“The governor disagreed with the ruling of the court, he agreed with the dissent that was written by Justice Scalia, that very clearly said that the mandate was not a tax,” Eric Fehrnstrom said. “The governor believes what we put in place in Massachusetts was a penalty and he disagrees with the Court’s ruling that the mandate was a tax.”
WASHINGTON - Much of White House hopeful Mitt Romney's fortune lies well-hidden in a network of opaque offshore investments including some $30 million in the Cayman Islands, Vanity Fair reported Tuesday.
Romney has amassed vast wealth -- estimated to be as high as $250 million -- since founding private equity firm Bain Capital in 1984, and he consistently says his successful business experience is what puts him in better position than President Barack Obama for turning around the sluggish US economy.
But while his campaign insists Romney has not exploited the offshore havens to avoid paying necessary US taxes, the difficulty in tracking the overseas transactions and holdings raises questions about the candidate's finances in the heat of a campaign.
The report detailed how Romney continues to have personal interests in at least 12 of the 138 funds organized by Bain in the Caymans, where such investments are hidden behind confidentiality disclaimers, making an assessment of Romney's true wealth virtually impossible.
He also holds a Swiss bank account -- with $3 million in it, according to 2010 tax returns -- and other interests in tax havens such as Bermuda, according to the report in the August issue of the magazine.
Romney's tax rate has been a particular point of contention. In 2010 he reported income of $21.7 million, mostly from investments, and paid just over $3 million in taxes, a paltry rate of just 13.9 percent, far lower than the rate for most middle-income Americans.
Most of Romney's money is earned in investments, which are taxed at just 15 percent, compared to the 35 percent he would pay on wages.
Many of those investments are offshore, with 55 pages of Romney's 2010 tax return devoted to his transactions with foreign entities, according to Vanity Fair.
"What Romney does not get," veteran Washington lawyer and offshore expert Jack Blum told the magazine, "is that this stuff is weird."
The White House jumped on the report, describing it as further evidence of Romney's "bets against America" and suggesting the story about mystery corporations and offshore counts leads to serious questions.
"The question is, why? Was he avoiding paying his fair share of US taxes?" Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt wrote in an email.
"Was he hedging against the dollar? Until he releases his tax returns from that period, Americans will never know."
Romney has refused to release pre-2010 tax returns.
"Mitt Romney's economic philosophy has always put maximizing his profits above anything else," LaBolt added.
The Romney campaign released a statement on the article, but it was a reaction to the Obama campaign's treatment of the story and did not address its specifics.
What are you hiding Rombot?
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: Mitt Romney v10.0 7/4/2012, 12:06 pm
Lawrence O'Donnell addresses Mitt Romney's investments in a fetus disposal company.
Now he will deny this but IMO,the only way for Rombot to clear this up would be to release all his tax returns. However,those may prove to be even more embarrassing. Stay tuned!
Mitt Romney’s spokespeople have apparently run out of words.
Here’s Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg’s statement to the press earlier today about reports by the AP and Vanity Fair about Romney’s offshore accounts in Bermuda:
Quote :
“President Obama’s attacks on Mitt Romney have been proven false time and again. As job growth slows, manufacturing activity stalls, and our economy continues to sputter, President Obama knows he can’t make a legitimate argument for another term in office, so instead he is trying to tear down his opponent. This is just the latest example of President Obama and his political machine saying or doing anything to distract from his abysmal record over the last four years.”
And here’s Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul responding to an interview that Obama strategist David Axelrod gave to ABC News, in which he said Romney is “the most secretive candidate” since Richard Nixon:
Quote :
“President Obama’s attacks on Mitt Romney have been proven false time and again. As job growth slows, manufacturing activity stalls, and our economy continues to sputter, President Obama knows he can’t make a legitimate argument for another term in office, so instead he is trying to tear down his opponent. This is just the latest example of President Obama and his political machine saying or doing anything to distract from his abysmal record over the last four years.”
We asked the Romney campaign why they’re using the same statements and will update if they respond with another statement about their statements.
“The baby sitters and the nails ladies don’t understand what’s going on”
Los Angeles Times reporter Maeve Reston was at Mitt Romney’s fund-raiser at the home of far right billionaire David Koch in the super-exclusive Long Island community of East Hampton, and interviewed one of Romney’s wealthy donors — who had some interesting remarks about the “common people.”
EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. – As protesters assembled on a beach in advance of Mitt Romney’s evening event at the home of conservative billionaire David Koch, the candidate slipped to East Hampton for his first of three fundraisers on this tony stretch of Long Island.
Quote :
The line of Range Rovers, BMWs, Porsche roadsters and one gleaming cherry red Ferrari began queuing outside of Revlon Chairman Ronald Perelman’s estate off Montauk Highway long before Romney arrived, as campaign aides and staffers in white polo shirts emblazoned with the logo of Perelman’s property — the Creeks — checked off names under tight security. …
A New York City donor a few cars back, who also would not give her name, said Romney needed to do a better job connecting. “I don’t think the common person is getting it,” she said from the passenger seat of a Range Rover stamped with East Hampton beach permits. “Nobody understands why Obama is hurting them.
“We’ve got the message,” she added. “But my college kid, the baby sitters, the nails ladies — everybody who’s got the right to vote — they don’t understand what’s going on. I just think if you’re lower income — one, you’re not as educated, two, they don’t understand how it works, they don’t understand how the systems work, they don’t understand the impact.”
edge540
Posts : 1165
Subject: Re: Mitt Romney v10.0 7/11/2012, 2:31 pm
My goodness it's quite here today...
Here's the latest, Mittens says Bill Clinton lowered taxes. No shit. Holy crap, I didn't know that from Yahoo! answers: Is Mitt Romney an idiot, or just stupid?
"Bill Clinton Lowered Taxes"
"Clinton, Romney said, “believed in small government, reformed welfare as we knew it” and tried “to get the economy going with trade and other positions, lower taxes.”
Great hat trick Willard. Profiting from abortions, outsourcing US jobs and lying about it. Bottom line: Willard either fraudulently signed paperwork with the SEC or lied to the American public. Which is it?
Quote :
Mitt Romney stayed at Bain 3 years longer than he stated
Firm’s 2002 filings identify him as CEO, though he said he left in 1999
Nine SEC filings submitted by four different business entities after February 1999 describe Romney as Bain boss.
By Callum Borchers and Christopher Rowland Globe Correspondent | Globe Staff July 12, 2012
Government documents filed by Mitt Romney and Bain Capital say Romney remained chief executive and chairman of the firm three years beyond the date he said he ceded control, even creating five new investment partnerships during that time.
Romney has said he left Bain in 1999 to lead the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, ending his role in the company. But public Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed later by Bain Capital state he remained the firm’s “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president.”
Also, a Massachusetts financial disclosure form Romney filed in 2003 states that he still owned 100 percent of Bain Capital in 2002. And Romney’s state financial disclosure forms indicate he earned at least $100,000 as a Bain “executive” in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings.
The timing of Romney’s departure from Bain is a key point of contention because he has said his resignation in February 1999 meant he was not responsible for Bain Capital companies that went bankrupt or laid off workers after that date.
Contradictions concerning the length of Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital add to the uncertainty and questions about his finances. Bain is the primary source of Romney’s wealth, which is estimated to be more than $25o million. But how his wealth has been invested, especially in a variety of Bain partnerships and other investment vehicles, remains difficult to decipher because of a lack of transparency.
The Obama campaign and other Democrats have raised questions about his unwillingness to release tax returns filed before 2010; his offshore assets, which include investment entities based in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands and a recently closed bank account in Switzerland; and a set of “blind trusts” that meet the Massachusetts standards for public officials but not the more rigorous bar set by the federal government.
Romney did not finalize a severance agreement with Bain until 2002, a 10-year deal with undisclosed terms that was retroactive to 1999. It expired in 2009.
The GOP candidate decries China poaching US jobs. But at Bain he held a large stake in a Chinese company that did just that. —By David Corn | Wed Jul. 11, 2012 8:10 PM PDT
Last month, Mitt Romney's campaign got into a dustup with the Washington Post after the newspaper reported that Bain Capital, the private equity firm the GOP presidential candidate founded, invested in several US companies that outsourced jobs to China and India. The campaign indignantly demanded a retraction, claiming that these businesses did not send jobs overseas while Romney was running Bain, and the Post stood by its investigation. Yet there is another aspect to the Romney-as-outsourcer controversy. According to government documents reviewed by Mother Jones, Romney, when he was in charge of Bain, invested heavily in a Chinese manufacturing company that depended on US outsourcing for its profits—and that explicitly stated that such outsourcing was crucial to its success.
This previously unreported deal runs counter to Romney's tough talk on the campaign trail regarding China. "We will not let China continue to steal jobs from the United States of America," Romney declared in February. But with this investment, Romney sought to make money off a foreign company that banked on American firms outsourcing manufacturing overseas.
On April 17, 1998, Brookside Capital Partners Fund, a Bain Capital affiliate, filed a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission noting that it had acquired 6.13 percent of Hong Kong-based Global-Tech Appliances, which manufactured household appliances in a production facility in the industrial city of Dongguan, China. That August, according to another SEC filing, Brookside upped its interest in Global-Tech to 10.3 percent. Both SEC filings identified Romney as the person in control of this investment: "Mr. W. Mitt Romney is the sole shareholder, sole director, President and Chief Executive Officer of Brookside Inc. and thus is the controlling person of Brookside Inc." Each of these documents was signed by Domenic Ferrante, a managing director of Brookside and Bain.
The SEC filings do not reveal how much Romney initially invested in Global-Tech (which is now known as Global-Tech Advanced Innovations). But Brookside first acquired 748,000 shares at a time when Global-Tech was mounting an IPO at $19 a share. If that was the purchase price Brookside paid, then Romney's firm originally invested $14.2 million in the company.
At the time Romney was acquiring shares in Global-Tech, the firm publicly acknowledged that its strategy was to profit from prominent US companies outsourcing production abroad. On September 4, 1998, Global-Tech issued a press release announcing it was postponing completion of a $30 million expansion of its Dongguan facility because Sunbeam, a prominent American consumer products company and a major client of Global-Tech, was cutting back on outsourcing as part of an overall consolidation. But John C.K. Sham, Global-Tech's president and CEO, said, "Although it appears that customers such as Sunbeam are not outsourcing their manufacturing as quickly as we had anticipated, we still believe that the long-term trend toward outsourcing will continue." Global-Tech, which in mid-1998 announced fiscal year sales of $118.3 million (an increase of 89 percent over the previous year), also manufactured household appliances for Hamilton Beach, Mr. Coffee, Proctor-Silex, Revlon, and Vidal Sassoon, and its chief exec was hoping for more outsourcing from these and other American firms.
The Romney campaign and Bain Capital have insisted that Romney departed Bain in February 1999 to head the troubled 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and had no involvement in the private equity firm's deals after that point—a contention that has been challenged by the Obama campaign. But the Global-Tech Appliances transactions occurred long before Romney jetted off to Utah. At the time Romney was acquiring shares in Global-Tech, the firm publicly acknowledged that its strategy was to profit from prominent US companies outsourcing production abroad.
Brookside downsized its Global-Tech holdings later in 1998. An SEC filing submitted on December 21, 1998, reported that the Bain affiliate now controlled only 4.63 percent of the company's shares. But Brookside was sharing its stake in Global-Tech with Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors LTD—a Bermuda-based corporation of which Romney was the "the sole shareholder, a director, and President." That is, Romney had split his Global-Tech holdings between two of his various business entities. (The SEC filing doesn't indicate why he did that.)
Sankaty is a story in itself. It was recently the focus of an Associated Press investigation that reported that Sankaty "is among several Romney holdings that have not been fully disclosed" and that there is a "mystery surrounding" Sankaty. Reporting on this Romney entity, Vanity Fair noted that "investments in tax havens such as Bermuda raise many questions, because they are in 'jurisdictions where there is virtually no tax and virtually no compliance,' as one Miami-based offshore lawyer put it." With Sankaty, Romney was using a mysterious Bermuda-based entity to invest in a Chinese firm that thrived on US outsourcing.
In early 1999, Romney's investment in Global-Tech expanded again. An SEC report filed on March 25, 1999, stated that Brookside and Sankaty at this stage owned 9.11 percent of the firm's stock. Romney was still listed as the sole shareholder and president of both Brookside and Sankaty.
By this point, according to the open-to-question account offered by Bain and the Romney campaign, Romney no longer had any involvement in Bain deals. But the series of SEC filings show active Brookside and Sankaty trading in Global-Tech Appliances while Romney fully controlled these firms. The two Romney companies repeatedly changed their ownership stake in this Chinese firm, which was not shy about its dependence on outsourcing. In its 2001 annual report, Global-Tech noted that US outsourcing was essential to its prospects: "Household appliance companies are focusing on their primary strengths of marketing and distribution, while increasingly outsourcing product development and manufacturing…Our ability and commitment to develop new and innovative, high quality products at a low cost has allowed us to benefit from the increased outsourcing of product development and manufacturing by our customers."
In August 2000, Brookside and Sankaty sold their interest in Global-Tech, according to the SEC documents. With these filings disclosing minimum details about Romney's investment in Global-Tech, there is no telling how much money he made—or lost—on the deal.
A spokeswoman for Bain says that the company will not comment on the Global-Tech investment or provide any additional details about this deal. A Romney campaign official would not address the issue of Global-Tech profiting from US outsourcing, but this Romney aide maintains that this deal was nothing other than a routine investment in a foreign company: "[I]t's my understanding that while Brookside is a part of Bain Capital, it is not a private equity vehicle. Brookside makes passive investments in public stock. They don't control or manage the companies they invest in. Brookside had a small ownership stake (9.11%) in Global-Tech…while Romney was there. If owning shares in a foreign company is somehow wrong, President Obama is guilty as well." (The Romney campaign points out that Obama's personal holdings include an investment in a Vanguard 500 Index retirement fund that contains shares in a handful of foreign companies.)
>snip<
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: Mitt Romney v10.0 7/13/2012, 8:42 pm
Mittens continues to sink deeper into the quicksand of his lies. If he thinks those interviews he did today are going to save him he has another thing coming. Continuing to insist that he won't release any more tax returns is just icing on the cake. Romney Interview Directly Contradicts His Previous Statements About Bain Tenure Jul 13, 2012 at 6:54 pm
Quote :
Mitt Romney told CBS News‘s Jan Crawford Friday evening that he did not attend Bain Capital meetings after he left the company in February of 1999 to run the Winter Olympics. But this answer appears to contradict sworn testimony he delivered in 2002 “as part of a hearing to determine whether he had sufficient residency status in Massachusetts to run for governor”:
– 2002: “[T]here were a number of social trips and business trips that brought me back to Massachusetts, board meetings, Thanksgiving and so forth.”
– 2012: “I was in Salt Lake City for three straight years. I don’t recall even coming back once to go to a Bain or management meeting. We were, I was out there running the Olympics and it was a full time job, I can tell you that.”
“Jan, I had no involvement with the management of Bain Capital after 1999,” Romney insisted on Friday.
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: Mitt Romney v10.0 7/15/2012, 11:14 am
Mitt Romney’s former company Bain Capital has a spotted history of investing in companies that offshored jobs overseas to countries like China. At the same time Romney blasts outsourcing on the campaign trail, calling President Obama “outsourcer-in-chief,” his former partners at Bain have defended the practice.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Up With Chris Hayes,” Romney’s former partner at Bain Capital Edward Conard made the case for outsourcing jobs, which he argues in his book, “Unintended Consequence”:
Quote :
CONARD: I think the problem with defending it, for Mitt, I’m not speaking for Mitt [...] people look very close at the micro, get their nose close to the paper and say, ah-ha there is a job that was lost and went overseas, and we can speak about Bain. On a macro level we can see 20 million immigrants came into our country, there’s net insourcing, not net outsourcing. We were growing the economy fast enough that we were pulling the employees into the country, more than sending out of the country. Of the 40 million jobs created, 50 percent were created at the highest end of the wage scale, 40 percent of the jobs in the 1980s were at the highest end of the wage scale, so, there was a disproportionate increase at the high end of the wage scale over that, over that period.
Watch the video:
Meanwhile, Romney’s top economic adviser Greg Mankiw has also argued for outsourcing jobs, calling it “a good thing.” As another Bain manager explained,
Quote :
“I never thought of what I do for a living as job creation.” Romney’s role at Bain was to create wealth for his firm, not jobs.
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: Mitt Romney v10.0 7/15/2012, 4:00 pm
A Rombot mouthpiece got out the Etch-A-Sketch and came up with this genius excuse for the Bain problem..... Romney’s Retroactive Retirement
Quote :
A new concept
The latest spin being offered by the Romney campaign about his departure from Bain Capital: according to Ed Gillespie, in 2002 Romney “retired retroactively to 1999.”
Gillespie on Sunday sought to clarify the matter, saying that Romney initially thought he would be leaving Bain on a temporary basis, but the challenges of the Olympics led him to “retire retroactively.”
Quote :
“There may have been a thought at the time that it could be part time, but it was not part time,” Gillespie said.
“He took a leave of absence and in fact he ended up not going back at all, and retired retroactively to 1999 as a result,” he added.
“Retroactive retirement?” I have to admit, I never knew this kind of thing was even possible.
I’d like to retire retroactively too, back-dated to 2000, please.
(This unfortunate attempt at spin is coming in for severe mockery on Twitter, of course.)
So he retired before he retired? Great way to kick off the weekly news cycle,Mittens You'll have all week to explain and we'll all be looking forward to watching you twist yourself into a knot. Late night comedians must be salivating right about now. You rock,Rombot!
Mitt Romney appeared on Fox & Friends Monday morning to respond to the growing number of conservatives who are calling on the former Massachusetts governor to release more of his tax returns.
At least eight Republicans have urged Romney to publicize the records and put the issue behind him, but the candidate is sticking to his guns. The public will see just two years of returns and no more, Romney said, before appearing to admit that the records may contain something politically damaging:
Quote :
ROMNEY: The Obama people keep on wanting more and more and more. More things to pick through, more things for their opposition research to try make a mountain out of and to distort and to be dishonest about. We’re going to put out two years of tax returns.
Watch it:
Republicans are also raising alarms about Romney’s returns. “The fact is, there are a couple of years he may not have paid any taxes,” MSNBC host and former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough predicted during Monday’s Morning Joe. “Maybe he’s concerned about that. But if it’s going to come out, he needs to get it out now so he has a couple of months to explain it.”
Fact:Mittens Romney released over 20 years of tax returns to John McCain while being vetted for VP in 2008. Why will he not extend the same courtesy to the American voting public that he gave to John McCain?
edge540
Posts : 1165
Subject: Re: Mitt Romney v10.0 7/16/2012, 9:50 am
It gets better, Willard picks this guy who defends outsourcing AND paying more for gas:
Quote :
Romney-economist Greg Mankiw wants a further $2/gallon gas tax?
Posted at 11:44 am on March 8, 2012
As the price of gasoline soars, top Mitt Romney adviser, Harvard economist Greg Mankiw sticks to his guns and calls for a hike in gasoline taxes. In a recent blog post, Mankiw points to a WaPo column which states:
N. Gregory Mankiw, former top economic adviser to President George W. Bush and current adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, also backs a stiff gas tax increase… In a New York Times column this year, Mr. Mankiw offered a tax overhaul that might include a gas tax “exceeding” $2 per gallon.
I don’t think that’s going to be too popular. It’s not clear from that snippet that he’s adding an additional $2 on top of what’s already there, but if that’s what he’s proposing, Romney’s got some explaining to do. Not much more to that post, but good snark at the end.
Former Romney Partner At Bain Makes Case For Outsourcing
By Rebecca Leber on Jul 15, 2012 at 11:00 am
Mitt Romney’s former company Bain Capital has a spotted history of investing in companies that offshored jobs overseas to countries like China. At the same time Romney blasts outsourcing on the campaign trail, calling President Obama “outsourcer-in-chief,” his former partners at Bain have defended the practice.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Up With Chris Hayes,” Romney’s former partner at Bain Capital Edward Conard made the case for outsourcing jobs, which he argues in his book, “Unintended Consequence”:
CONARD: I think the problem with defending it, for Mitt, I’m not speaking for Mitt [...] people look very close at the micro, get their nose close to the paper and say, ah-ha there is a job that was lost and went overseas, and we can speak about Bain. On a macro level we can see 20 million immigrants came into our country, there’s net insourcing, not net outsourcing. We were growing the economy fast enough that we were pulling the employees into the country, more than sending out of the country. Of the 40 million jobs created, 50 percent were created at the highest end of the wage scale, 40 percent of the jobs in the 1980s were at the highest end of the wage scale, so, there was a disproportionate increase at the high end of the wage scale over that, over that period.
Watch the video: Meanwhile, Romney’s top economic adviser Greg Mankiw has also argued for outsourcing jobs, calling it “a good thing.” As another Bain manager explained, “I never thought of what I do for a living as job creation.” Romney’s role at Bain was to create wealth for his firm, not jobs.
In spite of all the outrage provoked by Ralph Lauren's outsourcing of the manufacturing of the U.S. Olympic uniform to China, and in spite of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle criticizing the American clothing company for sending work overseas, Republican nominee Mitt Romney has refused to take a stand, merely saying, "The Olympic Games are about the athletes ... and these other matters are extraneous, I think."
To people familiar with Romney's political career, his unwillingness to speak out may not come as a surprise. But when other politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, are taking a firm position on an issue that seems pretty clear-cut in a time when America's economy needs all the investment it can get, Romney's lukewarm stance, by comparison, appears even more bizarre.
If ever there was a slam-dunk issue it's this one. This is the one issue that Democrats and Repubs agree on and have universally spoken out against,yet the Rombot chooses to remain silent.
In spite of all the outrage provoked by Ralph Lauren's outsourcing of the manufacturing of the U.S. Olympic uniform to China, and in spite of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle criticizing the American clothing company for sending work overseas, Republican nominee Mitt Romney has refused to take a stand, merely saying, "The Olympic Games are about the athletes ... and these other matters are extraneous, I think."
To people familiar with Romney's political career, his unwillingness to speak out may not come as a surprise. But when other politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, are taking a firm position on an issue that seems pretty clear-cut in a time when America's economy needs all the investment it can get, Romney's lukewarm stance, by comparison, appears even more bizarre.
Perhaps it's because he didn't want to have a discussion about this?
According to reports in 2002, the decision to outsource the torchbearer uniforms to Burma caused an uproar among human rights advocates and trade groups. It prompted the head of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) to write a letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), stating that "No responsible organization or body should make use of products originating in Burma."
The American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG) and the Free Burma Coalition (FBC) launched a campaign to protest the uniforms and called on the IOC to apologize and “promise to never support -- indirectly or directly -- the Burmese regime."
I don't know if Romney personally signed off on the uniforms made in Burma or not, but at least this might help explain his out of touch reaction to the current uniform controversy..... sort of, I guess.
Hell, I honestly don't know what to make of Romney's actions over the last couple of weeks.
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: Mitt Romney v10.0 7/17/2012, 6:51 am
Scorpion wrote:
I don't know if Romney personally signed off on the uniforms made in Burma or not, but at least this might help explain his out of touch reaction to the current uniform controversy..... sort of, I guess.
He was in charge. The buck stops there.
Scorpion wrote:
Hell, I honestly don't know what to make of Romney's actions over the last couple of weeks.
IMO,Romney is simply not used to being the target of attacks and doesn't know how to respond. He had a pretty easy primary run and some candidates,like Ron Paul,never challenged him on anything. He had a huge cash advantage and was able to bury whoever his latest challenger was under an avalanche of negative ads. In effect he wasn't vetted properly. His tax issues should have been resolved during the primary. I believe the reason they weren't is that most of his challengers may have had their own skeletons. Ron Paul would have been the perfect guy to hold his feet to the fire on that issue,but as I said for some unknown reason he never did.
Now that he's the presumptive nominee that's all changed. He's up against someone with equal footing,financing,and of course the bully pulpit,Barack Obama. He reminds me of a guy whose solution to his every problem,even when it is he who created it,is to blame the help and fire them.
One of Mitt Romney’s top surrogates Tuesday morning said he wished President Obama “would learn how to be an American.”
In a conference call with reporters, former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu criticized President Obama’s comments in Virginia on Friday when, talking about how the government builds infrastructure, the president said, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.”
The remarks, Sununu charged, were “insulting to the hardworking entrepreneurs who really do create jobs, who create businesses, who take out a second mortgage and take the chance and hire some people and get the business going. These are the people who are the backbone of our economy and the president clearly demonstrated that he has absolute no idea how the American economy functions. The men and women across America who have worked hard to build their businesses from the ground up is how our economy became the envy of the world, the American way and I wish this president would learn how to be an American.”
Scorpion
Posts : 2141
Subject: Re: Mitt Romney v10.0 7/17/2012, 4:09 pm
Artie60438 wrote:
Scorpion wrote:
I don't know if Romney personally signed off on the uniforms made in Burma or not, but at least this might help explain his out of touch reaction to the current uniform controversy..... sort of, I guess.
He was in charge. The buck stops there.
Scorpion wrote:
Hell, I honestly don't know what to make of Romney's actions over the last couple of weeks.
IMO,Romney is simply not used to being the target of attacks and doesn't know how to respond.
Yeah. Well it looks to me like he must be counting on the Republican Party's voter suppression efforts to put him into office. I think it's pretty clear at this point that there's no way that this guy can win an honest election.
I think it's pretty clear at this point that there's no way that this guy can win an honest election.
Can any Republican? They have to pander to the Christian Right, those science denying, gay bashing, ideological hacks. And now the "NOE TAXES EVAR!!11!" Tea Party? I know the left has the Twoofers, but at least their demonstrably false bullshit isn't part of any Democratic platforms. Until Republicans purge their mental midgets from the party, I think at this point any Republican campaign has to be 90% bullshit simply to get their base to vote for their guy.
And unfortunately, there's too few smart and reasonable conservatives left to actually care...
edge540
Posts : 1165
Subject: Re: Mitt Romney v10.0 7/18/2012, 10:25 am
Wow Perfect timing by Bain, LOL. Has the last week been a nightmare for Mittens, or what?
Quote :
Sensata employees in Freeport reach out to Mitt Romney for help in saving their jobs
Sensata Technologies employees in Freeport, Ill., make a plea to presumptive Republican presidential nominee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, to visit Freeport and save their jobs. Romney is co-founder and was CEO of Sensata’s parent company, Bain Capital.
• Freeport City Council votes 8-0 in support of resolution calling on Romney to visit Freeport and help save 170 jobs
Staff Report
FREEPORT, Ill. — Employees at Freeport’s Sensata Technologies plant are reaching out to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, in attempts to save their jobs.
The Massachusetts-based Sensata Technologies has announced it plans to close the Freeport plant in December and outsource 170 jobs to China. Sensata workers are training their Chinese replacements, who have been flown to Illinois by the company.
Sensata was created by Bain Capital in 2006 and develops, manufactures and sells sensors and controls for major auto manufacturers such as Ford and General Motors.
Bain Capital is a private equity investment firm co-founded by Romney in 1984. Romney served as CEO of the company from 1984 until 2002, according to SEC filings (Romney, however, has repeatedly said he left the company in 1999).
The Freeport City Council voted 8-0 July 16 to support a resolution to call on Romney to visit Freeport and help save the employees’ jobs.
“We’re grateful to the city council for standing with us in this fight to save our jobs,” said Cheryl Randecker, who has worked at the plant for 33 years. “It’s not just our jobs on the line, but also the future of our community. We hope Romney will join us in this fight, and make it clear that he stands with American workers — not companies like Bain that want to ship our jobs overseas.”
In recent weeks, Sensata workers have kept the pressure on Romney with a signed letter to the campaign, frequent protests outside the plant and a community meeting to educate Freeport residents about the impending layoffs.
WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney has not released his full tax records from 2010, including key documentation connected to his Swiss bank account.
Although President Barack Obama and an increasing number of Republican politicians have called on Romney to release tax returns from years prior to 2010, the public criticism has so far failed to note that Romney has not disclosed all of his tax documents for 2010 itself -- the only year for which the GOP presidential nominee has presented any final tax forms.
Romney released his 2010 tax return in January of this year, a document that first informed voters about the existence of his Swiss bank account and financial activities in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. But people who own foreign bank accounts are required to file a separate document with the IRS that provides additional details on such overseas bank holdings, and Romney has not released that form to the public.
The Romney campaign did not respond to HuffPost's request to view the document.
Tax experts say it is almost certain that Romney did file the form, known as a Report on Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, or "FBAR" in accountant slang. The penalty for not filing an FBAR can be severe, and the IRS would have expected to receive the form since Romney listed the Swiss bank account on his tax return. Listing the account on his tax return and then failing to file the subsequent FBAR would have been asking for a hefty fine, and would probably have heightened IRS scrutiny of prior tax filings.
Nevertheless, Romney's omission of the form from the earlier disclosure raises questions for tax policy experts about the function of his Swiss bank account, and whether or not Romney used other offshore bank accounts that did not generate interest.
"The campaign has never told us why he had a Swiss bank account," said Rebecca Wilkins, senior counsel for federal tax policy at Citizens for Tax Justice, a nonprofit tax reform group. "It just looks bad."
>snip< If Rombot is this secretive now,just imagine what his Presidency would be like
edge540
Posts : 1165
Subject: Re: Mitt Romney v10.0 7/18/2012, 2:24 pm
My favorite part:
Quote :
So much information was turned over to the IRS that it would have been extremely difficult for the agency to pursue cases against every offender. So the IRS established a special tax amnesty program, which allowed those who voluntarily turned themselves in to remain anonymous and pay limited penalties. Thousands of citizens have since come forward.
"It's unclear why he would have valued the Swiss bank account secrecy, and it wouldn't have enabled him legally to avoid U.S. tax," said Daniel Shaviro, a tax professor at New York University School of Law. "This is why there's speculation that he was into the amnesty program." But Shaviro and other tax experts note that one of the principal benefits of the amnesty program is its anonymity. Nobody who received amnesty from the IRS would ever have to tell the public they'd held a Swiss bank account. Any politician who had received amnesty could have simply shut down their account and washed his or her hands of any political liability. And once the IRS was aware of the account, maintaining it would have had no tax benefits.
Mitt Romney has been determined to resist releasing his tax returns at least since his bid for Massachusetts governor in 2002 and has been confident that he will never be forced to do so, several current and former Bain executives tell The Huffington Post. Had he thought otherwise, say the sources based on their longtime understanding of Romney, he never would have gone forward with his run for president.
Now, a word of warning: There isn't a single quotation in this piece from any of these Bain executives—not even a quote from an unnamed individual. So all of these observations were provided on some sort of not-for-attribution basis. It doesn't mean that this story is incorrect, but it does mean that we have no way of directly judging these remarks—which, after all, go to Mitt Romney's alleged state of mind, not necessarily an easy thing to know.
But the implications are extraordinary, especially this part:
Quote :
While Romney may personally prefer to drop out before releasing more returns, people who know him note that he doesn't always do what he wants. Torn between his longtime desire to be president and his equally strong belief that he should not be forced to release more returns, Romney may turn, as he has with so many big decisions, to strict numbers-based analysis. If he plummets in the polls and the risk of defeat presses itself on him, the sources say, his calculation could change.
The notion that Romney could abandon the presidential race at this late hour—an almost unprecedented event—rather than release his tax returns just boggles the mind. And of course, this all swings back to the question of just what exactly is Romney hiding in all those 1040s? If it's something so devastating that he has to drop out rather than reveal his returns, the whole political world would be rendered speechless.
Again, treat this story with the skepticism it deserves. But there's no doubt that a very, very bad situation for Romney just got worse.
P.S. Check out who one of the two co-authors on the story is: Abby Huntsman, a daughter of Jon Huntsman—who of course was one of Mitt Romney's rivals for the Republican nomination this year.
It's going to be a long hot summer for Romney,that's for sure.
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Ouch!
Great way to kick off the weekly news cycle,Mittens 
Rombot admits being stuck between rock & hard place 
