It was a great night for Newt! He is backing away from his love of the “Nanny State” mentality by explaining that one Union Janitor could be replaced by 30 school kids.
Although he barely got it inserted into the conversation Newt did say that Government Spending should be cut to meet income. So there is new hope for Newt.
I loved this statement from Newt to Juan Williams: “In this PC world, I know we’re not supposed to use facts that are uncomfortable, but the fact is - - - .”
The 4 years Newt balanced the budget were the only 4 years in I think the last 80 years or so that it was balanced. So I think he can be trusted to manage federal spending.
When Hannity asked Morris who won, Morris said “Newt Newt Newt.” Morris said it was a “classic vintage Newt Gingrich performance” and that Newt was “absolutely terrific.” He said Newt was one great debate away from getting back into the race and he had it tonight. He only criticized Newt for the first 20 minutes when he was still talking about Bain Capital. He said his “hunch” is that Newt could win the primary on Saturday, but he expressed concern that the evangelical endorsement could keep Santorum and Newt tied for 2nd place, which means Romney will win it.
I think it’s a shame the “conservative” media carried Romney’s water and bought into his line that the criticisms of him at Bain were “an attack on capitalism.” The question by the WSJ questioner was right on point in terms of getting to the heart of Romney’s predatory practices at Bain, although it was phrased in an incredibly soft way. I wish Newt or Perry had been able to express exactly what Romney did as clearly as how the WSJ said, but in a much tougher accusatory tone. Newt went on and on about “raising questions” but he didn’t take the time to cite those specific questions again.
The fact of the matter is Romney used questionable, abusive, predatory financial tactics at Bain such that even when the companies Bain acquired went bankrupt, Bain would not lose any money on them. Bain took out large loans in the names of the acquired companies and paid that money back to themselves as “dividends” and “fees.” This drove these firms, many of them already in a weak position, deeper into debt. Many of them did then go bankrupt, and couldn’t pay back those loans. But since Bain had already taken the bulk of the money borrowed on those loans as consulting fees, they got to keep all the money.
In at least one public case the creditor who was taking the loss on the bankruptcy threatened to sue Bain for “unjust enrichment” and Bain settled with them to some degree. But this was a pattern, the status quo of how Bain handled its acquisitions. Their business model was split between two things, turning troubled companies around to sell them later, which is good, but secondarily to borrow big money on all of these companies and then transfer it to themselves free and clear, knowing that the creditors could no longer make any legal claim to that borrowed money since it was essentially accounted for as a “fee” paid to Bain and therefore no longer an asset of the acquired bankrupt company.
3 of the 10 biggest firms Bain acquired went bankrupt, yet Bain themselves walked away with net profits on them anyway. That’s something that doesn’t happen to normal people in the real world. Normal people don’t get to take out a loan for a million dollars, declare bankruptcy and then keep the million dollars. But that is essentially what Bain did over and over again due to the tricky loopholes within the legal relationship between a parent company and its subsidiary.
Gingrich has mentioned the janitor example several times in the last few weeks.
Although he barely got it inserted into the conversation Newt did say that Government Spending should be cut to meet income. So there is new hope for Newt.
By definition, when you cut taxes and achieve a balanced budget, expenses were cut to achieve success.
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Gingrich: How We Balanced Four Consecutive Budgets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8M5DVkdUr8
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The above video was recorded in May 2010. Where have you been?