of dollars.  By using his wife Anns, blind trust that invested 1 million dollars into Singer's "vulture investment, " he and his wife, Ann, personally gained at least $15.3 million from the bailout."

The Romneys were invested with Elliott Management by the end of 2010, before a GM parts supplier, Delphy, was publicly traded.  The investment that Ann made could have been more than 1 million, because of the minimal disclosure required by law, does not make them tell how much they really invested in this vulture investment plan...before the automobile bailout plan had taken place.  Romney did not keep the holding in "his" name because if he had, he would have to reveal that he earned more than $50 million dollars...from our tax money in bailout and Stingers vulture investment plan.

Not only that, but the article says, that the bailout plan was to help save the 25, 200 unionized workers. Instead, due to the trading of the company into other hands and GM control holding GM by the hair as the sole supplier; the end result is that the 25, 200 union workers lost their jobs.  Out of 29 factories in the United States, only four remain in America leaving America with 5,000 employees and 100,000 working abroad in China.  Yes, Romney did create jobs...but not in America, but in China.

Ad's have been running blaming Obama for the pension disaster and those forced to retire early, earning minimal wages are interviewed on the television ads.  However, it was not Obama that is responsible for the pension disaster  that left 20,000 with a minimal pension plan.  It was Stinger and other hege funds that controlled Delphi. 

To read more on how this was done read the Mitt Romney's Bailout Bonanza on the Nation.

Bain Capitalism: A time to debate

Durban was headed back home to Illinois for a meeting with workers at the Sensata Technologies plant in Freeport, where 170 employees are slated to lose their jobs to outsourcing before the end of the year. Sensata, which for decades has produced state-of-the-art sensors and controls for Ford and General Motors, is precisely the sort of high-tech operation that a country looking to compete in the global economy of the twenty-first century would want to maintain as a domestic manufacturer. So why are the jobs moving to China?... Because Bain Capital owns the company, and Bain is committed to the industrial development of Chinese provinces—not to states like Illinois. That’s not what most Americans would identify as a smart choice for the nation’s future—let alone “economic patriotism.” But that is how Bain, which got its operating ethos from former CEO Mitt Romney, operates. Romney still profits mightily from his Bain connection—as The New York Times and numerous business journals have well documented—and he remains closely tied to current Bain executives. So if anyone could get Bain to rethink the outsourcing of the Sensata jobs, it’s Mitt Romney. Read more on the Nation

Are you going to vote for this man?

Susan Brannon
18 September 2012


Normally, I try to stay away from the current election in America, but this recent video leak makes the cake.  We all know who Mitt Romney is but who is Mitt Romney when the camera's are not rolling for public view?

This video shows the real personality of the man who feels that he is qualified to run for the President of the United States and represent the American people and to take a stand for the American people, or shall I say a few American people. This is a man running for the highest office to solve all of the American economic woes and a man that will set things right in order to save our failing country.  This is a man who is asking for your vote and support so he can set things right in America.

In this video Mitt Romney speaks like a true businessman and corporate leader at a Boca Raton fundraiser on May 17, 2012.  He clearly trashes 47 percent of the American people, "who pay no income tax.  So our message of low taxes doesn't connect…who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.  That that's an entitlement…they will vote for this president no matter what.  I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.  What I have to is convince the five to ten percent in the center that are independents that are thoughtful, that look at voting one way or the other depending upon in some cases emotion, whether they like the guy or not."

Is the 47% Romney talking about the Iraqi war veteran, those who retired on Social Security or Medicare or the students who live on a student loan to go to college?  It seems that Romney does not know much about the American people.  This video reveals Romney's arrogant and sinister character and that character has taken the center of his party. Would you want this sinister personality represented to the rest of the world? Do you really think that he will help eradicate poverty in America…that 46.2 million people without work who really want to work?  His past actions clearly tell us that Romney does not care about America, its people, or anything else civil for that matter.

Romany does not mention that his ex company "The Baim Corporation" is under tax investigation. The NY Times  reported, "The tax strategy — which is viewed as perfectly legal by some tax experts, aggressive by others and potentially illegal by some — came to light last month when hundreds of pages of Bain’s internal financial documents were made available online. The financial statements show that at least $1 billion in accumulated fees that otherwise would have been taxed as ordinary income for Bain executives had been converted into investments producing capital gains, which are subject to a federal tax of 15 percent, versus a top rate of 35 percent for ordinary income. That means the Bain partners saved more than $200 million in federal income taxes and more than $20 million in Medicare taxes."  Avoiding 20 million in Medicare taxes is taking away from those who have worked hard all their lives and paid into the system which is now going broke…all because of the arrogant and shellfish attitudes of our corporate leaders. Thank you Romney.

Romney continues to receive profits from the company and held investments in some of the funds that utilized the tax avoidance strategy.  Some folks will arrogantly respond that "This is America, tax avoidance is not illegal and the companies exist to make a profit….everything else is not our responsibility"

Who are Romney's friends?  Marc Leder is ne friend is who hosted the fundraiser he is the CEO of a private equity firm called Sun Capital.  They have the reputation for bankrupting companies for profit.  Sun Capital owns 25 companies and one in every five has filed for bankruptcy.  Sun Capital was also accused by the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation of intentionally pushing a company into bankruptcy in order to avoid paying workers' pension, only a few months ago.  Folks, these people are Romney's friends.  Unfortunately, many millionaires feel comfortable with this sort of action.

America the beautiful is a place where corporations can run and save millions if not billions of dollars by offshoring, tax evading, and manipulating their funds to reduce taxes owed to our country if paying anything at all.  America, a place where it is possible to steal from the country and the people and can run for president all at the same time, with voters behind them. Do not forget that our Constitution clearly states, "The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."

Romney states that housing, food and you name it is an entitlement, eluding that it is not a "right" in America. Our nation was founded for the rights of the people including, "promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." The attitude of the republicans is denial, towards poverty and those who cannot help themselves is "their problem" by denying the reality that this is a direct result of corporate corruption, wall street and bank manipulations, off shoring, layoff's of the close to pension elderly, reducing full to part time without health or medical benefits.  Remember folks, a secure livelihood, a place to live in a safe and secure environment, medical attention, and food is not a "right" to Mitt Romney.  What will be next, will we not have the "right" to education?

Who are not paying taxes?  ABC reports that those making $75,000-$100,000 a year are the fastest growing share who don't pay federal income taxes.  In fact, I know of a woman who reported $12,000 in income last year and had to pay $450.00 in income taxes.  She paid.  However, of more than 20,000 filers that made more than $200,000 a year with 1,470 had an adjusted gross income of more than $1 million - owed no income tax.

In the end, the 47% number is not true.  Yes, 46% of tax fillers will owe no federal income tax, but things like Social Security, Medicare and unemployment…80% of tax filers pay some kind of federal tax.  If you are married and make less than $18,700 you did not have to pay income taxes, if you are older than 65 and the income was $20,000 or less you did not have to pay taxes. Filers with less than $30,000 made up 83% of all the non taxable returns.  This has occurred mainly because of the tax credits and allowable deductions.  The truth is that "many Americans are not paying taxes" and are free loading is a myth.  Nearly 100 percent of Americans pay taxes in some way.

Most of those who do not pay taxes are the elderly and students, those who have poor economic circumstances due to the Recession.  Students will have their turn in paying taxes, the elderly paid taxes over their lifetime and have contributed to the revenue stream. For more in depth information read The Hamilton Project.

Related Articles:
Romney is Hiding Too Many Things
Ed Show: Tax Haven Candidate 
Mitt Romney's Top Contributors 
Romney Backed by Goldman Sacks 
Six Ways to Get Richer Under Romney
Mark Levin Goes Nuclear over Romney
Recalculating Romney's four percent Gimmick

Six ways to get the Rich Richer under Romney

1. Housing bargains – but only for the wealthy and uber-wealthy.  The largest transfer of wealth from the public to private sector. The federal government will be bulk-selling the massive portfolio of foreclosed homes now owned by HUD, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to private investors — vulture  Read More... funds.  “You and I will not be allowed to participate” is that these properties will only be sold to those that can bring “a billion dollars or more to each transaction”

2. Tax breaks are good – especially if you’re rich - RYAN PLAN - $MANY TRILLIONS - PLUS CAYMAN and SWISS ACCOUNTS.  PAY FOR THIS CUTTING PROGRAMS FOR THE 99%.

3. Hedge funds: A typical minimum investment is $2.5 million, but many have much higher admission prices.  PLANNED SCAMS FOR THE RICH!

4. Borrowing is easy – if you don’t need the money
Mark Twain said, “A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.”

5. Buy low and sell high – easier if you’re rich - capitalize on bad times as prices plummet and demand drops and supply increases.

6. Good credit is money in the bank - More income and money you have, the easier it get credit at ZERO%
related articles:
 recalculating romneys four percent gimmick

Recalculating Romneys Four Percent Gimmick

2 April 2012  (Think before you vote...really)  This is one of the most important elections in our history, our future is at stake and this is not a time for playing around...(side note: Susan Brannon)

I have a new piece up at ForeignPolicy.com on Ron Paul and the Republican Party, focused in particular on the strong support that Paul draws from young people, with some additional speculation about where those young people will end up, if and when Paul steps back from his very public role. My instincts are that these young people are motivated at least as much by the ideas that Paul espouses as by Ron Paul, the person. If I am correct, many of them are likely to remain active in politics. I close with a warning to GOP leaders that they would be making a grave error if they ignored this libertarian-leaning voting bloc. Unfortunately, that is what the GOP’s leading candidate, Mitt Romney, seems to be doing by pushing a short-sighted plan for boosting military spending at a time when the country is awash in debt.

I have always been puzzled by the fact that conservatives who rail against welfare dependency here at home miss the pernicious effects of security dependency among our allies. Tim Pawlenty didn’t get it. Neither does Mitt Romney. Rather than questioning the mantras that have guided U.S. foreign policy for over a generation, Romney simply assumes that the United States will remain the world’s policeman, other countries will continue to free-ride on our security guarantees, and U.S. taxpayers will happily foot the bill. He proposes spending at least four percent of GDP on the military’s base budget, plus whatever additional money might be needed to fight the wars that he wants to fight (for example, this one).

I commented on the Four Percent Gimmick a few months ago, and now I have a bit more detail about Romney’s plan relative to the Obama administration’s latest 10-year projections. I alluded to these numbers in the ForeignPolicy.com piece, and below provide some more detail. (I am grateful, as always, for the help of my colleague Charles Zakaib in sorting through these, and in preparing the charts).



The chart above shows spending in nominal, current-year dollars, over the next ten years. The Obama administration plans to spend $5.7 trillion between 2013 and 2022 (the blue bars). If Romney keeps his promise of four percent for defense, he will spend at least $8.3 trillion (using OMB’s GDP projections) over that same period, an additional $2.58 trillion (the yellow bars). His budget in 2022 would top $1 trillion, and would be at least 61 percent higher than Barack Obama’s. He hasn’t said what other spending he will cut, or what taxes he would increase, to cover that difference. Until he does, it is logical to conclude that he plans to pile on more debt.

And we should remember that current laws call for even less spending than President Obama has proposed, but he has chosen to ignore the sequestration provisions of the Budget Control Act. GOP leaders in Congress seem equally disinterested in following through on their promise to kick the spending habit, and several have put forward plans to undo sequestration for the Department of Defense. Either way, the bottom line is more debt. As I speculate at ForeignPolicy.com, no wonder young people seem to like Ron Paul so much (and Mitt Romney so little).

Another way to demonstrate the absurdity of Romney’s plan is to control for inflation and compare it to future and past trends. Looking ahead, in constant, 2012 dollars, annual Pentagon spending will average $744.8 billion over the next ten years—again assuming the same GDP projections as Obama’s plan. That is 44 percent higher than Obama’s average budget (the bright pink line) over that same period, and nearly 59 percent higher than sequestration (the dark red line).

Now consider how this compares with the recent past. As you can see, Romney’s Four Percent Gimmick would result in taxpayers spending more than twice as much on the Pentagon as in 2000 (111 percent higher, to be precise), and 45 percent more than in 1985, the height of the Reagan buildup. Over the next ten years, Romney’s annual spending (in constant dollars) for the Pentagon would average 64 percent higher than annual post-Cold War budgets (1990-2012), and 42 percent more than the average during the Reagan era (1981-1989).





Mitt Romney may genuinely believe that today’s enemies are 42 percent more frightening than the big bad Soviets. He might believe that spending an average of $450 billion (in constant dollars) every year since 1990 has left the country dangerously vulnerable. If that is true, he should say so. More importantly, however, he should be compelled to answer the question on everyone’s mind: Where is he going to get the money to fund his Pentagon spending binge?

Cross-posted from Cato @ Liberty 
Related Information:
(Mar 01, 2012) - T12-0040 - Romney Tax Plan Without Unspecified Base Broadeners; Baseline: Current Policy; Distribution of Federal Tax Change by Cash Income Level, 2015

Watch Mitt Romney's Speech on Michigan Primary Win: 'We Won by Enough'

Romney backed by Goldman Sacks

By Andrew Henry
Newsmax

The top donor to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, investment banking and securities firm Goldman Sachs, received over $10 billion in emergency lending and bailouts from the Federal Reserve after the 2008 financial meltdown, according to public sources and published reports.

Goldman backed Obama for election in 2008, and the firm, like many Wall Street institutions, is now backing Mitt Romney for president.

Romney has long had a close relationship with Goldman Sachs. In 1999 Romney purchased initial IPO shares in Goldman that netted him $1.1 million in profits when he sold them in 2010.

And The New York Times recently reported that “many of the assets in Romney’s blind trust” are managed by Goldman.

Today, Goldman is Romney’s largest donor.

And nine of Romney’s top 20 campaign contributors are big Wall Street Banks like Goldman. But Goldman leads all Romney contributors, having donated $367,200 to his campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Six of those nine top contributors received over $161 billion in taxpayer bailouts, reports ProPublica, the independent, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative organization.

Goldman doesn’t contribute directly to candidates like Romney, but does so through its employees.

Romney’s ties to Goldman have already become a campaign issue. During Thursday’s CNN debate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich stated that Romney profited from millions he invested in a Goldman Sachs fund that relied heavily on investments in the mortgage-backed securities linked to the 2008 implosion on Wall Street. Romney said he personally didn’t direct the investment, which he said was made through his trust.

Still, Romney’s close ties with Goldman will continue to nag his campaign.

ProPublica says that the The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., received over $782 million in emergency lending from the Federal Reserve. On Jan. 17, the investigative site reported that the total of taxpayer bailouts received by Goldman tallied a whopping $10 billion.

The relationship between Goldman and Romney goes far beyond its patronage of his campaign. The firm has reportedly managed significant assets of Romney’s in his blind trust.

Read more on Newsmax.com: Romney Backed by Goldman Sachs, Bailout Banks
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!

Romney’s relationship with Goldman dates back at least to 1999, when he purchased 7,000 shares of Goldman’s initial public offering. The release of those shares was tightly held, and were largely unavailable to ordinary investors.

According to a May 1999 BusinessWeek story, “few of the public shareholders were folks who happened to be lucky enough to snare a few shares.”

One potential political landmine for Romney: Personal financial disclosures from May 2011 indicating he and his family invested millions in a Goldman Sachs fund that invested heavily in mortgage-backed debt obligations.

There have been growing indications that Romney’s ties to Wall Street would be subjected to intense scrutiny in a general election campaign especially the Goldman Sachs fund he invested in that benefited from the housing collapse.

Romney’s disclosure forms show that he invested between $1 and $5 million in the fund, and his wife Ann invested another $1 million plus.

The report is based on Romney’s May 2011 personal financial disclosures, which indicates significant investments in the “Goldman Sachs Strategic Income Fund (institutional class).” Approximately 24.5 percent of that fund is reportedly invested in mortgage-backed obligations.

Romney’s profit taking through his Goldman fund investment remains a sensitive subject in Florida, one of the states hardest hit by the housing meltdown. Romney’s Goldman fund invested in some of the biggest culprits in the housing meltdown, including Bear Stearns, Countrywide, IndyMac and Washington Mutual.

In October, Romney ran into trouble on the foreclosure issue, when suggested the remedy to the turmoil in the real estate market is “don’t try and stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom.”

On Tuesday, Romney stood before a foreclosed home and promised a small crowd of Floridians that he would encourage financial institutions to help homeowners. But he also partially defended banking institutions’ role in the mortgage crisis.

“In this case, it’s because of the banks,” he said, according to a FoxNews.com report. “Well, the banks aren’t bad people. They’re just overwhelmed.”

By comparison, only one of the top 20 contributors to GOP rival Newt Gingrich’s campaign is a bank: Wells Fargo donated $5,900 to the Gingrich campaign through Sept. 30.

Then-candidate Barack Obama received strong support from Wall Street in the 2008 cycle. But so far this cycle, the only financial institution listed among his top 20 donors is Goldman Sachs. It contributed $50,124 to his re-election campaign.

Analysts say Wall Street’s lackluster financial support for the president’s reelection campaign reflects the pinch they’re feeling on profits due to the Dodd-Frank financial regulations reforms he has championed.

Read more on Newsmax.com: Romney Backed by Goldman Sachs, Bailout Banks
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!