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Dems: At Bain, Romney was a “pioneer” in outsourcing jobs overseas
Hot Air.com ^ | June 22, 2012 | Erika Johnson

Posted on 06/22/2012 6:16:14 PM PDT by Kaslin

Ughh. It sickens me that our country’s leaders are thusly engaged in such damaging, cheap populism.

The Washington Post just wheeled out a new report, detailing how “Romney’s Bain Capital invested in companies that moved jobs overseas.” Am I imagining it, or is anybody else detecting a gentle hint that we’re supposed to believe that this is necessarily a bad thing?

Mitt Romney’s financial company, Bain Capital, invested in a series of firms that specialized in relocating jobs done by American workers to new facilities in low-wage countries like China and India.

During the nearly 15 years that Romney was actively involved in running Bain, a private equity firm that he founded, it owned companies that were pioneers in the practice of shipping work from the United States to overseas call centers and factories making computer components, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. …

But a Washington Post examination of securities filings shows the extent of Bain’s investment in firms that specialized in helping other companies move or expand operations overseas. While Bain was not the largest player in the outsourcing field, the private equity firm was involved early on, at a time when the departure of jobs from the United States was beginning to accelerate and new companies were emerging as handmaidens to this outflow of employment.

Cue the liberals’ various denunciations of the “vulture capitalism!”-ilk, and other such disgraceful, intellectually shallow talking points:

The campaign’s senior strategist David Axelrod blasted out an email with the Washington Post story, saying it exposed “breathtaking hypocrisy” by a candidate who frequently calls for the need to return American jobs to the United States. …

In a conference call with reporters Friday, Axelrod knocked Romney as an “outsourcer in chief” and asked whether the presumptive GOP nominee’s business experience is the kind of philosophy needed in the White House. He especially questioned Romney’s ability to “stand up to China” on trade.

“It’s particularly egregious when you try to repackage yourself as someone who’s going to be tough on countries that you sent jobs to,” Axelrod said on the call. He later described the report as a “significant moment in this campaign.”

Shaking my head, people — shaking my head.

First of all, when Romney talks about China, he isn’t denying companies’ rights to move their operations out of America if they so please. He’s talking about creating a level international playing field (and no, I don’t mean that like how President Obama uses it). Free trade is spectacular, but it doesn’t work when communist China is consistently doing things like manipulating their currency, pirating our technology, and other such highly nefarious endeavors.

Well, China has an interest in trade. China wants to, as they have 20 million people coming out of the farms and coming into the cities every year, they want to be able to put them to work. They wanna have access to global markets. And so we have right now something they need very badly, which is access to our market and our friends around the world, have that same– power over China. We– to make sure that we let them understand that in order for them to continue to have free and open access to the thing they want so badly, our markets, they have to play by the rules.

They can’t hack into our computer systems and steal from our government. They can’t steal from corporations. They can’t take patents and designs, intellectual property, and, and, and, and duplicate them, and duplicate them and counterfeit them and sell them around the world. And they also can’t manipulate their currency in such a way as to make their prices well below what they otherwise would be.

We have to have China understand that like everybody else on the world stage, they have to play by the rules. And if they do, we’ll have open trade with them and work with them. And they should in every way want to collaborate with us and not become a belligerent nation economically or militarily.

Secondly, if everybody on planet earth could just get the following through their heads so we can all move on and lead more productive lives, that would be great: When businesses find ways to do business less expensively, consumers win. Whether the business can offer their product more cheaply and consumers can then stretch their dollars further, or if the business is able to then hire more workers and grow their operation — the economy is going to grow. Which, in turn, means that everybody wins. That’s the great thing about free trade: all transactions are voluntary and mutually beneficial. When businesses outsource, they cut costs, and people in other, poorer countries with fewer opportunities are able to find jobs and income.

Everything related to this whole “Buy America” fallacy is just awful — barring even greater costs such as threats to national security, why on earth would you do something more expensively than necessary? That’s not the way to help people — buying goods from where they are most cheaply and efficiently produced is the best way to make everyone wealthier. Prosperity is not a zero-sum game, and a busy, bustling global economic village is probably just about the only true route to world peace in existence.

This sort of populist rhetoric that perpetuates these types of economic myths sorely needs to end.


TOPICS: Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: stoppedclock

1 posted on 06/22/2012 6:16:28 PM PDT by Kaslin
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Comment #2 Removed by Moderator

To: Kaslin

Maybe he can outsource them right back to the US.


3 posted on 06/22/2012 6:20:19 PM PDT by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
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To: Kaslin

There are those that outsource jobs overseas, and there are plenty of US companies that import foreigners to work in the US temporarily at much lower wage rates.

Especially in the IT world.


4 posted on 06/22/2012 6:21:29 PM PDT by 353FMG
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To: Kaslin

Back in Hungary, George Soros was involved in an even earlier form of outsourcing.


5 posted on 06/22/2012 6:21:57 PM PDT by Steely Tom (If the Constitution can be a living document, I guess a corporation can be a person.)
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To: Kaslin
Outsourcing isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it can be necessary.

Free trade is spectacular, but it doesn’t work when communist China is consistently doing things like manipulating their currency

How can any government which holds any reserves avoid manipulating it's currency? What upsets us about China is not that it has a policy, but that it's policy is to prevent it's currency from increasing in value relative to other currencies. It maintains that policy in order to make its exports more attractive, which China feels is in its short term best interest.

6 posted on 06/22/2012 6:28:22 PM PDT by Tau Food (Tom Hoefling for President - 2012)
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To: Kaslin

Meanwhile, Obama sends the oil industry to Brazil and we will be their best customer. Hmmm, Hmmm, Hmmm. Barack Hussein Obama.


7 posted on 06/22/2012 6:29:01 PM PDT by RedMDer (https://support.woundedwarriorproject.org/default.aspx?tsid=93)
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To: Kaslin

Is anyone surprised?

Either that RINO Romney is like this?

or that the DNC + MSM, which have sponsored Milt Romney,
have JUST BEGUN to release this mountain of
information which will doom any GOP ticket
with the supreme RINO RomneyCARE at the top.


8 posted on 06/22/2012 6:29:10 PM PDT by Diogenesis ("Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. " Pres. Ronald Reagan)
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To: Kaslin

While Ubama “IN-SOURCES” American jobs to ILLEGAL aliens - through his blanket SHAMNESTY “Executive Order” edict!


9 posted on 06/22/2012 6:30:53 PM PDT by missnry (The truth will set you free ... and drive liberals Crazy!)
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To: Kaslin
>> This sort of populist rhetoric that perpetuates these types of economic myths sorely needs to end. <<

Amen! But shame on Romney for indulging in exactly the same kind of demagogy -- specifically, his China-bashing ads that are now up in Ohio.

10 posted on 06/22/2012 6:34:02 PM PDT by Hawthorn
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To: Kaslin

Meanwhile, GE sends jobs overseas and pays no taxes.....
But we hear crickets when Jeffrey speaks!


11 posted on 06/22/2012 6:34:14 PM PDT by WomBom ("I read Free Republic for the pictures")
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To: Kaslin

Romney’s job was to make money for Bain, one way he did this was to outsource jobs to save money. This may have had something to do with policies in America at the time, maybe he can use his experience to make sure companies won’t have to do this in the future.


12 posted on 06/22/2012 6:39:04 PM PDT by 3rdcoastislander
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To: Kaslin

Romney’s job was to make money for Bain, one way he did this was to outsource jobs to save money. This may have had something to do with policies in America at the time, maybe he can use his experience to make sure companies won’t have to do this in the future.


13 posted on 06/22/2012 6:39:22 PM PDT by 3rdcoastislander
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To: Tzar

You got that right


14 posted on 06/22/2012 6:58:58 PM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Kaslin
Obama outsourced jobs and plants at GM .

Sense Obama has been Chairman of the Board GM has more Jobs in China than US.

15 posted on 06/22/2012 7:32:59 PM PDT by scooby321 (h tones)
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To: Kaslin

The dems impose the highest corporate tax rate in the world on America and then they blame shifting of jobs overseas on the private sector.


16 posted on 06/22/2012 7:39:46 PM PDT by death2tyrants
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To: Kaslin

This is one tough sell. Romney ran Bain and Obozo runs Blight.

Pray for America


17 posted on 06/22/2012 7:40:38 PM PDT by bray (Power to We the People)
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To: Kaslin
It sickens me that our country’s leaders are thusly engaged in such damaging, cheap populism.

And "cheap populism" is, sadly, used on the Right as well.



Where there's a shell, there's a way.

25 years ago, we had Ronald Reagan, Johnny Cash, and Bob Hope.
Today we have Obama, no cash, and no hope!

If you can't appreciate the pure beauty of the violin after hearing this, something's wrong with your ears.

Or you can get raw with these strings.

How about this gamechanger from America's Got Talent (which they SHOULD have won).

Either way, the violin is sweet yet lethal.

Do it!

18 posted on 06/22/2012 9:53:12 PM PDT by rdb3 (If you were tried in court for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?)
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To: Kaslin
Everything related to this whole “Buy America” fallacy is just awful — barring even greater costs such as threats to national security, why on earth would you do something more expensively than necessary? That’s not the way to help people — buying goods from where they are most cheaply and efficiently produced is the best way to make everyone wealthier. Prosperity is not a zero-sum game, and a busy, bustling global economic village is probably just about the only true route to world peace in existence.

This is just globalist nonsense.

The best thing for America is to get the Red-Tape and regulation out of the way so that Jobs don't need to be outsourced to another country.
19 posted on 06/22/2012 10:12:26 PM PDT by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency.)
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To: 3rdcoastislander
Romney’s job was to make money for Bain, one way he did this was to outsource jobs to save money. This may have had something to do with policies in America at the time, maybe he can use his experience to make sure companies won’t have to do this in the future.

There are many reasons that companies outsource that have nothing to do with anybody sitting in the White House, and those reasons cannot be influenced by anybody sitting in the White House. That's just the way it is. For instance, you're not going to find anybody here in America (legally) that is going to assemble my computer or my tennis shoes for 50 cents an hour.

Sure, Romney could do some things to try and keep those jobs here, but those kinds of things would require him running the Constitution through a shredder and trampling all over the rights of states, companies, and individuals. As far left as Romney leans, he's not quite leaning that far, and neither is Obama, because it would be political suicide for them to do the kinds of things the Chinese do.

Now 20 years from now, when this country has slipped to the left even more, those kinds of things might be possible. But not now.
20 posted on 06/23/2012 12:16:30 AM PDT by af_vet_rr
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