Effort - I still get emails (and see posts) telling me that President Obama was born in Kenya, has a SSN from Connecticut, is a Muslim, traveled under a foreign passport in 1981, etc.

You don't think little thing like dates and facts are going to change some folks minds do you?

Romney is running from Bain like roaches run from light.

Yet, to think, he was earing over $100,000 a year for "doing absolutely nothing."

Sounds like "socialistic welfare for the rich" to me.

But, what do I know.

I work for a living.

Nice try at spin by Gillespie, whom we know works for Crossroads GPS with Karl Rove and that entity is not supposed to be coordinating with the Romney campaign. This wreaks of conflict of interest on Gillespie's part.

Indeed, Obama was not President in 1999 to 2001. He must think voters are "morons".

There is no truth to Obamaf's hate campaign. Romney left bain in 1999 and ran a successful Olympics. Obama just can'thandle the truth.

Neverstop.....Well continue working and risk a ton of money and start a multi billion dollar company and you can get $100,000 for doing absolutely nothing. I am sure it is incredibly easy.

Obama outsources jobs now. How does he defend that when he blames Romney for doing it back in the 90's? why is Obama outsourcing jobs when they are needed so badly right here in our own country?

Never

I make a few thousand a year from companies I do absolutely nothing for. Its called being a shareholder; in a privately held company your dividend is in the form of a paycheck.

So explain to me how his money making money for him from his company is "socialist welfare for the rich"?

Do think someone owes you something?

Get it yourself.

Getting money for nothing is the Republican definition of "welfare".....seems that is what Romney was doing. Therefore, he is getting "welfare"........

How is Obama "outsourcing jobs"? I'd like to know.........

Romney is getting donations from multinational conglomerates and not disclosing this.....isn't that allowing foreign influence in our elections?

Not really sure what all the fuss is about. There are very little disputed facts, and the one fact that is disputed is not really important.

When Romney left Bain, did he hand it over to people who completely disagreed with his philosophy? Did Romney insource jobs when he was at Bain, and then when he left Bain did they do a U-turn, become evil and start laying off people?

Either he completely agrees with what Bain did after he left. Or he is such an incompetent businessman that he can't even properly hand over his baby to people who would run it the way he wants.

Which is it?

It doesn't matter when he left Bain. Senator Durbin is right, Romney is running from Bain, EVEN IF Romney left Bain as early as Romney claims.

Bain is a vulture company.

They suck every penny of a company they are associated with and then throw them away like trash.

Like Bain did with Dade Behring, they destroyed it and then was bought by the German company Siemens.

An other American company gone

Outsourcing creates the need for more outsourcing.

Oil is traded globally but the human resource is traded locally.

I think the better policy would be that they can't pay 50 cents an hour for a job that pays 12hr here maybe 50 cents less an hour.
The fact still remains that other strong economies ensure a strong US economy.

The 1% have capitalized capitalism. Corporate America = Modernday Slavery

Henry Ford had it right.

There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible.

No taxes have been raised under Obama-not one. he has asked but none have passed, so you need a new argument.

Gillespie charged that Obama’s policies are “forcing jobs overseas.”

TRANSLATION: OBAMA MADE ME DO IT.

Gillespie contended that some of the money in the $830 billion stimulus program which Obama signed into law in 2009 was channeled into companies and jobs in China, Finland, Mexico, and Denmark, instead of in the United States.

TRANSLATION: WELL, HE'S DOING IT, TOO!

Mr Gillespie insults my intelligence with his rhetoric. If the only thing that matters is the next quarter, there are no business incentives large enough to compensate for the fact that a Chinese worker is paid 2.00 an hour and lives in the plant like a gulag.

For a thinking person, a person that looks beyond the next quarter, doing business in the United States is the way to go. Employ the Middle Class and their great buying power will drive the engine of the world economy.

Yes it will be a wonderful world when everyone makes a living wage and prices are more or less comparable across the globe, but we don't live in that world. The Indians, the guys on the street can't afford a 45K car. They can't afford a 20K car, so no matter how many of them you manufacture at slave labor prices, if you aren't fueling employment in the Western economies, they are going to sit in lots rusting.

Cause and effect. Something the conservatives struggle with on a daily basis--or perhaps don't struggle with. And that is the problem.

"I make a few thousand a year from companies I do absolutely nothing for."

But do you file legal documents claiming to be CEO and chairman of the board?

But the democrats were for 8 years prior

@ SticktotheFacts

Romney is still the biggest shareholder for BAIN for the last 12 years. Most of his money are in BAIN, you expect people to believe he is just up and doesn't care about BAIN at all?

The rich like to protect their investment, that is a FACT. Romney is the same, BAIN is still one of his biggest source of income and anytime BAIN gutted a company and ship job elsewhere, Romney has one of the biggest share of profit.

You can deny it all you want, but Romney doesn't get rich by sitting around. His money come from investment and BAIN is his biggest one.

"The damage you liberals are doing to the USA is massive."

Oddly enough, liberals think the same thing about "you conservatives."

Isn't democracy great?

Talking about "running from something", Obama is setting speed records fleeing from his disastrous economic record of the last almost four years.

Obama doesn't have a disastrous economic record of the last almost four years. When he started, employment was falling, Wall Street was panicking, and it looked like the world's banking system was about to unravel, throwing us into global chaos.

He stabilized the country, got us on an even keel and started digging us out of a very deep hole.

I know, let us elect Romney instead. What's the big deal, huh? Let's dismantle healthcare, invade yet another Islamic country needlessly, this time Iran, and enact even deeper tax cuts that seriously hurt the economy and create even more needless debt.

At least we will be consistent...the lack of healthcare will go well with our new status as a 3rd world country. We wouldn't stand out the way we do, being the only industrialized country without healthcare.

But the democrats were for 8 years prior

Are you talking about the period of time where the economy grew faster than any time since WWII? The time when the budget was running a surplus?

@Rich-281385

You really need to learn more about BAIN. It's not just outsource jobs, it destroys a company for biggest profit and ship to the cost to the tax payer.

BAIN often find company that in financial crisis, then borrow money on that company name several times beyond the capacity of repayment. Then after BAIN receive the profit, they advise the company to file either chapter 11 or 7 bankruptcy and let's us tax payers pay for it.

Result: Profits for BAIN generally in hundreds of millions and the tax payers got screw regardless of what they do. "Vulture" capitalist at its best.

Try 50 cents a day. They can blame Obama all they want. The truth is, why would they pay a living wage here, when they can pay a kid in a sweatshop 50 cents a day (if even that). Only a fool would believe that giving them tax breaks will create jobs here, it will only mean more money in their own pockets. They won't create jobs here until minimum wage and unions are completely abolished and they can save money on shipping, because after all it is their right to do what's best for themselves and their shareholders.

Hmm, Obama's tax policy is driving business overseas with corporate taxes.........good line but he hasn't changed corporate tax structure one bit. The last administration with their hands on it was the GOP Bush administration. Nice lie to try to deflect from the fact that Rummmney is a liar and scum puppy.

Rich: "Look, outsourcing is a GOOD thing if it helps a firm remain in business."

The problem with that line of reasoning is that slavery would also help companies remain in business, but at some point we need to consider ethical obligations. We really should be debating the right balance, rather than accusing the other side of destroying America.

Rich...says " So stop saying outsourcing is bad."........REALLY? Are you kidding? I worked for Jostens the big ring company. The day after NAFTA was signed they opened up a Mexico plant in Nuevo Laredo Mexico. Hundreds of people lost their jobs. I worked with those dedicated craftsman, I listened to them on the phones as they had their work and jobs shipped out. It was DEVASTATING! The whole Mexico plan failed as quality was ZERO. Mexican kids working, not adults as promised, working conditions were horrible for the Mex children as many could not read or write Mexican let alone English words. I blew the whistle and the Mex Plant was shut down the next day and folded up as a huge boondoggle. Meanwhile the workers In AttleBoro Mass. Lost Everyone due to NAFTA.

Don't say outsourcing is bad??????? Sez you! I suppose lying the U.S.into Iraq war is good too because it gave the coffin Business a boost economy wise too HUH?............Jesus H. Christ...!

So stop saying outsourcing is bad. It isn't. In many cases the outsourcing from the USA involves low profit margin products to be shipped back to the USA. In many cases it involves durable products that need a facility near the market presence it intends to serve. But no one, and not one firm--NOT ONE--sends "American" jobs overseas in order to hurt America or the people employed here who lose their job. If you really cared about outsourcing, and I sincerely think you don't understand it so how in the hell could you care about it, you would deal with the fundamental questions about whether to outsource or not.

Really? You are the only smart guy around, huh? Teaching us poor libtards how business works..if only we knew how business works we would vote Republican. Let us ignore the fact that people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and George Soros are also liberals. To which, of course, the response usually is "Soros! Nazi! Squirrel!"

What you do not understand is that in THIS particular case, Mr Romney bankrupted companies in order to

1. free them from their retirement obligations. Do you understand what that means? It means that PBGC picked up the tab. It's pretty likely you don't even know what the PBGC is. Short of it is, YOU paid for the retirement of these people. Bain Capital kept the cash.
2. free them from their bond obligations. It's a marvelous scheme. Use their creditworthiness to borrow money. Then pay yourself a huge amount as 'salary.' Then when the creditors come knocking, plead bankruptcy.

You are right in that outsourcing can be a good thing. But it is only a good thing when you are creating a new firm. If you already have a working profitable company, you might be able to make more money if you pay a Chinese peasant less, but you are going to be paying to ship the goods back. In Mr Romney's case, he had an incentive to ship jobs overseas since he had invested in a Chinese company that would take the outsourced jobs. Even if it was less profitable to have the Chinese have those jobs, in the aggregate it is possible that Mr Romney would make more money.

Either way, yes, it is POSSIBLE for outsourcing to be a good thing. But Mr Romney did a lot more than just that.

But liberals actually are somewhat ambivalent about outsourcing. The whole root of the issue is that Mr Romney's base consists of a lot of racist xenophobes. The "outsourcing outsourcing outsourcing" mantra is directed at them. Or are you also clueless about politics, as well as being clueless about business?

I realize it's an anathema to a lot of people on this board, but Bain is an INVESTMENT company. Sure, you can pick out failures here and there, but that's the way capitalism works! In 80% of the cases, Bain ended up SAVING companies from bankruptcy and GROWING JOBS. Here are a few:

AMC Entertainment
Brookstone
Burger King
Burlington Coat Factory
Domino's Pizza
DoubleClick
Dunkin' Donuts
Guitar Center
Hospital Corporation of America (HCA)
Sealy
The Sports Authority
Staples, Toys "R" Us
Warner Music Group
The Weather Channel

Unfortunately, the so-called Liberals on this board think that it's somehow "evil" that a company goes bankrupt and people lose their jobs. If it was up to so-called Liberals, we'd be subsidizing blacksmiths who lost their jobs to those "evil" car makers and subsidizing former video-store owners who lost their jobs to "evil" Netflix.

As an Illinois resident, it would be nice if Sen. Durbin who supposedly is to represent me, would concern himself about passing a budget, to the extent he concerns himself about Romney!!!!t

"was due partly to President Barack Obama’s policies of imposing “excessive regulations” and maintaining a high corporate tax rate"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! LOL !! Thats right it was Obama's fault?! He wasn't even President then! LOL

This is exactly why the Obambi administrations has done absolutely nothing with the economy. Too busy with the PAST.

With this type of mindset, where do you think we will be by 2016 if this bum gets a second term?

I'm confused. How is Obama pulling a nose-diving economy out of a fatal dive despite GOP interference considered a dismal financial record? And it doesn't matter when Romney left the opportunistic vulture company he founded. He ran it long enough for it to be a true reflection of his ethics and morals.

Every 0bama campaign attack has been proven a lie by credible media outlets and full time fact checkers.

According to you idiots all the media are crackpot left wing propaganda machines now you say there are creditable sources. Please tell us your source and you probably cant because what you preach is a lie and only Faux news and Limbaugh and Beck et al have "proved" them to be lies. The liar here is Romney as almost all of his ads are lies. Just like the ones he ran against his Republican opponents in the run for the nomination. They all called this sorry crappy person a liar and liars do not change their stripes!

That's right. Outsourcing is a good thing. I noticed not one of you leftists want to take my offer of kicking out all the foreign firms who've outsourced to the USA MILLIONS of jobs. You are hypocrites. You want to bash business for doing what business does, and completely ignore the policies YOU have supported which made those decisions necessary in a global marketplace. NAFTA isn't the problem. Unfair trade practices are a problem, but those aren't the biggest reasons domestic firms have trouble competing with firms from overseas.

So you don't want to deal with the very policies you put into place, and, in fact, you want more of those, which have caused firms to cease domestic operations and move overseas, or to open additional production overseas. You don't want to deal with your own participation in this outcome, but instead want to blame someone else. And it is always someone else, isn't it?

Name, please, just one firm that has EVER moved out of the USA because it wanted to do anything but improve its bottom line or make survival profitable. Name just one firm that based its decisions upon a roll of the dice. They make these decisions because they are good for their bottom line, and that is why they are in business. If they could make more money by simply selling their assets and investing the money in bonds, or gold, or land, or whatever, they would. The reason they go is because you have elected over time politicians who have put into place rules and regulations that have made staying harder. It's really that simple.

Firms don't hate you. They don't owe you a glorious life. They simply want to make the highest profit for their owners they can. You would do the same. That you do not comprehend this simple fact of business life proves my point that Americans are generally ignorant when it comes to business.

Romney is the hero of nothing, just once I'd like to see him spew with honesty but the only thing he has is blaming Obama for their screw-ups.

@Rich

In the simplest terms possible: Outsourcing is bad when you outsource more than other outsource to you. To keep a health economy balance is needed. Right now our country bleeds because of trade deficits and outsourcing.

Think of a sink full of water: the water coming in is through trading out, either through labor or actual products. The drain is outsourcing, or buying foreign goods. Keeping the sink at a middle level equates to a healthy economy. But if the drain become to large, the sink will empty. If the water flow comes in to fast, then you will get overflow.

Right now our sink is emptying out rapidly. That is why things like Bain capital are a big freaking deal right now. They created a leak that is going to be hard to fill. These leaks need to be fixed if our country is going to be solid again.

Look, outsourcing is a GOOD thing if it helps a firm remain in business. Those of you who think it's a bad thing ought to be wildly upset that Toyota, BMW, Nissan, Honda, Siemens, and any of thousands of foreign firms have outsourced jobs to the USA. Yes, to AMERICA.

And EVERY one of those companies you named pays good American wages and excellent fringe benefits.

THEY did not come here to exploit a people living in near-slave conditions, fouling our environment. They came here and acted as better citizens than many of our own companies.

Defend THAT.

Romney says he had nothing to do with that company after 1999 but filed papers with the SEC saying he was CEO plus all the rest of the operating staff that had anything to do with daily decisions long after 1999. So Obama is using his own filing to pound him on this major lie he told one way or another. If he admits the filing with the SEC is false he faces a court date. if he say its true he admits he lied to todays media. Which is Willard?

Both parties are full of CRONY CAPITALIST.

That is the summation of all post above this one. Read the link to know what that really is...

NOTE: "If you read the description, or not, and believe this is true, vote my post up."

Talking about "running from something", Obama is setting speed records fleeing from his disastrous economic record of the last almost four years.

Heh - disastrous economic record...

...the numbers for Bush's last three months. Between October and November, 597,000 jobs were lost; between November and December, 681,000 were lost; and between December and January, 741,000 were lost.

April 2012 marks the 26th straight month of gains in private-sector employment, for a total of 4.2 million private-sector jobs.

DJIA Dec 1, 2008 = 8149

DJIA July 13, 2012 = 12777

Dec 29, 2008 U.S. corporate earnings fell for a sixth-straight quarter, the longest streak in at least 20 years, as consumer spending on automobiles, homes and retailers collapsed.

May 11, 2012 Fortune magazine released its ranking of the 500 biggest US corporations Monday, which showed that they received a record-breaking $824 billion in combined profits in 2011, up 16 percent from 2010.

I want more of this kind of disaster. And one helluva lot less of the Republican kind under George W. Bush. Romney seems bound and determined to continue disastrous Bush/Republican policies that have already been proven not to work.

That's why I'll be voting a straight Democratic ticket this fall.

Rich: "They simply want to make the highest profit for their owners they can. "

We ALL understand that, Rich. The difference is that you seem to think it is ALWAYS a good thing to do so, and we don't. Slavery helps profits too, but hopefully even you would agree that would be going to far. Therefore, we are debating about the right BALANCE, not about how stupid the opposition is.

I'd like to see Romney's tax records since 1999. How much money was he getting from Bain, and how much of that is sheltered so he didn't pay taxes on it? Could we get a President that's honest and patriotic? Nah...We have our choice of Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

"

There is no truth to Obamaf's hate campaign. Romney left bain in 1999 and ran a successful Olympics. Obama just can'thandle the truth."

And you have a reding problem.

That's the whole point, they blamed it on Obama's policies yet he wasn't even President. Duh!

Rich, my problem with your explanation is that there are quite a number of companies who conduct business here in America who also have their businesses located in the US who make a profit and do not outsource jobs to other countries. They manage to make their profits while supporting the American worker. Granted, many are smaller companies but there are also some very large companies who manage to have factories or manufacturing here in our country while being profitable.

Yes, outsourcing is a good thing to that business. But please explain how it helps our country if that company spends more money outside the US than inside the US as a result of that outsourcing? Outsourcing takes away jobs from Americans, whether the job is a direct job at that company or the other vendors that company uses to produce their product. A company who moves out of the country is no longer using resources from our country, things like gas, coal, electricity, water, etc., which in turn affects companies handling those types of resources (and also results in less jobs available). It affects shipping, less people to help transport the product from inside the country.

The bigger question should be why are there companies who have no problem making profit who are located here in the US while other companies are losing money. Some of it may have to do with tax laws and government involvement. My experience is that it usually falls on those running the company who want large paychecks and large profits over keeping costs under control. Not every business person runs a successful business and running a successful business in our country takes hard work. But instead of working harder to make profits while maintaining their own wealth, they cut costs by looking for the easiest out (ie, moving to countries where the cost of being in business is lower). This is the easy thing to do and is the coward's way out of being profitable. Many business people feel they should earn a large amount of money over making sure their company is profitable. And yet you rarely hear anyone call the corporate industry on this fact.

The company I work for is a conservative company. When the recession hit, they cut costs within the company instead of outsourcing parts of our company to countries overseas. As a result, our company remained profitable throughout this last recession.

Finally, I'd much rather purchase a product made here in the US than one made overseas. Why? Because in my experience, products manufactured overseas tend not to last as long as products made by the American worker. It would be more beneficial to me to purchase a product that would last for decades than for me to purchase a product that might last a few years before having to throw my hard earned money back into purchasing another one sooner than I would have needed to do so. Which would you rather do, spend $50.00 on a product that lasts for 60 years or spend $30.00 on a product that lasts for 20 years? Just because the cost to the consumer is less does not make it a wise investment. You say people don't understand business and I would agree to a point. But the consumer also doesn't understand value if they're purchasing products that they have to continually purchase when they could have spent a little more and had a product lasting 2 to 5 times longer (or more) than the cheaper product.

It's all about perspective. That this country has become a "throwaway" society hasn't helped either.

Back by popular demand.....

When Norquist was asked about republican nominees for president, Norquist said all they need was someone to sign the documents.

So the repubs need a strawman....Hmmmm!. ......The Wizard of Odds needs a strawman......

Romney the strawman met with Cheney the other day at Cheney's home. Dorothy Cheney asked Romney, "Strawman, What would you do if you had a brain?" Romney the Strawman broke out in song, " Why if I had a brain I could...I could while away the hours, conferring with the flowers, consulting for the BAIN. And my head I'd be a-scratchin', while my thoughts were busy hatchin', if I hadn't worked for BAIN!

And EVERY one of those companies you named pays good American wages and excellent fringe benefits.

Nonsense every one of the companies has located in a state with right to work laws and hire people there at a fraction of what the average American worker makes. Get real that whole comment is false. So what if a company from Japan who cannot produce even at capacity their exports does open up in another country....Thats not outsourcing jobs in their own coutry and btw all of them shut down their foreign operations first when business declines. So here we see the right winger says the outsourcing is good . (Look, outsourcing is a GOOD thing)

Tell that to the millons of American workers who have lost their jobs to outsourcing like the garment industry in the carolinas or the Steel companies etc etc etc. More bad old rotten right wing policies you will see live if they get control again.

All this "Dodging" the questions that I have seen this Sunday from Mitt's handlers tells me one thing.

THIS IS MITT'S ACHILLES HEEL.

Geez, no wonder Obama's going after him. It's red meat.

Rich, You make some good points. However, there are a few points you omitted. Representatives from China and India were brought to the US to be trained by US workers on how to operate the machinery prior to moving production overseas. The biggest reason was to avoid having to provide health care and contributions to retirement benefits. On the other hand, the Toyota's and BMW's of the world bring manufacturing here to the US because states give them big tax exemptions, no unionization which means lower wages and less benefits. Americans are not greedy people. All they want is to make a decent wage with benefits and be able to live a comfortable life. What Romney did at Bain to me is criminal. He did this to his own people and now he wants to be our President? I don't think so.

@diogene, Did you take to look something on list of companies those places don't pay spit for labor. They are 1 adult in charge of students companies. A job gets you at least $26,000 or so a year. Duh.

I'm not surprised the kooky leftists have come out like hornets who had their nest rattled. So, in no particular order, and with no particular names referenced, here are the answers to your complaints/questions.

The USA wasn't lied into war with Iraq. The dead soldiers probably did improve the coffin business at the margins, but no one went to war in Iraq for that purpose, and it's despicable you would imply that was ever a thought in that decision.

Outsourcing is not a bad thing, but the policies the government employs which make it more likely firms will outsource can be. Liberals, for instance, seemingly want zero pollution through fierce environmental regulation. Whether it is possible to reach a zero pollution level or not isn't exactly the right question to worry about. How much are the marginal costs for the marginal gains is the right question. If a firm can't comply because the costs are too high, and so it leaves the USA and sets up shop elsewhere, then we didn't help the environment but we did impose a massive cost upon ourselves in the form of lost jobs/tax revenue. It's not all that simple, but in a nutshell you should get the point.

If Bain bought a company and it was worth more to dismember it than to save it, then that is Bain's right as owner. Previous management, and the firm's employees themselves, should have worked harder at being profitable. In which case Bain would never want to dismember it anyhow, but might still invest in it for the high profits.

Over time Bain's investments have produced hundreds of thousands of NEW jobs, NET (that means more were created than lost for you leftists). Clearly this could not occur had it been Bain's goal to simply break firms into pieces and sell them off. So the claim Bain has cost the American economy jobs is a lie. Try, if you can, to explain why it is you leftists think all firms should only hire, and never fire. Using your truly pathetic understanding of business and economics, and applying this rule of not firing anyone, would we ever have had indoor plumbing (can't fire cess pool diggers), or cars (can't fire buggy makers and horse crap shovelers), or the phone (can't fire the telegraph operators and wire linemen). You make no sense.

If taxpayers in any way rewarded Bain with tax money in order to destroy firms then I think my original conclusion is right anyhow. You want to blame Bain, but not the governmental policy which induces the behavior you hate. In fact, you still SUPPORT the kinds of politicians who put into place those kinds of policies. You know, Einstein had an interesting take on the definition of insanity... Anyhow, if by taking a loss on an investment and using that loss to write down your income means, in your very twisted world, that taxpayers paid Bain for ruining firms, then there is an easy solution that I have favored for a very long time. End the federal business tax. No tax, no tax deductions or credits either.

Oh, but darn, then you wouldn't be able to try to control people and firms, and blame them when they do what you made possible anyhow. Yes, I can see how this won't work for you. My bad.

Did obummer bailout an American company "GM" then go and buy buses to campaign with made in Canada???

Nope and you didn't prove anything. :)

Next time try not to think the audience who reads your crap doesn't smell it too.

...Why do you think McCain steered away from Romney back in 2008? He saw the tax returns of Mittster.....Roh Roh!

Romney lost to Palin, who with McCain lost to President Obama.

Romney, Rove , and Norquist walk into a bar, the bartender says, "What is this, a joke?"

Now...you take Romney....Please!

A funny thing happened to Romney on the way to the republican Presidential nominations......

Looking for Romney anything plans? Romney now says...his dog ate his plans.

Rich..........pull my finger!

@rich

"Name, please, just one firm that has EVER moved out of the USA because it wanted to do anything but improve its bottom line or make survival profitable"

You do know you don't have to actually move out of the country to OUTSOURCE jobs. If they moved there it wouldn't be called out sourcing.

first and foremost... BAIN Capital was Romneys company. Second...he took a "Leave Of Absence"- he did not resign and he did not relinquish control over it. The missing tax returns will show whether he profited from all those exported jobs. Since that was what was going on prior to 1999 I would assume nothing changed and they kept going with the Romney plan for the company. As for the quote of Obama putting regulations on these people so they shipped jobs overseas..... again, they were doing that under Romney and long before Obama became President. And maybe if Regulations were in place- we would not have been sent into our current recession/depression situation. Despite everything said from Romney and his puppets- They cannot explain away the similarity's between this deal with Bain and Cheney's with Haliburton. Seems like Republicans like to always have a safe fallback plan.

....Romney's wife got one of the accounts when he was running for gov office. The day before he had to announce his assets, he transferred an account into Ann's name to avoid disclosure! What was Romney hiding that time?

Rich, you must be a fellow Adam Smith fan?

Face it, slavery is not economical anymore. With a slave, you have to feed him, provide shelter, clothe him and take care of him when he's ill, aged or infirm. With a worker, all you have to do is pay a crappy wage that one cannot live on, and your done.

Hi Alex,

First, thank you for not frothing at the mouth like your fellow posters who disagree. Second, I doubt I can convince you to vote for Romney, or even against Obama, and so that isn't my goal. You bring up wages and benefits as a reason to leave the USA, and I agree it is a major factor, or can be a major factor. If a firm brings to the USA foreigners to train on its processes I see no problem--the firm wants to survive. Let me give you a very typical example.

My brother owns a small firm trying to do business in the lo-jack industry. He needed a composite battery put together for one of the units he makes. It had size requirements, amperage requirements, and so on. American firms could do the work, but the cost was over $9/unit. In China he got the same product for $2.15/unit. Now this was just one component to a total unit, and maybe he could still survive on a lower profit margin if he just bought the battery domestically, but using the left's logic he should buy all his components domestically.

The problem with this sentiment is that no market would exist for a product 4 to 5 times the total current cost that would be large enough to make business viable. Yet Americans want products of this type, just at the lower price. So, who is the bad guy, really, in this scenario? Is it my brother trying to satisfy a market (in America and abroad), who wants a product at a price lower than what it would cost to produce it domestically, by buying equivalent products from foreign firms at prices that make it possible to do business? Or is it the customer who is unwilling to pay more so that it can be produced locally? Not for nothing, but if the customer was willing to pay more it would still be produced with foreign components, unless there was a law making that illegal.

This very simple scenario is lost on almost every liberal poster above. Their answer, knowing nothing apparently about business, is just to bash the business. I hope, sincerely, they do this to Bain simply because they hate Romney, but it's a false hope to be frank since this attitude (blame everyone but themselves) long predates Romney and extends to almost all businesses.

As far as the idea that Americans aren't greedy, I just cannot go there with you. We want higher wages and benefits. Nothing wrong there. But there are some firms that simply can't compete at those levels because their products are low margin. Raise the wage rate and these firms at the margins become less viable in the USA. They want to survive. Those that can leave will. Those that can't will go out of business until enough firms have left the market that supply and demand at the higher cost level will balance again.

And this isn't to say we should have no rules or regulations. My point is that leftists here are bashing the wrong guy. Most should find a mirror. And, in a real sense, that all these rules and regulations have a cost associated with them that hits us all, but in fact hits the working class and poor harder. Whether we should have certain rules and regulations is a political matter, and I just wish that more voters would accept their political responsibility for the consequences of their actions.

Dick Durbin the Senate's most after the fact member. Dick Durbin whose state of Ill. is 200 BILLION dollars in debt with 83 BILLION in raided union pension accounts! Dick Durbin whose democrat controlled senate has not passed a budget in 3 YEARS, which IS ILLEGAL! Dick Durbin whose state has the murder capital of America, Chicago! But yeah, whats REALLY important is Romneys impressive record at Bain Captial. An American company creating American jobs with PRIVATE money! Obama outsourcing jobs with PUBLIC money, you IDIOT Durbin!But the most important thing is to deflect attention away from the lousy job reports and the economy!

There is no question that this nation is in big trouble.

People keep looking back at history and remembering the "good old days".

Back in the good old days the wealthy paid a much higher tax rate.

Read: http://taxfoundation.org/article/us-federal-individual-income-tax-rates-history-1913-2011-nominal-and-inflation-adjusted-brackets

The United States has one of the biggest gaps between the haves and the have nots.

Inequality in the United States increased significantly from 1985 to 2008, putting it in the fourth-worst spot in the study.

Read more: Countries With The Widest Gap Between Rich And Poor - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2011/12/06/countries-with-biggest-spread-between-rich-and-poor/#ixzz20iFvHiGO

Since the 60's the tax rate for those in the middle have gone up the poorest gone down and for the very wealthy it has plummeted.

Read: http://visualizingeconomics.com/2007/11/03/nytimes-historical-tax-rates-by-income-group/#.T-vGHZE0-DE

People wonder why the economy is in such a mess.

The Bush tax cuts cut jobs, and cut tax revenue.

Many of the most wealthy sold off their US assets. For Good Reason. It was the best time to sell. They would get to pocket more of the money to buy foreign products like Mercedes, Yachts, and vacation hideaways in Croatia, Italy, the Caribbean etc.

A very publicized example was the selling of America's Beer, Budwizzer. Obviously wasn't my beer I preferred local brews and still do. Now Anheuser Busch is owned by a foreign (Belgium/Brazil) company.

The reduction of taxes paid by the super rich has destroyed this nation.

The Republicans have fought against this President in his attempts to repeal the tax cuts.

If they won't let him do what is necessary to turn things around Obama can't take the full blame for the current economic mess.

Am I 100% happy with Obama? No, but I am even more angry at the Republicans - ALL of them.

BP, name one company that moved all or part of its operations. It's really that simple. Their home office could be in your city or state, but their entire operational structure could be in...Burma. So quit with the pathetic word games and name a company, if you can.

So many amusing comments by posters that assuredly have no clue as to what private equity firms actually are, or what such firms do.
It seems they all regurgitate the same socialist/progressive rhetoric that such firms are somehow evil. If they were any stupider, they would forget to breathe.

The reason for the incessant attacks regarding Bain is clear;
The aforementioned bunch of very stupid Obama minions and that Obama has nothing else to run on, reasoning that if he keeps his idiot voter base thusly occupied their little minds won't wander over to his dismal record of incompetence and failure.

Romney running from Bain 'like a scalded cat'

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now that's a GOOD ONE!!!!

Romney, like McCain, is damaged goods now, and like McCain, the GOP has NOTHING else to offer this time either. I don't believe Romney picking a decent (?....LOL) VP will save him. He's toast, it's over, GOP is spending money, wishing for something that will never be.

OBAMA/BIDEN/HOLDER....2012!!!!

Wow willy, with all of your pedantry and self claimed expertise, all you provided was a cheap ad hominem... not a single point or piece of information. You must be so proud.

From Forbes: QUESTIONS LYING ROMNEY MUST RESPONSD TO.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tjwalker/2012/07/14/35-questions-mitt-romney-must-answer-about-bain-capital-before-the-issue-can-go-away/

Romney's relationship question with Bain is simple. Either he lied to the SEC when he filed the papers or he's lying to the public about his relationship. As far as companies saving money by outsourcing, the way for the government to get around loosing US jobs is to put a tariff on goods coming into the country to make the cost equal to or higher than a similar good would cost if manufactured in the US.

So all the Bainers are out now!! Keep asking the same questions and getting the same answers, Insanity!

Do any of the mental midget liberals think that for just one minute, that fat lazy unions might have something to do with outsourcing? Obama "SAVED" GM with our funds "PUBLIC" GM makes 70% of its vehicles out of the US. Did he bargain to bring back jobs? NO, HIPOCRIT!!!!!!!

Romney hasn't mentioned the fact that he STILL lives off Bain Capital's profits from vulture capitalism.

His 2010 tax return showed that he took home $7 million from Bain in 2010. That's 11 years after he said he "left" the company. He's Bain's largest shareholder - so why does he claim no responsibility for anything the company does? He just wants the money, not the responsibility.

Let him have control of MY country? Hell no!

Romney's Tax Returns Show How Laws Favor the Wealthy
NY Times, January 24, 2012

The couple paid about $3 million in federal taxes on an adjusted gross income of $21.6 million, the vast majority of it flowing from myriad of stock holdings, mutual funds and other investments, including profits and investment income from Bain Capital, the private equity firm Mr. Romney retired from in 1999.

The couple reported no wage earnings in 2010. But in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, Mr. Romney's campaign counsel, Benjamin L. Ginsberg, said that Mr. Romney and his wife collected more than $7 million worth of Bain profits in 2010.

No Geo. The blame for outsourcing is 100% on the execs who make that decision. If they can pay a chineese worker one cent to make a product and pay 98 cents to have it shipped to the U.S., instead of paying an American worker a dollar to make the product, they do it. Then they pat themselves on the back for saving a penney. That is the mindset of your "patriotic" corporate overlords.

Hey Dan,

I apologize for not replying to you sooner. Yours is a good post, even if in part I don't agree with you. I want to focus on what I do agree with, and I think you will reverse one of your points. I don't think every firm dealing with a competitive marketplace decision decides to leave the USA. Most don't. My point is that every firm is in a different competitive situation, and if their business decision is to move some or all of their operations off-shore, or to expand off-shore, it isn't done for spite towards America or Americans.

For some firms the decision to stay in the USA is based on something other than patriotic fervor though, wouldn't you agree? I mean, you mention cutting costs as a way to streamline and improve domestic operation profitability. This is good, no? But those costs that were cut were, on the other side of that coin, someone's paycheck, or some other firms revenue, and so people again have lost jobs as a result. So does this mean your firm which cut costs and therefore cost jobs SOMEWHERE is bad? I hope to hell not. I hope liberals agree with me on this.

Every firm should try to maximize profits, and there isn't a single thing wrong with this unless the law is violated. They can do this by raising prices (if the market permits it), or increasing volume (if the market permits it), or cutting costs. This last method is the one which in every economy, good or bad, and whatever location, foreign or domestic, that every company should always work towards. Being the leanest means being the most competitive all other things equal. But it did, as you are surely aware, cost jobs too. So, simply asked, was it a bad thing for your firm to cut jobs in order to save domestic operations? And the follow up...Was it a bad thing for Romney, at Bain, to cut jobs where needed in order to earn profits for his firm?

I don't necessarily want to prejudge your reply, but if your firm is good I can't see how anyone could intellectually claim Bain is bad for doing the same things. If we instead, as a society, focused more on the market fundamentals all these firms are operating in, and less on blaming them for doing what it is we have invited them to do, I think we might have the leanest, and therefore most competitive, market on earth.

Ronzwyf - And, in a real sense, that all these rules and regulations have a cost associated with them that hits us all, but in fact hits the working class and poor harder.

Yeah, "costs" like clean water, clean air, sanitation systems, safer workplaces, a minimum wage, no child labor and a 40-hour work week.

We enacted those regulations for a reason, you know. Do you really want to be China?

From the NY Times:

Choking on Growth

Scott 1.72

Wow Scott, presumably you have the same opportunity for research that I do, so look this stuff up, if you care to. It's all there, and while you're at it, don't overlook all the political contributions from Bain gladly accepted by Obama.

Additionally, you might look up Obama's incestuously cozy relationship with the Canadian firm, Brookfield Asset management (another private equity firm) where he secretly provided millions in loan guarantees to and is working with them to insure he prevails in the upcoming election. There is much more, look it up.

“… Mitt Romney and Bain Capital were involved with what I call vulture capitalism.” — Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Jan. 10, 2012

“Those of us who believe in free markets and those of us who believe that in fact the whole goal of investment is entrepreneurship and job creation, we find it pretty hard to justify rich people figuring out clever legal ways to loot a company, leaving behind 1,700 families without a job.” — Newt Gingrich, Jan. 8, 2012

“They closed down more than 1,000 plants, stores and offices. They outsourced tens of thousands of jobs, and they took 12 companies to bankruptcy. I don’t think those are the values that people want to animate our economy. He is not a job creator, he is a corporate raider. Those aren’t the values that we want to lead our economy.” — Obama adviser David Axelrod, Jan. 8, 2012

“[T]here’s something about raping companies and leaving them in debt and setting up Swiss bank accounts and corporate businesses in the Grand Caymans. I have a real serious problem with that.” — Rep. Jim Clyburn, May 22, 2012

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76608.html#ixzz20iOM1kFl

Why do liberal extremists refer to Republicans as Taliban. Are the Republicans the ones who riot in the streets killing innocent people ? Are they pro-Islamic and anti-semetic ? No these are all traits of Liberals. Are the prisons across America filled with Republicans ? No again.

Are the Republicans truly 1% of America ? No again because close to 50% of the voting public votes Republican for 150 years now.

Are Farmers, Engineers, Entrepreneurs, people who work hard for their money, and myself being a worker in the building trade all Taliban ?

After 9/11, Congress voted (including the majority of Democrats). As for U.S. wars in general, it is the Democrats that brought us into nearly every conflict for the last 100 years.

Cindy Sheehan challenged Democrats with a sharp question: “Are the wars only wrong when there’s a Republican president?” Democrats in Congress delivered a mixed response to that question yesterday, with a vote on House Concurrent Resolution 28, legislation introduced by Dennis Kucinich that would have, if passed into law, required President Obama to end the war in Afghanistan by the end of this year.

The vote showed a deeply divided Democratic Party in Congress. 85 House Democrats voted to end the war in Afghanistan. 99 House Democrats, however, voted to keep the decade-long war going without any plan for an end to the fighting.

The congressional Democrats in congress who voted for war in Afghanistan, against peace, here is the list:

Gary Ackerman, Jason Altmire, Robert Andrews, John Barrow, Xavier Becerra, Shelley Berkley, Howard Berman, Sanford Bishop, Timothy Bishop, Earl Blumenauer, Dan Boren, Leonard Boswell, Robert Brady, Bruce Braley, Corrine Brown, G.K. Butterfield, Lois Capps, Dennis Cardoza, Russ Carnahan, Carney, André Carson, Kathy Castor, Ben Chandler, James Clyburn, Gerald Connolly, Jim Cooper, Jim Costa, Joe Courtney, Mark Critz, Henry Cuellar, Elijah Cummings, Susan Davis, Rosa DeLauro, Ted Deutch, Norman Dicks, John Dingell, Lloyd Doggett, Joe Donnelly, Eliot Engel, Chaka Fattah, Charles Gonzalez, Al Green, Gene Green, Colleen Hanabusa, Martin Heinrich, Brian Higgins, James Himes, Mazie Hirono Tim Holden, Steny Hoyer, Steve Israel, Hank Johnson, Marcy Kaptur, Dale Kildee, Ron Kind, Larry Kissell, James Langevin, Rick Larsen, Sander Levin, Daniel Lipinski, David Loebsack, Nita Lowey, Ben Luján Stephen Lynch, Jim Matheson, Carolyn McCarthy, Betty McCollum, Mike McIntyre, Gregory Meeks, Brad Miller, Christopher Murphy, William Owens, William Pascrell, Nancy Pelosi, Ed Perlmutter, Gary Peters, Collin Peterson, David Price Nick Rahall, Silvestre Reyes, Mike Ross, Steven Rothman, Lucy Roybal-Allard, C.A. Ruppersberger, Timothy Ryan, John Sarbanes, Adam Schiff, Kurt Schrader, Allyson Schwartz, Robert Scott David Scott, Terri Sewell, Brad Sherman, Albio Sires, Adam Smith, Betty Sutton, Chris Van Hollen, Timothy Walz, David Wu

Hi JOregon,

One simple question about one of your points (I agree with almost nothing you wrote but this in particular interests me):

Why do you think that tax cuts actually cost jobs in the USA? I hear the left argue that tax cuts don't create jobs, which is usually wrong too, but I haven't heard anyone argue that tax cuts actually caused a net loss of jobs. I would think the only way this would be possible is if you think the government is better at spending the people's money than the people. But wouldn't this then lead to the next, logical, question?

If you actually do think the government is better at spending your money than you, so that more jobs would be created if you had to give all your money to the government, then isn't the fact that you want higer taxes on the rich, but not on you proof that either you are costing the USA jobs by wanting to keep your own money, or that you don't really believe the government is better at spending the people's money than the people?

Scott, Did Obama bargain with GM to bring back jobs? NO, WHY? If he is as dumb as I think, would that have not been a good bargain chip? But since we have the most inexperienced President EVER! He must blame and campain because thier is absolutely NOTHING to run on!

I see the collapse cowards are out in full force today. Can't defend the worst president in history so rather than read about his failures they collapse the comments.

Real brave people you are - no wonder you like your guy. You both have NO BALLS.

Hey RealAmericansFirst,

It was actually me who said all these rules and regulations have costs associated with them. And, if you weren't blindered by your hate, you could have read that we have to decide whether those costs are worth it. So, we can have a minimum wage law, for instance, but is it worth the cost to have so many teens unemployed? Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. I don't think you spend much time focusing on the costs, and only see the benefits, but I hardly think you are unique.

Politics, particularly leftist politics, is built on the idea of visible beneficiaries (people with a higher minimum wage) and invisible victims (people no longer with a job because the firm can't afford them at that rate). This applies to more than the minimum wage. I don't really mean to bash you over not focusing on the costs since the media, and certainly the political debate, has a very hard time dealing with quantifying them. Why should you be different?

Can't defend the president? Can't you read what the engineer above said? We were in economic free-fall, and Obama turned it around. Look at actual facts: DJIA 6600 on 3/2009; 13000 today. Jobs losses 700,000/month 1/2009; Job creation today. GDP -6.7% end of 2008; GDP +2% today. Unemployment 10.2% 12/2009; Unemployment 8.2% today. Deficit projected at $1.85 trillion 1/2009; deficit last year was over $600billion better than that. Obama is walking a tightrope while juggling and dodging spitballs from Republicans who are trying to make him (and America) fail. He's a GREAT PRESIDENT.

Meanwhile - one point being missed. Romney by his own admission couldn't handle both the Olympic Games and Bain Capital. Remember, everyone involved in the Olympics wants it to succeed. Being president involves not only a whole lot more difficulty than Romney can handle, it also involves dealing with people who want to make you fail (that is, Republicans and terrorists). OBAMA IS DOING A GREAT JOB. Romeny is effectively admitting that he couldn't hack it.

To MittTaxPittance Rommel: YOU LIE!!!!! You were with Bain THROUGH 2000 Hacking off American Jobs, American Manufacturing AND American Lives. Try THIS ONE on for Size Buddy: President Harry Truman in 1948: "The Republicans … will try
to make people believe that everything the Government has done for the country
is socialism. They will go to the people and say: "Did you see that social
security check you received the other day—you thought that was good for you,
didn't you? That's just too bad! That's nothing in the world but socialism. Did
you see that new flood control dam the Government is building over there for the
protection of your property? Sorry—that's awful socialism! That new hospital
that they are building is socialism. Price supports, more socialism for the
farmers! Minimum wage laws? Socialism for labor! Socialism is bad for you, my
friend. Everybody knows that. And here you are, with your new car, and your
home, and better opportunities for the kids, and a television set—you are just
surrounded by socialism! Now the Republicans say, 'That's a terrible thing, my
friend, and the only way out of this sinkhole of socialism is to
vote for the
Republican ticket.'" And that was 64 Years Ago!!!, the republicanCrimeCartel is still doing the same exploitation of people THEY ARE NOTORIUS FOR. Now, according to KingGeorgeTheVacuumBrained, it is called "free market" capitalism; with families in the streets and 21% Unemployment.......

Remember Fellow and Sister Americans: A vote for ANY republicanCrimeCartelSoldier, Rommel, is a vote Against Yours and Your Family's WellBeing

What amazes me, is the lack of knowledge about China's entrance into the WTO. Right after the 9/11 attacks, the US President FINALLY allowed China into the WTO. This never happened before, because of China's dismal human rights record. If Romney (through Bain) didn't take advantage of this new situation, they would be fools. The massive money, to be made in China, was VERY alluring. To this very day, the name of "He Who Shall Not Be Named" is treated with respect and reverence..... IN CHINA!

The American people don't want someone who is fraudulent (lying or just misrepresenting themselves), or not well-versed in public/foreign policy (and in particular makes little or no effort to know it), or who is not patriotic (outsources, bets against the USA), or has a sense of entitlement (secretive, above standard practices like releasing tax returns), and no compassion for the common man, and worst of all a CHEAT -- For POTUS, Commander in Chief, and leader of the free world. The more voters see of Willard Mitt Romney, the less they like what they see.

And that's before folks even get to his plans, vague as these may be, which boils down to two things: The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. As much as Republicans try to distance themselves from Dubya, the FACT is their policies are still the same failed crap. And Romney would like to implement that same failed crap--on steroids.

Eric Cantor has also "bet against America" among other things, and will be up against an impressive opponent in the coming election too. Let's clean House -- Throw out the Teapublicans. Romney -- He's not in it for you.

Romney provided 18 years of taxes to th RNC in 2008, there is not one peep out of them about anything in them then or now.

In the Republican Primary Race about 2 weeks before the Second Florida debate Gingrich really started hammering Romney about him investing in Freddie and Fannie. In the debate on national TV Gingrich attacked Romney for Freddie and Fannie. Romney replied with, all my investments are in a trust. I have no control of what the trust invests in. You have a 401K and if you look into what you funds are in, you have money also invested in Freddie and Fannie.

The left better hope this isn't about to happen with Ban, because with the information I see coming soon, Bain appears to be headed that way.

The only reason Romney has not released those returns is that it will give the left more time to find something they can use to tell another tall tale on.

Woodshed----Reagan tripled the National debt and you guys call him an icon. He spent nothing on the domestic agenda and was involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, and Granada. Bush I led us into Iraq I. Bush II invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. Eisenhower was in office and sent "advisers" to Vietnam and the first US service members died in Vietnam under Eisenhower. JFK and Johnson made serious mistakes following.

Truman owned the Korean War.

Roosevelt did lead us into WWII and it was the last noble cause for the US to be at war.

The other part---"American Taliban." A majority of Americans voted for President Obama, yet the GOP has played the "Kenyan Muslin with a fake Birth Certificate" card his entire term. The GOP said they would create jobs when they took the House. Where are the @!$%#ing jobs? Every jobs bill has been shot down by "The Party of No." Romney has promised to increase defense spending and cut domestic spending. Don't know about you--but that's dumb as hell.

This is just more of Obama trying to distract the American public from the mess he has made of the economy. The Dems are also in panic mode. Romney has caught Obama in the polls and it is only a matter of time until he pulls noticibly ahead of Obama. As Romney does better and better, expect Obama and the Dems to get wilder in their accusations in their vain and useless attempt to win in November.

joe, the national polls are close but irrelevant. if you look state by state Obama has a fairly comfortable lead in electoral votes.

Hey Disgusted-WV,

So many peoplel to get to, sorry. Defend that? Sure, and easily. According to the left in this country Europe has better wages and benefits and working conditions than America. So (this excludes the Japanese firms on the list, or Asian firms generally) those firms then, to use your stellar logical prowess, must've left European labor markets in order to exploit the lesser paid, lesser benefitted, American worker. And, because you simply hate exploitation of any variety, they must be bad.

Of course, this is all leftist lunacy. Your employer exploits you and you exploit your employer. Thank goodness you have a value worth exploiting, no? So what you are really getting at is the ugly truth...it is okay to exploit Americans if it HELPS Americans, but it is not okay to exploit, say, Laotians, if it helps Laotians. Forget the simple hypocrisy of your views for a moment and consider the nativist racism you employ to reach your conclusions. It is wicked bad.

It cannot be the case that as a leftist, caring about all things as you do, that you would care so little for, in this example, Laotians, and you would instead impose upon them a poverty and destitution no one deserves. So another explanation must be at work here. I think it is back to my first point, which is that so many Americans don't understand business at all. For if you did you would comprehend that if you forced a firm to only produce products in the USA that prices would climb, your standard of living would fall, and real growth would be eliminated from our lexicon.

If Laotians don't get your leftist sympathies riled up, it could be Canadians (some firms produce products there too), or Mexicans, or Brazilians (I mean Mr. Obama did travel to Brazil to essentially subsidize their oil production sector with billions of your dollars), or Antiguans, or, well you must get the point by now. So long as YOU get what YOU want when YOU want it then it must be good, regardless of the economic damage you would leave in your wake. But if any firm improves the lives of someone with brown or black skin by creating jobs in their country, well those firms are evil.

Brilliant.

Rich: " I would think the only way this would be possible is if you think the government is better at spending the people's"

No, you left something out of the equation. It is not who is "better" at spending money (what does that even mean?), but how much of the money actually gets spent. Government spends even more money then it has, lower income people spend most of their money, and higher income people do not. So regardless of whether you think it is fair or wise, taking money from the rich and spending it for them stimulates the economy more than letting them sit on it.

Bravely bold Sir Romney rode forth from Camelot. He was not afraid to die, oh brave Sir Romney. He was not at
all afraid to be killed in nasty ways, brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Romney. He
was not in the least bit scared to be mashed into a pulp, or to have his eyes
gouged out, and his elbows broken. To have his kneecaps split, and his body
burned away, and his limbs all hacked and mangled, brave Sir Romney. His head
smashed in and heart cut out, and his liver removed, and his bowels unplugged,
and his nostrils raped and his bottom burned off and his penis...
Sir Romney:
That's, uh, that's enough music for now, lads...

Revelations of the amounts of manure the American republican party can produce is astounding. I fear beef and milk production will fall to almost nothing when the cattle learn the magnitude, and stout smell of the republican heap. Nothing more pitiful than a well fed, big gutted bull, now mortified by that which has always given him distinction. Better buy masks, or learn to hold your noses well America. Right now, we,ve just arrived at the scatter path that leads to the actual pile. It's a real doozie!

Rich: " if you forced a firm to only produce products in the USA that prices would climb"

Yes, prices would rise, but also more people would have jobs and therefore be able to afford it. There are many parts to the equation and feedbacks, and people on opposite "sides" tend to mention only the ones that fit their agenda. We should be debating the right BALANCE, and not attacking each other.

Corporate tax rates are too high? The cash flow of most corporations is 1.5 to 2 times higher than net income because of tax shields. This is why we have CEO's making 500 times workers' wages.

Hi Rich,

As in the example I gave, Anheuser-Busch sold out to a foreign company because the tax breaks allowed the shareholders to pocket more of the money.

That foreign company, InBev, then laid off thousands of Americans.

Is that an anomaly?

According to FORBES:

In fact, the complexity of the tax code does create jobs for high-priced tax attorneys and accountants. But do tax cuts create “real” jobs?

The answer appears to be no for companies big and small. After all, U.S. public companies pay well-below the official 35% tax rate while 13.5 million American workers search unsuccessfully for jobs And start ups tell me that tax cuts don’t affect whether they’ll create new jobs. In short, the tax cut rhetoric, while effective politics, is lousy economics.

Isn't it interesting when HW was debating Reagan he said Tax cuts and increased defense spending was Voodoo Economics.

The his son becomes President and does exactly that.

Since you hadn't heard that Tax cuts hurt the economy here is an educational site that my help you out:

http://conceptualmath.org/philo/status1.htm

Then there is this from:

Thinkprogress.org

Republicans, of course, will charge that raising taxes on the rich will inevitably harm economic growth and job creation. However, history has revealed that that’s simply not the case. As this chart shows, annual economic growth has been strongest when the top tax rate was higher than it is today:

I am a little curious about this.

I agree with almost nothing you wrote

You don't agree with the historical tax charts that show the rich pay less in taxes today then they did when America was #1?

I didn't make up those tax charts.

You don't agree that America ranks as #4 for Nations with the largest gap between the haves and the have nots?

Again that isn't my opinion it came from the Wall Street Journal.

4. United States
> Gini coefficient: 0.378
> Change in income inequality: +12.1%
> Employment rate: 66.7% (13th highest)
> Change in income of the rich: +1.9% per year
> Change in income of the poor: +0.5% per year

Inequality in the United States increased significantly from 1985 to 2008, putting it in the fourth-worst spot in the study. As with many other countries in which income inequality has increased, average income has gone up across all income groups since the mid-1980s, but not equally. The income of the wealthiest 10% has greatly outpaced the poorest 10%. The share enjoyed by the top 0.1% in total pretax income quadrupled in the 30 years to 2008.

I hope Romney can swim because looks to me he is surely drowning, someone better throw him a floatation decive quick.

Hey Jock,

Good try, but that dog won't hunt. There are lots of demographic and statistical reasons Mr. Obama appears to be ahead (like at RCP) in the electoral college, but he probably isn't. Just use logic to see why. Mr. Obama is not campaigning in states he marginally lost to McCain four years ago like you would expect if he had a comfortable lead overall in the EC. Instead he is campaigning very hard in states he won fairly comfortably in 2008, as well as thouse he only marginally won. The race, then, is being fought on Obama's ground, not Romney's (though the debate remains being fought on liberal ground, not conservative--mostly anyhow).

I still think this race is Obama's to lose, but only because Mr. Romney hasn't made himself an acceptable alternative yet to enough voters. Which is why Obama and his team are hammering at this fake issue about Bain so much. If it becomes apparent that nothing is here--and nothing really is here--then what does Mr. Obama have? Certainly not his record.

Rich, I moved my reply to HERE:

#665 - Sun Jul 15, 2012 12:13 PM PDT

When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope we use. Joseph Stalin

Unless they outsource the rope factory. Then we can sell them the rope we use to hang them.

from EEngineer..........."That's why I'll be voting a straight Democratic ticket this fall."

Doesn't mean a thing if you don't have a job. I had one under Bush. Obama made mine go away. That's why I'll be voting a straight Republican ticket this fall.

I see Obama's communist office of dis-information is alive and well. Tell socialist zombies its the truth and they will believe it no matter what the facts are. Good job comrade Obama.

There's nothing for Romney to run from. Bain nurtured a bunch of companies that became highly successful. Senator "Turban" and the entire Dem Party are scared sh**less, and are using the Saul Alinsky tactic of aggressive deflection to divert Obama's miserable economic failures from the limelight. Too bad that it's not working....you see, those miserable weekly unemployment figures keep telling us the truth about the Great Anti-Capitalist's ineptitude!

Yesterday another FR member (Dennis) posted something so obvious and simple that everyone is overlooking. Team Romney's spin has been that control of Bain Capital was transferred to the other partners -- Romney said 18 or so? NO Company operates for three years without clear chain of command! Has anyone tried to accomplish anything with 18 chiefs and no Indians?

So it is very simple. They need to lie yet again and say who was in charge from 1999 to 2002. And then we can ask that person what they were paying Romney for. Tick tock, drip, drip...

A flotation device for Romney? Hell no. There's a saying that "the Republicans go for the jugular, and the Democrats go for the capillaries." Enough of that. Romney is drowning? Throw him and anvil!

marklepew -- Better yet, try the lyrics to the song Cherish and replace the word "cherish" with "disastrous" as the word to describe Romney.

I remember how the right wingers ridiculed President Obama for being a Community Organizer. Now that Romney the Corporate Raider is running for President we don’t hear one word of criticism about Romney from these same right wingers.

Let’s compare the two jobs;

Community Organizer: A person that helps low income people learn how to navigate a difficult economy so they don’t have to depend on welfare. The community organizer helps people help themselves and does it for no money.

Corporate Raider: A person that buys up American companies with borrowed money, dismantles them, cleans out the company’s retirement funds, fires all the workers and then ships all those American jobs to communist China. After doing these things the corporate raider walks away with his pockets stuffed with millions of dollars stolen from the now unemployed American workers.

Oh I almost forgot, by law this now leaves the American tax payer on the hook to pay for the workers stolen retirement funds. Although this is morally reprehensible it is also perfectly legal under laws passed by the Republican Party over the last forty plus years. Romney’s Bain Capitol is one the leading pioneers in this type of Vulture Capitalism. Mitt Romney is a morally bankrupt human being that has been destroying the livelihood of tens of thousands of middle class Americans and laughing all the way to the bank for decades.

For the life of me I can’t understand why anybody would even consider voting for a bottom feeder like Mitt Romney.

No one has mentioned Durbin's disgusting language in using the term "scalded cat", so I will. Animal abuse is not funny. An intelligent person should know better than to give borderline sane people ideas like this.

I have come to the belief that no matter what, you cant talk sense into some of these righties. Unfortunately for the country they will not be convinced that the republicans dont care about anyone but the 1%. Until they get control of the congress and the WH, and take everything from them they will continue to be led like sheep. Well as things usually go that will happen, then when the republicans turn our country into a corporatocracy, when they no longer have a minimum wage and are working for shelter will they finally wake up and see that the republicans only care about the rich. So please if you are not in the 1% open your eyes and quit voting against your own self interest.

Rich - While I think you are rather pompous, I admire your conviction and intelligence. I don't agree with you and it is probably because of my basic belief that people should take the moral high ground most of the time and not always do what is best for themselves. I guess that makes me pretty much of a Socialist and I will totally own that. That seems to be the way I lean most of the time. Corporations are generally selfish, cold and cruel and I think it reflects the personality of the individuals in power. It isn't good, it just is.

Dear Rich, I'm going to make d@mn sure to vote OBAMA just for there mere fact George W. Bush was shoved down my throat for 8 years. I hope you enjoy! FOUR MORE YEARS!! FOUR MORE YEARS!! Ring a bell?? LOL

Hi Kim,

Pompous, no. Well read, yes. And you can use your morality to justify all the socialism you want, but the idea that you know what people need better than they do, and who should be responsible to pay for those things, does come across kind of pompous.

Hey Mike, you can and should vote for whoever you want. But if that is your sole reason it's kind of pathetic, don't you think? You lost those election battles, but no one shoved anything down your throat. If you think that was bad and so you will vote for someone making things worse (my opinion, maybe not yours) then okay, but since when is cutting off your nose to spite your face wise? However, if you think Mr. Obama is a good president, or will become a good president, then your claim to want to vote for him just to get back at conservatives isn't exactly true, is it?

Hey JOregon,

I read the link you gave me regarding taxation. Wow, it is riddled with problems. So many in fact that I can't explain them all, but in just identifying them I think you will get my drift (so many too I will probably not catch all of the errors):

1. The analysis assumes causation but offers no proof. The two times rates were lowered and led to what the paper describes as an "investment bubble" aren't the only two times rates were lowered.

2. The analysis compares how to cut taxes, even if it is flawed, which might make sense in terms of jobs created or not, but this isn't the real world. What really happens if taxes are left alone is that the government gets a larger share of your income. Which is why the only way raising taxes can make economic sense is if you think more government means better spending.

3. Investment bubbles, like the S and L bubble, the tech bubble, or the most recent RE bubble, do not happen in a regulatory/government policy vacuum. The S and L bubble came about as a result of decades of post-depression bank regulations that were altered. A funny aside here is that most Americans say Reagan did this, but in fact it was a democrat-led congress who passed it, and a democrat president who signed it--James Earl Carter in fact.

Anyhow, to the extent that bubbles are created anyhow, they are almost always made worse by governmental interference. The tech bubble was fairly small and did little damage mostly because it was a private sector mess, and not a governmental one. But the RE mess of 2007 and on? Whether rich people had extra money to spend or not on these investments is fairly irrelevant. Because the government had enacted policies to encourage and guide the private sector to operate for the interests of public policy, private money was always going to find a way into those investments. In short, had we not used public policy and public or quasi-public institutions like F and F to subsidize the bubble and keep it growing, it never would have become so large and messy.

4. Whether or not a rich person invests or spends their additional discretionary income more jobs, all other things equal, result from it. But it does allow that rich person to invest or spend a higher percentage of their income, though I don't see how this applies to whether jobs are created or not. It might apply to Kim's implied idea that we should use the government to dispossess wealthy people of their money so that fairness can be restored.

You may recall the luxury tax of the late 1980s which imposed very high taxes on items only wealthy people purchase. CBO and OMB came to the conclusion, backed up by many private analysts, that for every dollar in increased taxes paid, 15 dollars to the treasury were lost. Higher income taxes dont' have the same ratio, but they have the same pattern.

5. Because there isn't a two track system, one where a certain tax rate applies to, say, some wealthy people, and another tax rate applies to other wealthy people, so that we can study the effects of tax policy, we can't really know what the effects of any general tax increase or cut are in any event. But we can look at, and your site doesn't but I think you brought it up in another context anyhow, taxes paid by income level, effective tax rates relative to income, effective tax rates relative to marginal tax rates, and so on. There really is no evidence which supports the theory that higher taxes from any group improves the economy--assuming that there are sufficient taxes to operate the legal and regulatory systems and defense, AND that the current tax rate is at zero or close to it. But, that said, I don't argue for tax reform in order to create jobs either.

I'd prefer we had a flat tax, single filers (no joint returns), no deductions save perhaps a deduction for earned income only, and no business tax. People, finally knowing how much they actually do pay, would I think demand less from a federal government which no longer appears to be as good a deal to them, and that would benefit the economy.

Sorry for the long delay and the length of the reply.

So can Durbin tell all of us why Obama is running away from HIS record like he is?

Nothing can negate the fact that the economy was at a surplus when Clinton left office, that we were at a near-depression when Bush left office, and that the economy is slowly, but surely, turning around, now that Obama is in office. If you want to see our economy run into the ground again, by all means, vote for Romney. Obama is doing what he can to fix the economy. But, he's not a miracle worker. And, it sure would help if the republican obstructionists in Congress would learn the meaning of the word "compromise".

So, Romney is claiming credit for the jobs that Bain supposedly created but, now that it's becoming clear that Bain was a scum-sucking bottom-feeder company that forced other companies out of business, forced others to give up control of their own companies, and outsourced many jobs - suddenly, he wasn't around when all that happened. Sorry, Romney, you can't have it both ways. Either you claim credit for everything, or you claim credit for nothing.

I was working in a company during a hostile take-over and, let me tell you, it wasn't pretty. I happened to work in the HR Dept. and received calls every day from people wondering if they were going to lose their jobs. Even though I had strong suspicions that they were, I wasn't allowed to tell them anything. (I also worked with retirees whom I thought had to pay exorbitant amounts for COBRA, so that they could continue to have medical insurance.) When the hostile take-over was finally announced, I had to train other people to take over my position in order to get my severance package. Btw, that severance package was about 2 months' pay. (Of course, the CEO's of the company got enough money to retire on - because the rich take care of their own.) In the end, 300 people in my building alone lost their jobs. Additionally, about 2,000 people working out in the mills lost theirs. It's a down and dirty business, and anyone who works as a CEO for a company like that is only it for themselves.

As I have said before, Romney sees the presidency as a business opportunity. He doesn't care about the little people. All he cares about is lining his own pockets with the money he hopes to make from starting another war in Iran.

Obama had opportunities to work in companies like Bain, but he turned them down to work in companies where he was paid far less, but where he had opportunities to help others. That's the difference between Obama and Romney. Obama has more integrity in his little finger than Romney has in his whole body!

OBAMA/BIDEN 2012

ok, just take all the whinning, name calling, partisan mind games and hatred out of it and just give me the facts......and if that is all I have (heck, even take away the names) and the facts would still show a person named X was CEO and sole stockholder of a company and drawing a significant income from this company, during a time when person X said he/she was not at all involved with the company.....

CEO

Sole stockholder

Drawing significant income from company

Any normal thinking person must conclude that person X was indeed involved with the running of the company, as person X reported to the FCC on his/her filed tax returns............

now add back in the name of person X and any normal thinking person would realize that a man running for the office of The President of The United States is either lying to the FCC, and could go to jail for perjury, or this man, ROMNEY, is lying to the American people.........

I find it extremely lacking in integrity to give my vote to a man who began his relationship with me on a lie and has added other lies as well to paint a picture that is entirely false.

I don't Trust liars..............I don't trust you Mr. Romney.

I also have a friend who lost his job because it was sent overseas. That friend is in a wheelchair and, therefore, has limited job opportunities. That friend was a dedicated employee who worked hard for this company. But, heartless companies like Bain Capital don't care about people like my friend. All they care about is making more money. Is that really what we're looking for in a president?

Romney's real problem lurking in the shadows is not the Bain legacy or his lack of singing prowess but the George Bush II cadre of Neocons he is prepping for a Bush III lookalike administration. Jesus, just what America needs is another go around with that trickle down oligarchy. If the Dems want another devastating ad like the current "America the Beautiful" as sung by Mitt, they should do a rouges gallery of the conservative muscle Romney is trying to resurrect out of the Bush II administration. If you liked that presidency you're gonna love a Romney era.

Also, It is true Mitt Romney left Bain for Salt Lake to rescue the Olympics which he probably deserves full credit. He then returned to Massachusetts and ran for Governor. I, a Commie Pinko Liberal, voted for him because of the Salt Lake turn around, then waited for him to turn around Massachusetts. The only thing he did here was burnish his resume with the conservatives by trying to resurrect the death penalty and other right wing nonsense. His only other legacy as Governor was the implementation of the Heritage Foundation Individual Mandate Health Care model which he must now disavow because Obama managed to get it implemented nation wide to the chagrin of the GOP. LOL. I have mixed feelings about my vote for Romney and care not to take another chance on him.

Hmmmm, perhaps "Dick" Durbin and the Democrats should run to pass a budget.

It never ceases to amaze me when I come to the Liberal/Progressive sites and see this type of adolescent drivel being regurgitated over and over. The Liberal bobble-heads are all in sync to continue deflecting for the incompetent and inexperienced trespasser in our White House.

Of course it's much more important to create irrelevant stories about a successful business man rather than examine the failure of our current president. This is typical of the Liberal mind. Their own failures in life can only be camouflaged by projecting onto someone else. As their self dignity, ambition and willpower is stripped and replaced with lullabies such as "The Life of Julia", it's not hard to understand. Seventy-five percent of Americans don’t care about any of this, but of course the Liberals/Progressives have no other success to expose.

Our dysfunctional president exclaimed on Friday that, "If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen". How much more of this fool can even the Liberals tolerate? This even eclipses his, "The private sector is doing fine" babble that solidly planted him next to Jimmy Carter. The Liberals, as usual, will support this stupidity because of their indoctrination by their useless parents, peers and professors. The Liberal mind is filled with these irrational beliefs because they never took a risk in life to build a successful business. The typical belief is that whoever succeeded in life is a result of their omnipotent god, government. The same government, that no matter how much evidence of waste, fraud, abuse and corruption is presented, they allow to just take more of their, and more willingly others, hard earned money.

The endless complaints about alleged jobs lost by Romney are never quantified but the Liberals ignore the fact that the 4.4 million jobs created because of the Stimulus cost $200,000 apiece. This ridiculous argument of Romney not giving more than two years of his tax returns is another childish act by the Liberals/Progressives to deflect more from Barrack Hussein. Why is it anyone’s business how much someone makes? Will every American be willing to show his or her tax returns publicly? Of course not, it’s none of our business. We have the most feared tax collection and regulatory agency in the world, the IRS, if there is something wrong with his taxes we would have already heard about it. These are just more adolescent gotcha games the Liberals want to play.

This is the sad commentary of Barrack Hussein Obama who has never held a real job. He never created a job, never ran a payroll, never worried about paying bills and promoting a business or loses sleep worrying. His only accomplishments are writing 2 (TWO) autobiographies. Interestingly, one was written while in college and the other while in public office. How many of you have had this luxury?

So, “Dick” Durbin, how about creating some real jobs. Today we were told consumer spending is down 0.5% for a third consecutive month. This is ominous news for our irrational consumption/service sector economy.

Yep, there’s nothing more important right now than old tax returns and whether a man worked 13 years ago. Only in the pathetic convoluted mind of the Liberal/Progressive can this make any sense.

Rich - You are pompous, very pompous because you believe that you are right and anyone who doesn't agree with you is stupid or misinformed and in need of your guidance. I was trying to be as nice as I could possibly be but do I still feel so inclined, not so much. Get over yourself!

Every 0bama campaign attack has been proven a lie by credible media outlets and full time fact checkers.

The fact that you still believe the proven lies that 0bama is spewing is very strange. Seep help.

Romney 2012

Yep, we are all waiting for the real discussion. I am looking forward to the debates and hoping that both candidates will answer questions instead of deflecting.

Oh, and here's information about the amount of and funding behind negative ads. President Obama has been WAAAAY outspent by conservative PACs and Gov. Romney. Far more negative commercials have been put out about Resident Obama. Note that American Crossroads/Crossroads GPS ranks #1 in negative ad spending.

(source: washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/track-presidential-campaign-ads-2012/ )

The fact that you still believe the proven lies that 0bama is spewing is very strange. Seep help.

...says the man obediently gobbling up every morsel fox news feeds him.

The downgrade was the work of the Tea Party. Boehner walked away from the 4 trillion dollar deal as he couldn't get the Tea Party in line and the down grade resulted.

We wouldn't have such high deficits if Bush hadn't of cut taxes and went to war twice and thought about paying for medicare part D (which is more expensive than Obamacare, yet you don't hear them trying to repeal that).

Why is 0bama using proven lies in his ads?

Why is Romney using proven lies in his ads?

What ad that Obama has out is lying?

Please share, and don't forget to include multiple articles and fact checking decisions that say it is a lie.

I think all the people in the country that are paying attention and really understand what's going on know who the real liar is. Open your eyes.

Please share, and don't forget to include multiple articles and fact checking decisions that say it is a lie.

You haven't. Why should we?

Okay, you asked for it: These are from politifact.com

American Commitment: The health care law could cost up to $2 trillion, "double what we were promised." — False

American Commitment: The health care law "imposes the largest tax increase in history on the middle class." — Pants on Fire!

From Factcheck.org

"We do, however, find a more serious problem with the ad. Romney is shown saying that “Obamacare” is “killing jobs.” But, as we’ve written before, independent experts say the law will have a “small” or “minimal” impact on labor, and much of the effect will come from persons deciding to work less or retire earlier because their insurance is more secure and they receive subsidies to buy it. This Republican talking point is greatly exaggerated.

This isn’t the first time Romney has made the claim. Other politicians who have made “job-killing” assertions — including House Speaker John Boehner and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann — have pointed to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, but they have badly distorted what the CBO actually said.

More from Factcheck.org:

Romney’s Solar Flareout

He misrepresents Obama's green-energy program using false and twisted facts.

factcheck.org/2012/06/obamas-outsourcer-overreach/

And on that healthcare not killing jobs thing, it isn't labor that is deciding what to do. It is the employers who say that it is going to kill them to have to have it. You can't work when companies aren't going to hire more people than they absolutely positively have to have because of the cost to do so.

The fact that you aren't aware that his "outsourcing" and his "1999" ads have been proven lies is strange; try to venture away from the leftwing media that is insulating 0bama.

0bama ad gets 4 pinocchios from WA PO

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/4-pinocchios-for-obamas-newest-anti-romney-ad/2012/06/20/gJQAGux6qV_blog.html

Fact check says Romney left at Bain in 1999

http://factcheck.org/2012/07/romneys-bain-years-new-evidence-same-conclusion/

0bama is piling it so high, all you have to do is look and you will see a reputable group proving that 0bama is a liar.

accept it, he's not a god.

Here is what no less an authority than Forbes magazine says about Romney inexplicably being listed as CEO of Bain Capital long after the 1999 date he claims to have left:

"But if he is as good as he claims, Romney would never invest in a company whose CEO – in title only — collected an executive salary but spent almost every waking hour doing a completely different job."

Those aren't even Romney ads; how pathetic.

And PACs don't collude with campaigns . . . riiiigggghhhhhht

Repubs have a plan for health care, LET THEM DIE!

Repubs under Paul Ryan, kill social security, kill medicare, kill the Post office.

Romney supports all of those plans including voter suppression laws put in place by repubs, to stop millions of elderly, young, and poor from voting.

Obama/Biden 2012

Is that you Alan Grason?

Let them die? What's with the fear mongering. You folks are getting really desperate.

"Now, let's talk about Hussein and the economy. And unemployment. And the largest deficit in the history of the world. And credit downgrade. WAITING!"

Sure and then we'll talk about how the Party of NO as done eveerthing they could to block everything he as tried to do. If you aren't happy with the speed of the recovery go talk to your party leaders in Congress and tell them to cut it out and try doing what they were put there to do. COMPROMISE and do whats good for all.

PS why did you only use his middle name? It makes you look like a silly birther.

The Ace in the hole for all the Romney followers is the lie about the "Left-Wing Media" and it is totally funny. The media has and always will be the tool of the Right Wing since it takes Hundreds of Millions of dollars to buy and run these types of businesses. Murdock is a RIGHT-WINGER and so are 90% of everyone else that owns these things. Please the only people calling it a Right-Wing Media Bias are guys like Rush Limbaugh and you fools believe it and eat it up when everyone with a real mind can see what is really going on.

Romney caught bringing in his own blacks!!!!!!

Romney flew in his own blacks for the cheering and applause when he gave speech at NAACP. Romney hired ringers to fly in and cheer..........$$$$$$$$$$ talks

Remember...do search on...fox news dumber....and see studies that prove people are actually dumber for watching fox news!.........Fox news dumber.

joe thomas-6340212

Now, let's talk about Hussein and the economy

White women are not as vocal as white men, but I do know white men who like to call the President, "Hussein," usually like to call Middle Easterners, especially that particular part of the world "sand ni**^@$." By calling President Obama Hissein, is that what you're insinuating, regardless that it is his middle name? You simply can't call him President Obama, you have to throw your little subtle racism in there.

I understand, it's just another form of covert racism (even though everyone knows what you want to call him) you like to throw out there.

OBAMA/BIDEN/HOLDER....2012!!!!

I wish we had a president who actually had some experiencing running something, instead of pointing fingers and blaming others. Wow aren't we happy with this new tax that just got passed, referred to as "Obama Care", which will be imposed on the very people they vowed to protect by not raising there taxes. I feel so much better about having to pay this new tax, when they fixed so little of the issues in health care. "You need to pass this bill before you know what's in it" - really. If it is so great then why didn't our elected official sign up for this great program? If it is so great then why all the exemption from states, companies, etc? How about all the bail outs that Obama has pushed, just like Bush? How about the extra 5 trillion(added to the 11 trillion from past administrations) in debt that WE have to pay off? How about the great unemployment rate that he said he would help reduce? How about the lost of net jobs? How about the race baiting "If I had a son he would look just like Trayvon.."? How about Obama come clean with his past with controversial characters like Wright, Ayers and others? How about the war in Afghanistan. etc?

He has a bad record and choices not to run on his accomplishments, instead uses the media to push issues like whether or not Romney was at the helm of a company he created as a distraction instead of being a real leader and help close the social gap and divide on issues like Health Care.

On not a Romney fan and I believe he will have little, if any, change to the status quot. As a country we can't even have a real discussion about the real issues without some sort of "politically correct" retort. Too many labels are passed without being able to express ideas freely anymore.

But until we can express and share good ideas at the senate and house levels, we are a sinking ship. I want a real leader.

Barry's green energy jobs...let's see they classify school bus drivers, meter readers and on and on as green jobs. then we have the failed green energy companies and that list infamous as in crony corruption withe queen Peloski. Barry will stoop to new depths to stay away from his record, he will do anything and say anything after all he is the prez, never disagree with the prez and a die hard liberal, it not politically correct. Barry is outsourcing jobs rapidly with work visas to illegals from mexican land....and back door amnesty when we have Americans that still need jobs...oopss but he has created 4 miilion jobs...oh but dfo not count the loses..that would be unfair to the liberals.

You guys must love missing the point.

Point 1) The captain of the ship is always responsible, period. So if he became president, and something went wrong at that white house while he was playing golf, would he be not responsible?

Point 2) he said he was on leave, But he was the sole owner. If he signed documents for the company, then he was not on leave. He was supposed to give "power of attorney" to the manger, he didn't. therefore he was in charge.

point 3) why not hold Romney to the same standards you held Bill Clinton to? Remember? "a lie is a lie"

This is just more of Obama trying to distract the American public from the mess he has made of the economy. The Dems are also in panic mode. Romney has caught Obama in the polls and it is only a matter of time until he pulls noticibly ahead of Obama. As Romney does better and better, expect Obama and the Dems to get wilder in their accusations in their vain and useless attempt to win in November.

Davey

The only reason left leaning radio stations actually make a profit is because the Rush Limbaugh and other conservative hosts bring more audience than music or left or liberal hosts can muster.

Joe? you mad bro? you sound mad. Funny how right wingers say "polls don't matter" and then say "just look at the polls" lol The picture you paint is from fox-jezzera news. Most of us stopped listening to them long ago, Just like i told you guys in 2000 and 2004, "if the repubs win, America loses" it doesn't get any more simple then that.

George PaulJohn

Romney did not file the documents with the SEC, nor did he sign them. Bain didn't file these reports either. The reports were filed by the CEO of the companies. This issue was investigated by the SEC in 2004 and both Bain and Romney were found to be telling the truth. These two facts were misrepresented in the Boston Globe Article which has been jumped on for misreporting the facts by ABC News, the Washington Post and many others who are democrats.

What amazes me, is the lack of knowledge about China's entrance into the WTO. Right after the 9/11 attacks, the US President FINALLY allowed China into the WTO. This never happened before, because of China's dismal human rights record. If Romney (through Bain) didn't take advantage of this new situation, they would be fools. The massive money, to be made in China, was VERY alluring. To this very day, the name of "He Who Shall Not Be Named" is treated with respect and reverence..... IN CHINA!

"Fortune Magazine reported Thursday that “offering documents” that Bain Capital sent to potential investors in 2000 and 2001 provide contemporaneous evidence that Romney had no active role in managing the firm after 1999 when he left to run the Winter Olympics in Utah."

You should notice that the Obama campaign is careful not to claim that they have any evidence that Romney had an active role at Bain after 1999 - WHICH IS THE ONLY REAL ISSUE - because they know that Romney is telling the truth about leaving in 1999. The law requires that certain documents have to be filed on a regular basis, and until the new owners got around to making the transfer of title to Bain, which would allow them to name new officers, Romney's name had to be put on the documents to comply with the law. People who are familiar with document filing requirements understand this - and they understand that Obama is just using this to distract from his failure on the economy and jobs.

The American people don't want someone who is fraudulent (lying or just misrepresenting themselves), or not well-versed in public/foreign policy (and in particular makes little or no effort to know it), or who is not patriotic (outsources, bets against the USA), or has a sense of entitlement (secretive, above standard practices like releasing tax returns), and lacks compassion for the common man, and worst of all a CHEAT -- For POTUS, Commander in Chief, and leader of the free world. The more voters see of Willard Mitt Romney, the less they like what they see.

And that's before folks even get to his plans, vague as these may be, which boils down to two things: The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. As much as Republicans try to distance themselves from Dubya, the FACT is their policies are still the same failed crap. And Romney would like to implement that same failed crap--on steroids.

Eric Cantor has also "bet against America" among other things, and will be up against an impressive opponent in the coming election too. Let's clean House -- Throw out the Teapublicans. Romney -- He's not in it for you.

How are Americans this myopic? We've seen these ridiculous deceptions played out in every campaign of the last few decades. And... We. Keep. Falling. For. It.

Obama can't run on his record, so he's smearing Romney. Romney, for his part, has a spotty record, so he smears Obama.

In the end, these politicians are just puppets-- figureheads for two sides of a single coin. Both parties have, in the last decade (at least), increased government spending, enlarged the debt and deficit, expanded government, eroded individual rights, subverted the will of the people and all with a public too distracted to see what's actually going on.

If you want a real sea-change in Washington, then vote for an independent/3rd party candidate this election cycle. If you want to maintain the status quo, then by all means, vote for your favorite team-- and watch that coin sink further and further into the pile of sh*t that's been extruded from a pack of Asses and Pachyderms for far too many years. If you really want to see change in Washington, then you have to show the Democrats and the Republicans that their grip on power is not a foregone conclusion. They are vulnerable to being ousted by the voting public. Frankly, both parties have performed dismally for years-- so why the f*ck are we still voting for these ass-clowns?

Poor Romney! All mouthed up and nothing to say!

Being fair (which isn't really a standard notion on these comments), I admit that Romney may not have had any input or direct responsibility in Bain after 1999 (see Fact Checker and PolitiFact). However, from a rational point of view, the Dems have him in a very difficult spot: one cannot prove one didn't do something when the possibility of one doing so exists. That is, it is very difficult to prove a negative - one's word or even a majority opinion isn't enough.

Consequently, the Dems can continue hammering away at this issue knowing that Romney cannot prove his point otherwise.

Bill Crane #3.40: Beg your pardon. This is not a technical interpretation. If Romney has a valid counterpoint, He would present it. He doesn't. He's a liar and a thief.

Well, Obama's lies got him elected in 2008. 2012 is more of the same. The dumb masses that voted for Obama in 2008, did not have a clue as to what Obama represented...communism, pure and simple.

Durbin is such a doof. Why doesn’t he explain how Obama policies have helped Illinois? Isn’t it bankrupt? Or maybe he is betting that somehow Obama will manage to bail them out? Oops already tried that with his 800 billion dollar stimulus. So whats is Obama and Durbins proposal to save our tanking economy? Talk about Bain, then talk about it more and more and more... Is it just me or is all this talk about Bain becoming a Bane to people even the slightest bit of intelligence. Maybe someday we will know to the millesecond when Romney left the company. Will that satisfy you Dick?

We all know that Romney left Bain to save this country from the embarrassment of losing the Olympics because of corruption and ineptitude. Kind of like the situation we are in now with Obama and his liberal allies who want to blame the successful, reward their crony benefactors with 500 million dollar loans and sell their services to the highest bidder. By the way, what was Obama doing when Romney was saving and creating businesses at Bain? Oh yea he was busy selling out the poor to slum lords like Tony Rezko.

DICK DURBIN: La Raza's puppet in Illinois.

When Romney was asked in his interview about Bain if he left in 1999 then how can he take credit for job creation after he left. He responded with something like, he put his programs in place and if jobs were created then he is happy to have a part in the growing of a company and creating jobs. Now what about his programs and polocy's that helped to outsource jobs to other country's???Is he happy to take credit for that too??

George PaulJohn, Boy are you right! If a person whether Pres, CEO or not happens to own 100% of the stock he is responsible for the decisions the company makes. Thats it period. You can not have it one way and not the other. Just go to court after having a huge catstrophe killing a hundred people because of something your company did and see who takes the liability?? You can not say oh, I'm not responsible, I didn't make the decsion (which might be true and might be why the wrong decsion was made!). The LAW will tell you exactly who is going to be liable and that entity is you.

Timothy your last name does'nt even sound like ur american, so go vote in some other country!!

Romney is running from Bain like roaches run from light.

Yet, to think, he was earing over $100,000 a year for "doing absolutely nothing."

Sounds like "socialistic welfare for the rich" to me.

But, what do I know.

I work for a living.

Romney is indeed scared, because he knows that he was involved in helping Bain make investment decisions 1999 to 2001, because he was "on a leave of absence" and fully intended to return. That's why he's listed as CEO.

Americans know this smells fishy. Reporters will root it out, and you'll see retractions by the fact checking organizations soon.

The SEC, election commission, multiple news groups, and full time fact checkers have said otherwise. Even 0bama faithful donors who worked at Bain at the time say 0bama is lying.

0bama will soon run out of these types of distractions and will be stuck running on his pathetic record.

Romney 2012

Sorry Elliot but there is paperwork with his name attached to show otherwise.

Pants on fire lies by Romney (by politifact.com):

President Barack Obama is "ending Medicare as we know it."

Says in the 2012 State of the Union address, President Obama "didn't even mention the deficit or debt."

The U.S. military is at risk of losing its "military superiority" because "our Navy is smaller than it's been since 1917. Our Air Force is smaller and older than any time since 1947."

"We're only inches away from no longer being a free economy."

Says Barack Obama said, "If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose."

President Obama "went around the world and apologized for America."

The Massachusetts health care plan "dealt with 8 percent of our population," far less than the "100 percent of American people" affected by President Barack Obama’s health care law.

President Obama’s health care law "represents a government takeover of health care."

Forbes Magazine closed its analysis of Mitt's specious claims of being uninvolved with Bain Capital past 1999 despite being listed as the CEO in SEC filings with the following quote: "But if he is as good as he claims, Romney would never invest in a company whose CEO – in title only — collected an executive salary but spent almost every waking hour doing a completely different job."

"Says Barack Obama said, "If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose."

That was a QUOTE of something John McCain said, that Obama was repeating. You posted a straight-up, pants on fire lie.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/nov/22/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-says-obama-said-if-we-keep-talking-abo/

The rest of your statements in that post are all twisted truth as well.

Romney is so very funny........Romney gets caught lying about the lies he lied about, saying the lies he lied about are not lies, then says the lies he said he didn't lie about are true, but those really are lies because documents Romney signed showed that his lies were really lies , that he said once more are not lies.

Repubs at Bain and wherever say, whatever Romney lied about aren't lies, and whatever lies he did lie about, they will lie and say those lies are not lies. All they need to know are which lies Romney wants to lie about saying they are not lies, so....they can say the lies he says are not lies, are not lies too!

Elliot, why do you think Romney doesn't want to release his tax records? Most likely he paid close to 0-5 % tax rate and knows that that information, when it reaches the public would destroy him- so he thinks he can just wait it out and it will go away- he's wrong. Think some more about why he would endure a firestorm of criticism- some from his own surrogates- when all he would have to do is release what every other person running for President has done for the past few decades. McCain saw those returns-and he decided to choose Sarah Palin. What do you think about that? Don't you want to see them? Romney claims to love America so much- what his tax records will show is that he loves money and the Mormon church.

@droopus, my post is titled "Romney lies"..........I agree with you.

HE doesn't have to release his tax records. thats up to him. I would bet that there is thousands of things in his records that the 0bama campaign would love to blow out of proportion. I seriously doubt that Romney has broken any law with his taxes; the IRS is notorious for getting as much money as they can.

The fact that he wants to pay the IRS as little as he legally can, just like everyone else in the country, means that he is normal in that sense. Anyone who thinks the government spends too much should pay as little as possible; if you think the government doesn't spend enough, then send the IRS as much as you can.

When Romney does go on stage, he will be carrying the burden of the Bush/Cheney legacy to overcome. Romney appears at Cheney's home for fundraiser and it is quite evident Cheney is calling shots on repub/Romney foreign policy. Numerous repubs that were on Bush/Cheney team are now working for or lined up on his team to be calling the same failed plans they did for Bush Cheney era. Why would America vote for Bush Cheney Romney again after they killed thousands of our soldiers because they lied? Why would Americans vote for Bush/Cheney/Romney again after they crashed the economy?

Do you think Cheney wants that money back he gave Romney the other day?...I do!

Bush/Cheney/Romney for a worse tomorrow today.

Save the country from Bush/Cheney/Romney and vote for.......President Obama/Biden 2012

"The fact that he wants to pay the IRS as little as he legally can, just like everyone else in the country..."

Really? You have hidden funds located in Bermuda accounts? Is that what everyone else in the country does? Do people suspect that you have assets salted away in accounts in the Cayman Islands, too, and in Swiss bank accounts? Some of these, while technically legal are still unethical, nonetheless. Swiss bank accounts begin to cross the line, however. Failing to list these accounts on no fewer than seven financial disclosure reports is definitely against state and federal election laws.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jul/10/robert-gibbs/democrats-say-mitt-romney-failed-disclose-offshore/

Fail.

Elliot, are you a fool? Again, the reason Romney won't release the records are that it will show he paid a lot less in tax liability percentage than even those who try to pay the IRS as little as possible. It will point out the unfairness of the system that Romney is supporting in extremis. Oh and you have doubts there is anything illegal- what a ringing endorsement. Do you think its fair that people like Romney game the system and pay much lower tax rates than You or me? No, he doesn't have to release his records- but then he doesn't have to run for Pres either now does he?

Durbin has no credibility he is simplly trying to change the foucus from the Democrats sorry record of trying to buy votes from the ignorant. Wake up America if the Democrats win we all lose the welfare system cannot be supported without jobs. If you have to ask how Obama is out sourcing jobs you should leave the comments to others.

Eric? so you rather have the insurance company death panels guide your health care? My son has been waiting for his insurance company to "approve" his surgery for 8 months now. it's simple back surgery. the new method uses a smaller incision and laproscopic tools instead of tearing the flesh away. Our great American health care company says the new method is "too experimental" and does not want to pay. So please, come into the real world and join us.

Fred? lets look at the 'democrats sorry record". Dow went from 7k to over 12k...one bush war emded despite republican protest and dooms day rants. Second war scheduled to end. Bin Laddin is dead. One million GM employees are still working. Ford is renewed and so is Chrysler. Gdp is going up instead of down like it was under bush. Sorry recored, you say??? I say HA HA HA nice try.

Hmmm My wife is handicapped and cant work.....does she take money from taxpayers? No...she used her brain and invested in good companies. Her income from these investments has consistently been over 120k a year. So..... lets review for you liberals unable to understand. She has a genetic bone disease which leaves her unable to walk for more than 5 mins..... she doesnt take any money from us taxpayers.... Earns more than 100k a year suing her head and computer. And you think shes doing something something illegal? Oh shyt I forgot to tell you.... on a recommendation from a broker...she moved her investments to Canada 6 months before Mr. Obama was elected. Gosh a foreign investment.

BWhite

Romney said little about Gingrich using a similar attack over Romney investing in Freddie and Fannie. Romney simply defended saying his investments had been in a Blind Trust since he became Governor of Massachusetts. He had no control over what was in vested in.

Gingrich pushed the same issue in the Second Forida Debate. Romney Replied as he did in public. Gingrich didn't accept that, to which Romney explained to Newt that in Newt's 401K investments, his mutual funds also held stock in Freddie and Fannie.

The left should really drop these misrepresentations. It shows people how power and money hungry they are by being willing to do anything to keep or maintain their positions.

Jolly old Soul

You don't even have to make $120,000 per year. My Wife and I make maybe half that. I will be paying for an emergency visit this morning. What we will do is get bills from the hospital, the lab and the attending physician. Some of them we pay in full right away, and others we make payments.

We feel a whole lot better paying for what we use, than getting someone else to pay.

MittTaxPittanceRommel was "The Butcher Of Bain" THROUGH 2001 and Beyond. His/Bain's Mission??? Kill American Companies and Jobs; Cut Choice Jobs/Careers out of them, OutSource/Sell them to OverSeas Companies much like the Butcher Store Prime cuts AND! AND!!! Pocket the fortunes from leveraging the gutted butchered companies from bank loans, pocketing that and BankRupting the Firms; ending their manufacturing and the jobs they supported. There IS NO MORALITY INVOLVED WITH MittTaxPittanceRommel. Right On Schedule: The republicanCrimeCartel Created this disaster back in Reagan's time and Perfected it with the Bushies, especially With KingGeorge the VaccumBrained during his NOTORIOUSLY SHAMEFUL Shrubber Reign 2001 - 2008. THEY ARE Causing this Depression we are back into to get people mad at Prez O and vote for Rommel and Whomever his love mate is. YOU KNOW what Rommel's got in mind For US???: A HUGE American military, OTHER PEOPLE's Sons fighting Newly thought up And VERY PROFITABLE WARS for 1-5%ers Riches and Corporate Wealth, And NO American Universal National healthCare System. Even Prez O was "forced" to cut a deal with the powerful health insurance industry. Does ANYONE KNOW what the ceo of United HealthCare took Home for 2008 Salary? Hold onto your hats: $128,000,000 *C A S H* WHILE, Mind You, their paid policyHolders were denied and DIED. The FACT that America HAS NO Universal HealthCare System like THE OTHER COUNTRIES, WHO TAKE CARE OF
THEIR CITIZENS who need medical attention and help instead of fattening the wallets of the EVIL Rich and paying for Unending Wars, IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE. FACE IT Sister and Bother American, Rommel IS ON THE SIDE OF THE FAT INSURANCE COMPANIES And WILL MAKE SURE We Americans Are Denied A Wonderful HealthCare System like in Germany or Israel, WHICH WE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS PAY FOR TOTALLY FREE FOR ISRAELIS. YEAH, A LOT of US are mad at Prez O; The Man Has ROYALLY SCREWED UP LATELY: He let the $4.00+Gas and oil go by without a protest OR Complaint to the Justice Dept Going after the oil companies for Price Fixing And PRICE GOUGING. AND that shaking hands with karzai of afghan
after what he said????? "thanks sucker taxpayers..." NONEtheless HAS ANYBODY got an idea what republicanCrimeCartelSoldierRommel will do to US and ANY economic progress made?? He WILL GUT US LIKE A FLOPPIN' FISH ON THE DOCK.....You're gonna' see Unemployment up to 40% and NO Social Security..Gotta Pay for New Wars And NO MEDICAL CARE At All; republicanCromeCartelPanacea: Sick??, No "health care insurance policy"? awww.. Sick?..Well, DIE QUICK!!!!!
AS "healthcare" policies cost SKYROCKET out of control. And Rommel and his LoveMate Rubio, Like Rommel and Goebbels, are gonna' give you the republicanCrimeCartelPropaganda Lies; You Love Your Family? Don't Go for it. You Don't care?? Go Ahead, vote for these two Politaphiles and see what happens.........................

Here's the rundown on Mitt Romney's devastating record as CEO of Bain Capital, a tenure marked by bankruptcies, bailouts, and mass layoffs — all while Romney and his partners raked in Billions of Dollars in profits for the firm and Romney himself amassed a Quarter-Billion Dollar Fortune.
Romney's Bain Capital Caused Mass Layoffs, Sent Jobs Overseas
Thousands of Americans were laid off by Bain Capital at companies it purchased, managed, and, at least a quarter of the time, drove into bankruptcy, ruining Lives, Destroying Careers and Families including Many Many Suicides While stuffing his pockets, Keeping his Darling son OUT of service to his country with the line "My son is Fulfilling his Patriotic Duty by helping me get elected"...Got that one?? and, Of Course, installing the InHouse car elevator for his "darling little boy's $180,000Ferrari....Listen Up People...This guy IS Count Dracula In carnate. A vote for ANY Republican politico is a vote against Yours and YOUR FAMILY'S Well Being. You can take that to the bank.

Liberals have very little to say to me or my wife. They can only attack us with names and silly bs that has been debunked. When you have a severely handicapped woman who has paid for every cent of medical care on a normal salary.....they have nothing to say....except.... attack!

Dear jollyoldsoul1

Bull....no one in this country can pay for medical care for a severly handicapped woman on a normal salery. Nobody....not even close....and shame on you for lieing.

Dubin misspoke. Romney does not "run" he "scurries." Like one the small varmints he hunts, if you will. Others have commented on the way he walks, like his celestial garments are stuck in his...

To the rightwing Collapse Nazis -- Keep collapsing sections, and folks can just keep re-posting. YOU can't shut down free speech, you douchebags.

The American people don't want someone who is fraudulent (lying or just misrepresenting themselves), or not well-versed in public/foreign policy (and in particular makes little or no effort to know it), or who is not patriotic (outsources, bets against the USA), or has a sense of entitlement (secretive, above standard practices like releasing tax returns), and lacks compassion for the common man, and worst of all a CHEAT -- For POTUS, Commander in Chief, and leader of the free world. The more voters see of Willard Mitt Romney, the less they like what they see.

And that's before folks even get to his plans, vague as these may be, which boils down to two things: The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. As much as Republicans try to distance themselves from Dubya, the FACT is their policies are still the same failed crap. And Romney would like to implement that same failed crap--on steroids.

Eric Cantor has also "bet against America" among other things, and will be up against an impressive opponent in the coming election too. Let's clean House -- Throw out the Teapublicans. Romney -- He's not in it for you.

Romney, to me, comes off looking like a cheese-bag character from an 80's movie like Trading Places. He is indicative of the cancer that has been eating this country for the last 40 years. Romney and the rest of his Bain cronies would sweep in and grab struggling (in some cases not so much, more leveraged buy-outs) companies and in most cases they ripped them limb from limb, sent people onto the streets and yield fast hit massive returns for a small handful of people. Behind them is a wasteland of destroyed workforce, shattered neighborhoods and exported jobs to enrich a few shareholders. Those who refer to this sort of practice as glorius capitalism...you need to remember that capitalism is one thing but it it becomes slash and burn, which Bain and their likes are, you will get some fast crack-style highs and then massive down turns with an ever increasing pool of people in the center growing weaker and weaker. Bubble after bubble is all we have seen since Reagan. Increasing public and private debt feeding the "paper bubble" of BS wealth like derivitives and dot.com money which doesn't exist. The bottom drops out, everyone goes down, the wealthy get bailed out and end up even better off and everyone else ends up coming back but only about 75% of where they were. Over the last 40 years that has lead to a weakened middle class and massive debt on the government's part and for everyone in the form of credit cards, college loans, and cocked-up mortgages and screwed real estate values. And seriously, if I hear one more automoton right-wing idiot use Staples office supply as an example of Bain's great work in service of the American people I am going to puke. Great, a bunch of big-box stores stuffed with Chinese crap and a whole bunch of people earning $8.00 to $12.00 and hours...thanks Bain! Aren't we all lucky to have those opportunities!??!?!

Let's just look at the facts about what we know to be accurate:

Mitt Romney says he left daily operations of Bain in February 1999 to manage the Olympics. That is true.

Mitt Romney says he had "nothing whatsoever to do with operations at Bain" after that time. Not true. It simply isn't true because he continued to sign documents as the CEO of Bain Capital beyond that period, and because of that "nothing whatsoever to do with" is now simply untrue.

Mitt Romney says does not want to have any association with Bain because Bain is regarded as pioneering outsourcing of jobs overseas. Nobody seems to question that Bain outsourced to foreign countries, the only question seems to be what Romney's involvement was at the time.

But another fact that we know is true is that, even if we take Romney at his word that he had no involvement in the day-to-day operation of Bain capital, he still benefitted financially by at least $100,000 per year, which would also mean that he profited by sending jobs overseas. In 2002, Willard Romney was still, at least in filings with the SEC, the CEO and main stockholder of Bain Capital. If he wasn't, then who was, and more importantly, how did that replacement benefit financially? Name the person/persons, if not Mitt Romney, who benefitted in the lion's share of profits, from 1999 to 2002.

The bottom line is that Mitt Romney benefitted financially through the outsourcing of jobs overseas, and he does not want to admit that. He doesn't want to admit the truth. And those tax returns will show the truth, which is why I am confident that Mitt Romney will not become the next POTUS.

Legit question, why should we believe anything Romney says?

Illinois' economy is doing much better over the last year unemployment is down from 9.7 in December of 2011 to 8.6 now. Pretty good in 9 months.

In terms of crime rate, you don't know what your talking about. Crime is down 2010 to 2011 in Illinois across the board. Look at the FBI tables.

actually, Illinois is experiencing a moderate increase in jobs at the moment, mainly because democrats refused to abandon public employess to the wolves, like most republican led states. The bulk of the current job losses are in the public sector, not the private sector, which is expanding moderately under President Obama's stimulus. look at the facts about where jobs are growing vs where they are declining, and you will see that the public sector job losses are a drag on the economy, rather than saving money, they are costing money. The public sector job losses, brought on by paring the ranks of Teachers, Firemen, Police and Public Works Employees depress the spending power of the middle class, which is the opposite of what we should be trying to do to restart the economy. The Weathy don't create jobs, Middle class spending creates demand, and that creates jobs. Perhaps, if the republicans were not so determined to drive the economy into a ditch for political advantage, they would cooperate and help jumpstart the economy.

"Dick Durbin" obviously lives outside of Illinois or he would know despite having economic problems similar to all but 6 states, Illinois is thus far solvent....unlike Republican run States such as New York, Wisconsin ...etc.

And Obama runs from the economy like a scalded dog!

Umm...unemployment in Illinois is down...in fact in my home area of Peoria, IL the unemployment rate is 6.9%.

How does someone who's the sole owner, CEO and only stockholder take a leave of absence and hold no responsibility for the actions of that company?

How does someone running for an office that requires holdings to be in a blind trust to insure nothing they do can directly benefit themselves appoint his personal attorney who is an employee to run that trust expect us to believe anything he says? Claiming he has no input on investment decisions despite the fact 10 million went to Romneys son Tagg. It was an independent investment decision made by his attorney. Yeah right.

Eric

Ohio's unemployment was 9.2% in June 2011 and in May of 2012 7.3%. You get better results when Republicans are in office, even if you really don't like them.

Larry 367607

I was about to post the same question but you nailed it.

Who amongst us, if CEO, president, sole stockholder, managing director and grand poobah, would not want to have ANY input in investment decisions of their company?

Not even a phone call for an update? It simply defies logic.

To the rightwing Collapse Nazis -- Keep collapsing sections, and folks can just keep re-posting. YOU can't shut down free speech:

The American people don't want someone who is fraudulent (lying or just misrepresenting themselves), or not well-versed in public/foreign policy (and in particular makes little or no effort to know it), or who is not patriotic (outsources, bets against the USA), or has a sense of entitlement (secretive, above standard practices like releasing tax returns), and lacks compassion for the common man, and worst of all a CHEAT -- For POTUS, Commander in Chief, and leader of the free world. The more voters see of Willard Mitt Romney, the less they like what they see.

And that's before folks even get to his plans, vague as these may be, which boils down to two things: The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. As much as Republicans try to distance themselves from Dubya, the FACT is their policies are still the same failed crap. And Romney would like to implement that same failed crap--on steroids.

Eric Cantor has also "bet against America" among other things, and will be up against an impressive opponent in the coming election too. Let's clean House -- Throw out the Teapublicans. Romney -- He's not in it for you.

-----------------------------------

What's also interesting is the saying that "the Republicans go for the jugular, while the Democrats go for the capillaries." Enough of that. Romney is drowning. Throw him an anvil!

Belfast Lad, Larry 367607, and others...

Yesterday another FR member (Dennis) posted something so obvious and simple that everyone is overlooking. Team Romney's spin has been that control of Bain Capital was transferred to the other partners -- Romney said 18 or so? NO Company operates for three years without clear chain of command! Has anyone tried to accomplish anything with 18 chiefs and no Indians?

So it is very simple. They need to lie yet again and say who was in charge from 1999 to 2002. Tick tock, drip, drip...

Truepatriot: You state Eric Cantor was betting against america which is true but so was Romney. According to an economist Romneys huge investment in Switzerland which banks are paying a 0% interest rate would only be profitable if you were betting against america. As he noted it was a strange thing to do for a candidate for president.

The whole country is in trouble, but at least it's heading in the right direction. As the Republican says: The real issue, he said, “is what are we going to do to make it where more Americans are filing their incomes taxes because they have a job?” The answer is simple. Vote out every, OBSTRUCTIONIST Republican from Congress and the Senate so President Obama can finally get some legislation passed to get our recovery moving. Then vote out every Republican in every National and Local election until they remember that they were elected to represent the American People; not just the rich ones. I've always been an Independent Voter, but at this point I consider any Republican to be Un-American. They are so singularly focused on stopping President Obama from accomplishing anything and keeping their Bush Tax Cut for the Wealthy that they're willing to destroy our nation. Evidenced by their threat to put our nation into default last summer, and Mr. Romney's push to bankrupt GM, Chrysler and Ford.

Romney running from Bain 'like a scalded cat'

He sure has been. At first he was trying to defend it all -- now, suddenly, he is trying at every opportunity to minimize his time and work there. If he could get away with telling us he was just the janitor, he would.

How many bodies are buried there that he doesn't want America to know about? Time for Mittens the Mormon Cultist to start shredding documents again!!

I seem to recall an idiot who failed between 2001 and 2008. Just saying. We are living the results of his tax the poor not the rich. Cut the taxes of the rich they will hire. Um, I guess that is why employment went DOWN, EVERY year of the Bush Presidency, while AMERICAN EMPLOYERS sent MORE jobs overseas.

Fraidie cat! Fraidie cat!

"Follow the money."

Former Governor Romney is currently facing a great deal of criticism seemingly from disparate corners of the political spectrum for not releasing his tax returns for past years. It isn't a stretch to infer that there must be something contained in those returns that is much more politically damaging than the current criticism (and accusations of having something to hide).

I wonder if what those returns would reveal (if released) is that Mr. Romney was intimately involved in Bain management past February 1999... the so called "smoking gun." Whatever is contained in his tax returns must be so damning that, if released, his advisers have concluded would disqualify him from election. In retrospect perhaps having a primary process that favored whoever had the most money wasn't such a good idea.

Gillespie did not condemn outsourcing in every instance. He said that Romney believes that “American companies should be free – we have a free economy -- to make decisions that are in the interests of their shareholders, and what we need to do is make those decisions more attractive to invest here in the United States, rather than making it more attractive to go overseas, which is what the Obama policies do.”

What rubbish! Bain Capital was outsourcing jobs years before Obama took office. Obama's policies reward companies for hiring American workers.

If our American companies choose to cut production costs by cutting wages, cutting workers or shifting production to third world countries, their wealthy CEO's and shareholders will still benefit while our middle class workers will be the losers. Nothing new there.

What Republicans do not understand is that everyone benefits from a productive, economically vibrant middle class: rich, poor and everyone in between. If the rich succeed in choking off the middle class, we all lose.

OBAMA/BIDEN 2012

Well, we sure can't believe anything Romney or anyone in his campaign says! C'mon, first candidate in US history to have a website (or any kind of publication) solely dedicated to keeping track of his lies, because they are so numerous.

Now Gillespie wants to blame outsourcing on Obama?!? That is so hilarious and incredible it almost defies belief, if not for the completely whacked out state of today's republican party. Outsourcing began loooong before Obama came on the scene. That is some kinda desperate thinking there on Gillespie's part. I'm still laughing.

Someone in Bain, come out and tell the nation who was in charge after 1999. Please step forward, who ever that was, and then tell us if you were in charge, what you were paying Romney for?

Mike in California-3140149 -- It goes beyond the tax returns, and what we already know (that Romney is a tax evader cheat, and lying fraud about his "business experience"). Aside from implications, for example the Bermuda story and how Romney transferred that into Ann's name the day before he was sworn in as governor (only the day before!) are other matters --

Such as claiming residency in Massachusetts to be eligible to run for governor -- but now claiming he was in Salt Lake City "full-time" and didn't have anything to do with Bain.

Tick tock, drip, drip...

The real issue, he said, “is what are we going to do to make it where more Americans are filing their incomes taxes because they have a job?”

How true. The B H Obama camping can not run on its past 3.5 years and/or what thier plans are if the President is re-elected for the next four (4) years. They have to create some kind of item. Why do you think he got rain on yesterday - even Mother Natural knows he is losing the election. Obummer!!!!

Homer Adams -- If you're just going to "swoop and poop" and not read other posts, and contribute something meaningful and on topic, then STFU and go to Fox Nation.

I wish you guys would quit ragging on Willard. He saved the Utah Olympics. He gave Mass. a very good health care system, that he is trying to runaway from! And now he has become a real Robinhood, he is just confused about who to rob. Robbing from the poor is easier than robbing from the rich, the rich get pissed when you try to take their money, the poor never have much anyway so what's the difference, so he will probably just stick too robbing the poor, and besides the poor don't really know how to handle money anyway, they never invest, they are always blowing it on food, utilities, clothes and rent, I just don't know what's wrong with poor people. But that's okay because soon after Romney is elected there won't be many poor people anymore anyway.

Romney/Whoever 2012

There are 1.25 million high skilled jobs currently unfilled, even in this economy, thanks to Obama.

Romney, day one, will fill those jobs by increasing the visa cap for immigrants to fill those 1.25 million jobs with highly educated immigrants.

Its in his plan, in his words, Believe in America, on his website, www. mittromney .com

Mitt Romney will attach a green card to the college diploma of every immigrant offered a job in math, science, and engineering.

Why? Because we have a tremendous labor surplus, but American mathematicians, engineers, and scientists are lazy and stupid.

Unemployed Americans are Obama supporters by default. That is why Romney will bring in foreign immigrants who will appreciate the opportunity job creators give to the masses.

Romney Believes in America. He just doesn't believe in Americans. So he is making new Americans.

Romney 2012 and Forever After! The angel Moroni has spoken!

So Romney would have us believe that jobs have only been outsourced since Obama became president? More like the 1980s when Reagan was president.

No wonder he's on the wrong end of the argument. Romney's a liar with zero credibility.

They are just using the old trick of accusing your adversary of what your weakness. However, its starting to laughable.

Defend America

There are 1.25 million high skilled jobs currently unfilled, even in this economy, thanks to the GOP/Bush-era policies of voodoo economics, neocon foreign policies, and religious radicalism instead of focusing on American workers. Affordable education and incentives for companies to hire and train -- that's what we need.

It's only July, yet who expects anything but a filthy campaign from the do-nothing Republicans and their taxidermied candidate? It will be interesting to see what kind of religious psychopath or demographic figurehead they will attach to Romney at their convention.

But this is going to be one bumpy ride till November, and perhaps even thereafter, if history has taught us anything.

True Patriot...very true, but read all of Defend America's post because s/he already kinda said that. It was brilliant irony.

Melissa...hilarious description of Romney! Taxidermied...LOL! Awesome. :)

FinallyProud

True Patriot...very true, but read all of Defend America's post because s/he already kinda said that. It was brilliant irony.

Melissa...hilarious description of Romney! Taxidermied...LOL! Awesome. :)

Correction -- I should have said "Agreed." Defend America -- I extend my apology if I offended you. I also agree that the Taxidermied term is hilarious, especially since Romney scurries like the small varmints he used to hunt. If things keep going the way it is going now, he will become road kill.

We have this fantasy that our interests and the interests of the super rich are the same. Like somehow the rich will eventually get so full that they’ll explode. And the candy will rain down on the rest of us. Like there’s some kind of pinata of benevolence. But here’s the thing about a pinata - it doesn’t open on it’s own. You have to beat it with a stick.

- Bill Maher (He may be a comedian, but that doesn't mean he's wrong)

Romney hasn't mentioned the fact that he STILL lives off Bain Capital's profits from vulture capitalism.

His 2010 tax return showed that he took home $7 million from Bain in 2010. That's 11 years after he said he "left" the company. He's Bain's largest shareholder - so why does he claim no responsibility for anything the company does? He just wants the money, not the responsibility.

Let him have control of MY country? Hell no!

Romney's Tax Returns Show How Laws Favor the Wealthy
NY Times, January 24, 2012

The couple paid about $3 million in federal taxes on an adjusted gross income of $21.6 million, the vast majority of it flowing from myriad of stock holdings, mutual funds and other investments, including profits and investment income from Bain Capital, the private equity firm Mr. Romney retired from in 1999.

The couple reported no wage earnings in 2010. But in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, Mr. Romney's campaign counsel, Benjamin L. Ginsberg, said that Mr. Romney and his wife collected more than $7 million worth of Bain profits in 2010.

The question that never seems to be asked is why would his experience at Bain or any other corporation be a good reason to elect him president? It's not like he can declare Missouri bankrupt and then sell it off in pieces. He can't layoff Kansas and restructure. Just what is it that the right thinks makes him the answer? Can he find a new product line that will fill the spaces in the overall economy? Can he devise a better ad campaign to attract new customers? Isn't there a lot more to this country and the unbelievable complexity of governing?

Here is the biggest problem, there are not 1 million high skilled jobs that are going unfilled. This is the biggest lie ever. There are many unemployed and under-employed Americans that are highly qualified for these jobs if they were real. The drive to bring in more foreign workers is what is behind this lie that will drive wages down further and increase the unemployment and welfare rolls.

I can only imagine how many foreign worker visas Romney will allow. The ultra rich might be renouncing their citizenship now, but it will be Joe and Jane Main Street leaving the country for foreign jobs if Romney gets elected. You have to go where the jobs are people and that ain't here.

E.) None of the Above in 2012!

Defend America...you need to wake up and get out more. You have obviously never been out of the little county you live in (except for that trip to Disney World) otherwise you would know that Americans generally have a very high and sought after work ethic, have excellent work experience, are well educated and well adjusted, when compared with most any other national except for maybe the Germans. Employeers of choice will hire Americans over their own nationals.....I know I live in another country and my ethics and experience have always kept me in a well paying position.

So basically you have no idea what you are talking about....must be a Republican. My old man shutters in his grave to see what has become of the GOP.

witchrunner.....

I would have expected some VILE and name calling from the left concerning your post above. Guess they have not received training from the DNP on how to respond systematically to comments like yours yet. Seems they have it down pat for "Bain" (that is ALL they came come up with).

"Pretty Cheesy"...keep the focus away from obama's record as President...nice try..won't work

Romney and whoever huh?............NO ONE WANTS TO RUN WITH MITTSTER. If he does find someone that's greedy like him to just sign bills for Norquist, that person will have to be approved by Norquist. All repubs pledged their alligiance to Norquist like traiters to our constitution. Who elected Norquist to any office?...The greedy rich repubs did! Pledge to Norquist to overthrow the present system of government.To make themselves richer.

Obama has done pretty well, considering that the House majority leader is on record that the #1 priority for House Republi-cons is ensuring that Obama is a one-term president. Not jobs. Not the economy. Not the deficit. Not out-of-control health-care costs. Their #1 priority is saying "no". They've proven time and again that they take that pledge seriously. These people are economic terrorists, bent on destroying the economy and killing every initiative that could spur job growth. They should all be impeached for dereliction of duty.

If you want to focus on records, how about George W Bush? He involved America in an illegal war of aggression against a sovern nation without provocation. He ran that war off the book through a series of "emergency" appropriations bills. He handed out billions of dollars worth of no-bid contracts to his buddies like Halliburton. To balloon the deficit even faster, he handed out massive tax breaks to huge corporations and his rich campaign contributors. He authorized torture of prisoners and warrentless spying on American citizens.

Yes, Obama's record isn't without fault, but he isn't a war criminal and a thief like George W Bush. He was also lawfully elected, unlike George W Bush.

If you liked the dirty tricks "Team Bush" played to get "W" installed in 2000 and 2004, you're in for a huge treat in 2012. The Republi-cons are doing everything they can to disenfranchise as many Democratic voters as they can. They're also working with the Republi-con voting machine companies (Diebold et al) to rig the elections wherever they think they can get away with it. If possible, you should demand a paper ballot.

Prominent REPUBLICANS ramp up demands that Romney should release his tax returns for the past 6, 8, 10, or even 12 years. That he has released only the past two years of his tax returns and only when pressured to do so is unacceptable. They add that not only is he defying a customary public expectation for any politician running for a high public office, he's also hurting himself for not demonstrating more transparency to his own electorate and just giving more ammo to his opponents for not doing so.

-------------------------------------------------

Excerpts:

WASHINGTON -- Political analyst Bill Kristol added on Sunday to conservative criticism of Mitt Romney's failure to release multiple years of tax returns, saying the presumptive Republican presidential nominee should bear the political consequences of his tax record.

"He should release the tax returns tomorrow. It's crazy," Kristol said on "Fox News Sunday." "You gotta release six, eight, 10 years of back tax returns. Take the hit for a day or two."

The comments come after mounting pressure for Romney to release more than a year's worth of returns, something that's become common practice for presidential candidates. While Romney has released only his 2010 tax returns and an estimate for his 2011 filing, Obama has released tax records dating back to 2000.

Romney's own father, George Romney, disclosed 12 years' worth of tax records when he ran for president in 1968.

Other prominent Republicans who have called on Romney to release tax documents include Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and strategist Ana Navarro.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/15/mitt-romney-tax-returns_n_1674325.html

Oh, and let's not forget that de-regulation and gutting of regulatory agencies under Bush were responsible for allowing Wall Street and American finacial institutions to run amok and ruin the worldwide economy.

Boo hoo...repubs crying, "stop catching Romney lying!"

CNBC GOP Debate 11/09/11: "I worked at one company, Bain, for 25 years."

Romney started at Bain in 1977. He said he quit Bain in 1999.

1977 + 25 years = 2002.

The math doesn't lie. The SEC and the IRS should investigate Romney's claim on running Bain.

To quote this article:

It says:

“Why is Mitt Romney running away from his company, Bain Capital, like a scalded cat? Because there’s abundant evidence that under Bain Capital they were exporting American jobs to low-wage countries and he doesn’t want to be associated with it.”

What?!? Like, free to make their choices which is just what the corrupt Banks did, and still are doing . Then, they have no qualms about asking us for a "Bail-Out" while at the same time wanting no regulations on their business. Did the small businesses (who hires the largest majority of the workers) get a "Bail-Out", or were they forced to close?

$30,000 dollars to eat with Obama, and you don't think he's in the pocket of the rich guys, Obamas job Czar, Jeffery Immelt, cut workers' pay and in the last two years alone, GE has closed 29 factories in the U.S, Immelt was so good at outsourcing, and working the system, he returned 3 billion back to his company. Obamas, guy believes in free trade. I think Obama, sends the wrong message going after Romney, for outsourcing Bain, but, his jobs Czar gets a free pass while millions of Americans are out of work. Ge paid no taxes last year even though the company earned 14.2 billon in profits last year, earning 5 billion in the US alone. OBAMA doesn't care about getting Americans back to work, he wants you all on WELFARE. How much Stock do the Obamas, have in GE? I see a conflict of interest here.

Bain Capital executive who is now a major donor to Obama's re-election campaign.Jonathan Lavine, a managing director at Bain in Boston, has bundled between $100,000 and $200,000 for the Obama Victory Fund, according to estimates released by the Obama campaign. His role as an Obama bundler and the amount he's raised for the president's re-election. fundraising from private equity executives with alleged ties to bankruptcies, layoffs and outsourcing.

Romney 2012

It has become apparent that Romney's feeble denials of his involvement in Bain Capital beyond 1999 are withering like a prom date's wrist corsage. A corporate document filed with the State of Massachusetts in Dec 2002...a month after Romney was elected governor...lists him as one of two managing members of Bain Capital Investors, LLC "authorized to execute, acknowledge, deliver and record any recordable instrument purporting to affect an interest in real property, whether to be recorded with a Registry of Deeds or with a District Office of the Land Court."

In August 2011, Romney told federal authorities, as part of the financial disclosure process, that he "retired from Bain Capital on February 11, 1999 to head the Salt Lake Organizing Committee [for the 2002 Winter Olympics]. Since February 11, 1999, Mr. Romney has not had any active role with any Bain Capital entity and has not been involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way."

Previously reported evidence shows that Willard was listed as the CEO, chairman and president of the company after 1999 in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission; took a six-figure salary; signed corporate documents related to major and minor deals and attended board meetings for at least two Bain-affiliated companies. The state document was filed two and a half years after Romney now says he retired from the company, demonstrating his deep and ongoing connection to the firm.

In other words, Romney is lying through his teeth about being uninvolved in the operation of Bain Capital after 1999.

It's not nice to falsify election records. In fact, it's a felony!

Read 'em and weep, teabaggers:

http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/Bain2002.pdf

Rev. Al Sharpton, Thank You and the MSNBC team for reporting excellent news events. I WOULD LIKE TO SALUTE THE TROOPS, VETERANS and THEIR FAMILIES. Thanks for your sacrifices. Eleanor Roosevelt said, "WITH THE NEW DAY COMES NEW STRENGTHS AND NEW THOUGHTS." I agree that President Obama should continue his questioning of Mitt Flip Flop Romney's Bain Capital business transactions and tax returns. From a metaphorical viewpoint, Mitt Flip Flop Romney's inability to release full disclosure of his tax returns and offshore bank account information can be compared to King Henry VIII wives who were each intricately unique and relevant to his narcissistic reign. COULD MITT HIDDEN AGENDA ROMNEY BE A POLITICAL SHEEP IN SPECIAL INTEREST WOLF'S CLOTHING?!! WHY DID HE ALLEGEDLY TRANSFER MONEY INTO AN OFFSHORE ACCOUNT IN HIS SPOUSE'S NAME SHORTLY BEFORE HE BECAME GOVERNOR?! In my opinion, Mitt with his nonsense proposals has his own interpretations that everyone except him and whomever else filtered this ridiculous "FREE STUFF," political posturing agenda are above the fray. People receive free stuff everyday. SO WHAT?!!! By the Grace and Mercy of GOD the air we breathe is free. The cliche´ "Birds of a feather, Flock together," remind me of Mitt Mr. Grinch Romney and some of his political and business associates who have offshore bank accounts. George Herbert said, "Whose house is of glass, must not throw stones to another." Additionally, Benjamin Franklin said, "Dont throw stones at your neighbors, if your own windows are glass." If Mitt Etch-A-Sketch Romney wants to "GO THERE" and discuss "FREE STUFF" he only needs to "LOOK IN THE MIRROR," at himself. Alexander Pope said, "An honest man's the noblest work of GOD." From my perspective, Mitt Hide and Seek Romney will have "Double Trouble" because of his inability to be "Transparent and Honest" with the American people. Furthermore, Winston Churchill said, "WE ARE STILL MASTERS OF OUR FATE." "WE ARE STILL CAPTAINS OF OUR SOULS." Mitt Off-Shore Romney's speech to the NAACP was overall a colossal political mess. Vice President Biden's speech to the NAACP was superbly motivating, goal oriented, purposeful, and positively vision centered for the American people.
I believe it was allegedly a horrible, nasty, shameful, disgusting conspiracy and cover-up at Penn State concerning Jerry Sicko Sandusky. In my opinion, George Zimmerman(G.Z.) created his distorted, unbelievable story about the events that led up to TRAYVON MARTIN'S unfortunate death. Its improbable that he would use a 9MM gun to shoot TRAYVON at point blank range in his chest through the heart and TRAYVON would sit up and say, "YOU GOT ME" WHAT THE HECK?! That would be the last thing I would do or say if I was dying but thats just me! According to news reports, TRAYVON died instantly. Allegedly, another problematic circumstance with G.Z. is he has a figure of speech with the F word. G.Z.'s version of the events seems unrealistic like some characters from the movie "Shaun of the Dead" which involves zombies coming back to life. GOD BLESS TRAYVON MARTIN'S FAMILY and Friends.
Hellen Keller said, "THE BEST AND MOST BEAUTIFUL THINGS IN THE WORLD CANNOT BE SEEN OR EVEN TOUCHED THEY MUST BE FELT WITH THE HEART." I believe, the wonderful sounds of music can warm the hardest of hearts and calm the jitters of a lover's quarrel. Mother Teresa said, "BE FAITHFUL IN SMALL THINGS BECAUSE IT IS IN THEM THAT YOUR STRENGTH LIES." For me, a few beautiful things are the sounds of musically talented people. This includes the excellent music of Justin Timberlake and Justin Bieber. From my viewpoint, there should be no extreme negative comparisons from news reports about their different talented and blessed styles of music. Additionally, I hope they will collaborate together on a music or movie project. Also, I send my encouragement and prayers that they continue with their superb music producers, managers, security teams etc... to protect them from the sometimes dangerous paparazzi. GOD SPEED TO THEM BOTH. REV. AL SHARPTON, Thank you. HAVE A WONDERFUL and BLESSED DAY.

Romney didn't break any laws. He wasn't actively involved. He owned the majority of the stock filed as required. He donated 10 times obama's salary in the last two tears to charities not just his church. One out of every six dollars.

For thirteen years people have brought this up. The courts, Bain, and Romney have said he wa not working. Here you have a Hardvard Law Graduate holding the highest office in the land. If there was any proof the courts would be invloved. Are they no. Why it's a felony ooooh or maybe aliens.

This is how stupid obama is and how scared. His home purchases, the selling of his senate seat, as well as other dealings may surface in October. They are setting the stage. I am excited to see some of obamas campaign lies and other statements back on TV a week or two prior to the election too. He's already putting newscasters in videos. As for outsourcing you liberals clearly don't understand what obamas policies are paying for its not medical care. It's overseas jobs with little or no benefit for the US.

Clinton deregulating banks and signing NAFTA is what caused the spiral down. Bush fought it off several times, had a war to manage, had the dot com bust, and various other issues. he still managed to bring some recovery. Obama has only had deviant marrige, kill a baby if you don't want a girl, or other meaningful liberal ideas passed.

Bain bought losers, poorly managed, losing money, cutting workforce already and ready to go completely under. The trimmed the fat, sold assets, outsourced to make the company more profitable if neeed and sold a money making company for a profit. The previous owners options were to layoff, cut benefits, fired, ad then close the doors. Which would mean no jobs. AT&T, Ford, Chevy, Microsoft, Dell, HP all outsource and the bring in many developers, engineers, contractors, support and other personel for countries outside the US.

Gee, Obama is hammering this guy, well all is fair in Love, War and politics, yep remember when the RIGHT went after Obama for his birth certificate, now it's payback time and if you REPUBLICANS can't take the heat get the hell out of the kitchen. Oh well, better go too the bench and get another victim for OBAMA to beat up! Romney will have a hard time flip flopping this one it's on paper folks.

B4thepeople: Quit drinking the kool aid. Bain never cared about jobs only making money.

Financial engineering has been part of the Burger King story for so long that it’s hard to believe there is still anything worth plucking from its carcass. “It’s been run as a cash cow for Wall Street,” said Bob Goldin, an executive vice president of Technomic, a food service consulting firm. Along the way it’s had 13 chief executives in 25 years, numerous strategy shifts and marketing campaigns — and has been constantly starved for cash. But, hey, the private equity guys got theirs. And isn’t that what really matters?

In 2002, Goldman Sachs, along with two private equity firms, TGP and ... hmmm ... Bain Capital, teamed up to buy Burger King. This is exactly the kind of situation private equity firms like to trumpet: taking over a downtrodden company and nursing it back to health. And to get them their due, Burger King’s new owners did some good, stabilizing both the company and the franchisees, many of whom were in worse shape than Burger King itself.

But the private equity investors also cut themselves an incredibly sweet deal. Their $1.5 billion purchase price included only $210 million of their own money; the rest was borrowed. They immediately began taking out tens of millions of dollars in fees. Four years later, they took Burger King public. But, first, they rewarded themselves with a $448 million dividend. In all, according to The Wall Street Journal, “the firms received $511 million in dividend, fees, expense reimbursements and interest” — while still retaining a 76 percent stake.

Does it need to be said that Burger King was soon back to its old struggling self? Or that the solution, once again, was to sell to another private equity firm? Of course not! In 2010, Bain, Goldman and TPG cashed out, selling Burger King to 3G Capital, for $3.3 billion. In sum, the original private equity troika reaped a fortune by selling a company that was in nearly as much trouble as it had been when they first bought it. Surely this represents the apotheosis of financial engineering.

who cares

(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

-------------Allowing ILLEGALS to steal jobs from AMERICANS is OUTSOURCING AMERICA!--------

(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

Show us the tax returns Mitt!

Show us the tax returns, Dick Cheney.

American media and public - do not give up until we see the full details of what this guy has done financially the past 20 years.

Romney is to blame for this topic. He ran away from his moderate record as governor, and insisted his prowess on the battlefields of venture capital was ample reason for the public to deem him qualified to be president. So show us the information and let us decide. By the way - look at the 80+ Bain Capital filings with the SEC...they will make your head spin. That is why we NEED THE TAX RETURNS with detail.

http://www.sec.gov/answers/execomp.htm

SEC-Executive Compensation

The federal securities laws require clear, concise and understandable
disclosure about compensation paid to CEOs, CFOs and certain other high-ranking
executive officers of public companies. Several types of documents that a
company files with the Commission include information about the company's
executive compensation policies and practices. You can locate information about
executive pay in: (1) the company's annual proxy statement; (2) the company's
annual report on Form 10-K; and (3) registration statements filed by the company
to register securities for sale to the public.

The easiest place to look up information on executive pay is probably the
annual proxy statement. Annual reports on Form 10-K and registration statements
might simply refer you to the information in the annual proxy statement, rather
than presenting the information directly. Click
here for information on how to locate a company's annual proxy statement on
the SEC's website.

In the annual proxy statement, a company must disclose information concerning
the amount and type of compensation paid to its chief executive officer, chief
financial officer and the three other most highly compensated executive
officers. A company also must disclose the criteria used in reaching executive
compensation decisions and the degree of the relationship between the company's
executive compensation practices and corporate performance. This information can
be found in several separate disclosure items.

The Summary Compensation Table is the cornerstone of the SEC's required
disclosure on executive compensation. The Summary Compensation Table provides,
in a single location, a comprehensive overview of a company's executive pay
practices. It sets out the total compensation paid to the company's chief
executive officer, chief financial officer and three other most highly
compensated executive officers for the past three fiscal years. The Summary
Compensation Table is then followed by other tables and disclosure containing
more specific information on the components of compensation for the last
completed fiscal year. This disclosure includes, among other things, information
about grants of stock options and stock appreciation rights; long-term incentive
plan awards; pension plans; and employment contracts and related arrangements.

In addition, the Compensation Discussion and Analysis (“CD&A”) section
explains all material elements of the company’s executive compensation programs.

NOTE: The decision by a company regarding the amount and type of compensation
to give an executive officer is a business decision and is not within the
jurisdiction of the Commission. Rather, the Commission's jurisdiction extends to
disclosure - making sure that the investing public is provided with full and
fair disclosure of material information on which to base informed investment and
voting decisions. In this regard, the federal securities laws require disclosure
of the amount and type of compensation paid to the company's CEO and other
highly-compensated executive officers.

Funny thing about Romney --- the 2 things he's actually accomplished in his life are Romney-care and Bain Capital. So now he runs away from BOTH. What's up with this clown???

Rev. Al Sharpton, I agree with you that the Jerry Sicko Sandusky Child Sex Scandal is a disgrace!!! There are millions of people who are unemployed that will be voting in Nov. 2012. Its not about Class Warfare or distractions. I am an American citizen and registered voter who has the right to know "ALL ASPECTS" of Mitt Flip Flop Romney's lifetime resume. He is asking the American people to trust him and read his heart. This is impossible if he is just speaking words and not showing factual information about his life. Why?!!! What is he hiding?!! He must prove that he can be trusted. In some states the American people must show ID in order to vote. If his record with Bain Capital involved outsourcing jobs then the American people cannot legitimately trust he will help create jobs for people in America. I disagree with those who criticize President Obama by discussing he is not being productive for the American people. He has accomplished a tremendous amount of goals for the American people. I appreciate President Obama and Vice President Biden's care, concern and compassion for the American people.

• • Come on guys. 8%+ unemployment his entire term, US downgraded to a AA credit rating, 5 trillion more in debt, government spending @ 40% of GDP, GDP growth less than 2% and a couple thousand assault weapons to Mexican Drug lords isn't that bad. For an unlicensed lawyer community organizer, it's a pretty good job record.

With a record like his, no wonder he wants to talk about Bain and outsourcing.

Durbin is a complete idiot, as are all those that vote to keep him in Washington. Complaining that jobs outsourced to low wage countries is a joke, Washington and the unions created that problem. Either companies want to compete in the world or go belly up. When the cost of doing business in the United States drives you out of business, then you can fold up shop or take the work where you can remain competitive.

Are the American people willing to pay more for the same product just to have it made in the US? Will liberals that scream about this all the time? I bet most liberals only care because this is campaign season, while everything in their closet made in China means nothing to them. Bill Clinton signed NAFTA into law, and Washington has done nothing to level the playing field between low wage countries and all the jobs the US lost as a result.

Liberals are spewing about corporations outsourcing like they are in business solely for the their workers. What happened to Solyndra is the best example, they went belly up because they could not compete with China. But unlike most companies they had president Obama that allowed them to risk only taxpayer dollars so when they went belly up only the taxpayers lost money. Obama has taken crony capitalism to an all new level, so donors have made out very well while the nation has suffered.

"Romney didn't break any laws."

He broke state and federal election laws by not reporting his Bermuda funds on no fewer than seven financial disclosure forms. The fact that he was actively involved in the operation of Bain Capital beyond the 1999 date he gave to federal authorities is also illegal. Mitt's lies are unraveling fast.

I will never vote for a Muslim President. Both are millionaires and outsourced jobs, so I will go with the Mormon.

Durbin = Blah, Blah, non-sense!

ATTENTION:

WHAT MOST OF YOU GOOD FOLKS ARE WITNESSING HERE IS A SUSTAIN POLITICAL ASSASSINATION BY THE LIBERAL LEFT DEMOCRATS....ILLINOIS STYLE.

As we all know, obama and most of his close associates are trained in the Illinois style of political attack - but do most of you know that Illinois has a national reputation of having the most corrupted politicians in the America? - with the most convictions and prison sentences? - witness the infamous ex-gov Blago-whatever. Most of our American voters have never experienced the kind of politics that Illinois politicians employ.....carefully orchestrated lies, dirty tricks, character assassinations, facts taken out of context - out right lies that are told long enough that people start believing them to be true.

Don't be taken in by a sitting president that uses or endorses these kind of tactics, don't be taken in by his empty words of promise - remember the promises he made when he ran for president the first time - how many has he kept? Jobs, economic stabilization, low taxes......he does not accept any responsibility for his failures instead blaming them on others - nothing is his fault. He cannot run on his record of meaningful accomplishments so he uses out of context statements to inflame and infuriate his core voting block to avert and refocus every one and sidesteps the real important issues -DON'T be made a fool again by this man - VOTE HIM OUT OF OFFICE IN NOVEMBER because we just can't take another 4 years of his incompetency or his type of dirty politics - don't let him destroy our honor, dignity and integrity, our need for truth - because the more lies we accept the harder it becomes to know the real truth.....and the easier it makes for people like him to fool us.

All those on the right seem able to do is rant and moan about anything but the issues.

If all these charges against Romney are untrue why wont anyone on the right dispute them? Why can't anyone on the right defend someone required to have a blind trust doing so by appointing his personal attorney which makes him an employee and claiming he has no ability to determine where this money is invested, a clear lie. Romney has no ability to see or direct his funds yet 10 million was invested in his son Taggs business and you believe that?

Why did Romney in a debate say he'd worked at the same company for 25 years when the math shows that to be 1977 to 2002 then claim he quit in 1999? Or why bash Obama for calling his mandate a penalty when Romney called his identical mandate a penalty and not a tax? Why deny or try and muddy the water about when he left Bain when clearly any strategy Bain used would be one he approved of as a founding partner instead of defend what Bain does? Why won't he prove by releasing his tax returns like every other candidate since his father ran in 1994, What's he hiding? Why not show on his taxes that there's a legitimate reason to have money in tax haven countries other than betting against this country. Claiming these to be unwarranted attacks and not legitimate issues are absurd.

Larry-367607

What, are you really that naive? I've heard 41 months of p*ssing and moaning out of obama - where have you been? And to think you have the nerve to say the right whines and moan...you are a hypocrite. You are obviously very young and not wise in the political in-fighting game - don't you lie to me and tell me I'm wrong about you, I can tell by your rebuttal!

If and when the Democratic left can substantiate their allegations against Romney and bring him up on criminal charges - I will believe that since, after all this time no charges have EVER been filed that there are no grounds or implicating facts that warrant his arrest and all he ever did was what the laws said he could do. Prove to be in any factual way that he broke any laws and I will personally apologize to you - until that time all obama or any of his crew have are subjects taken out of context, innuendo and suppositions, assumptions and a political sound bite - if they had more don't you think they would have called the cops on him? Think for yourself, man!

"If and when the Democratic left can substantiate their allegations against Romney..."

Failure to disclose financial holdings in Bermuda is a violation of state and federal election laws:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jul/10/robert-gibbs/democrats-say-mitt-romney-failed-disclose-offshore/

In August 2011, Romney told federal authorities, as part of the financial disclosure process, that he "retired from Bain Capital on February 11, 1999 to head the Salt Lake Organizing Committee [for the 2002 Winter Olympics]. Since February 11, 1999, Mr. Romney has not had any active role with any Bain Capital entity and has not been involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way." In fact, however, a corporate document filed with the State of Massachusetts in Dec 2002...a month after Romney was elected governor...lists him as one of two managing members of Bain Capital Investors, LLC "authorized to execute, acknowledge, deliver and record any recordable instrument purporting to affect an interest in real property, whether to be recorded with a Registry of Deeds or with a District Office of the Land Court."

Consequently, Romney lied to federal elections officials and filed false state and federal election records. Falsification of state and federal election records is a felony:

http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/Bain2002.pdf

Will Romney be investigated for his crimes? More information will continue to be revealed and his lies and dishonesty will haunt Mitt until his inevitable failure in November. This is what Forbes Magazine has to say on this sorry subject:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2012/07/14/did-romneys-2002-bain-capital-ceo-filing-violate-the-exchange-act/

The article ends with this commentary: "But if he is as good as he claims, Romney would never invest in a company whose CEO – in title only — collected an executive salary but spent almost every waking hour doing a completely different job."

Read 'em and weep.

Sailcat-2064101

If so, why hasn't he been indicted.....AGAIN, show me some real proof! You can't because you are just a repeater without a clue only what you heard from your leader and his group of mindless assassins- and you simply have no legal proof! You see, people like you can say all the things you want - since you've provided links that even you can find how come those links haven't lead to his indictment? BECAUSE they are baseless in fact.

"If so, why hasn't he been indicted"

It's still early and more information is being discovered every day. You can read the Forbes article for details. I can easily imagine particularly nasty skeletons falling out of ol' Etch-A-Sketch's closet that could cause him to drop out of the race...I would be willing to bet there are members of the RNC who are regretting his nomination already.

@ Defend America "the angel Moroni has spoken" that was your quote, so I assume you too follow a religion that began in New York state in 1834, started by the polygamist (having multiple wives) JOSEPH SMITH ?

@ Defend America It's ironic you whine and complain about American engineers and scientists being lazy and stupid.....so my guess is you live in the Middle East (the vine doesn't show locations) and are hoping a republican gets in office, so things can go back to the status quo ?

Did anyone see Romney's reaction in the interview where he was asked about his tax returns ? He looked like a blubbering boy who got caught stealing candy. Mitt said: "I showed returns going back 2 years, that's enough to understand my financial situation"........oh really ? Why the big mystery Mitt ?

His father ran for political office and showed tax returns going back 12 years, so what's Mitt's big hang up ?

Romney profiteered from Bain capitol by a well known phrase called "vulture-capitalism", this is not a mystery, and has been well established.

Romney is a flip flopper on Obama-care and changes his stance to suit his needs.

Romney said: "THE TREES IN MICHIGAN ARE THE RIGHT HEIGHT" if any of the morons voting for Romney can explain to me, what in sam hill that means, I'll vote for Mitt.

Sailcat-2064101

"If so, why hasn't he been indicted"

It's still early and more information is being discovered every day. You can read the Forbes article for details. I can easily imagine particularly nasty skeletons falling out of ol' Etch-A-Sketch's closet that could cause him to drop out of the race...I would be willing to bet there are members of the RNC who are regretting his nomination already.

Just stop. Again with nothing but speculation - as if any one buys it - except you and pathetic people like you. You don't have facts and Romney hasn't been charged and never will be because it's all a fabrication, a desperate tactic implied by a desperate democratic party and an even more desperate "Liar/Whiner-In-Chief"., whose ONLY plan was to get elected and whose ONLY real plan since then has been to get re-elected. Not to worry this will all change in Nov. when a real leader will be elected by the majority of the knowledgeable American voters, who can tell truth from lies, and who will kick this loser to the curb!

Again with nothing but speculation

It's so cute when neo-fascists are faced with facts and they lose all bladder control. There is no speculation about hiding assets in Bermuda and not filing them with on seven financial disclosure reports. It is a fact that Romney was in operation of Bain following 1999. It is a fact that lying on state and federal election forms is illegal. It is also a fact that more information is forthcoming and it is furthermore a fact that Romney could be prosecuted if the feds can find evidence of intent to deceive; otherwise he will just be considered grossly incompetetent.

Facts are just things that just don't fit in the insane fantasy worlds of the bottom feeders of the right wing lunatic fringe. So sad. See you in the next batch of scandalous headlines, wtfjes66!

Sailcat-2064101

............you are just simply pathetic! If you're old enough to vote (age question is based on your juvenile comments) and you vote for obama - and in some alternate universe he actually gets re-elected - you will deserve what that nincompoop is going to do to you.

Now, how about you leaving and going to work - as long as you aren't one of the poor 8.2% innocent unemployed victims of obamas p*ss poor leadership!

I just ran your latest inchoerent post through my translation software, wtfjes66, and the text translates as, "Waaaaaaaaaaahhhh!"

Just as I thought!

See you in November when President Obama is reelected! Be sure to bring lots of tissues because you are going to need them!

Sailcat-2064101

I just ran your latest inchoerent post through my translation software, wtfjes66, and the text translates as, "Waaaaaaaaaaahhhh!"

Now this a comment worthy of a 4 year old that can't spell - which is what I would expect from you......very juvenile and pathetic. Go home you're mommy is calling!

I guess I was laughing so hard at you I misspelled a word! oh well...you should be used to people laughing at you by now, shouldn't you? You seem awfully sensitive about it...

Not that I'm an Obama or a Romney supporter, but I was thinking the exact same thing. It sounds as though he was trying to blame Obama for outsourcing that occurred in 1999 when he was a freshman Illinois state senator.

Someone should remind Gillespie of SuperPAC rules as well. Karl Rove's GPS Crossroads, Ed Gillespie, and Mitt Romney - Can someone say conflict of interest in their activities? The lack of ethics never ends with these people.

Ronzwyf - And, in a real sense, that all these rules and regulations have a cost associated with them that hits us all, but in fact hits the working class and poor harder.

Yeah, "costs" like clean water, clean air, sanitation systems, safer workplaces, a minimum wage, no child labor and a 40-hour work week.

We enacted those regulations for a reason, you know. Do you really want to be China?

From the NY Times:

Choking on Growth

tbh, Clinton and HW Bush would have more to do with the outsourcing in the 1990s, then Obama would. And this is to mention not just who was president then; but to bring up the subject of NAFTA, along with the obvious what NAFTA and other such trade agreements had to do with outsourcing...

It is all Obama's fault. Everything is his fault. Every single thing. It is all his fault. All of it.

There you liberal King Obama lovers. How does that feel? Gee, you begin crying, that is all "hate speech". Right. Like Obama's vitriole against churches as he shoves his abortion mandate thru the HHS. Nice. We dont need laws as long as King Obama is on his throne. he will do whatever he wants.

Nice.

Is that Democracy? No. That is Totalitariansim- aka - Obamaism.

Do not vote for King Obama. No Mo O.

Gyortillicus

Somebody should tell Ed Gillespie that Obama wasn't president until 2009

You are right about that, but some one should tell you that obama was in the IL. senate then and voted on numerous restrictive regulatory issues that caused American companies to begin to out source, that's what Gillespie was talking about. Learn to read and comprehend!

Mitt Romney yesterday finally admitted that he pays a tax rate of about 15 percent, though he continues to put off releasing his full tax returns. However, when Mitt’s father, George Romney, ran for President in 1968, he released 12 years of tax returns, which revealed that he paid a 37 percent effective tax rate. From the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, November 25, 1967: