Reporting from Washington— As Mitt Romney defends his record running a private equity firm, he frequently points to a fast-growing Indiana steel company, financed in part by Bain Capital, that now employs 6,000 workers. The story of Bain and Steel Dynamics illustrates how Romney, during his business career, made avid use of public-private partnerships, something that many conservatives consider to be "corporate welfare."
"Fundamentally, what happens in America that creates jobs is not government. It has its role. But by and large, it gets in the way of creating jobs," he said during a debate Saturday."
Bain Capital began looking at investing in the steel start-up in late 1993. At the time, Steel Dynamics was weighing where to locate its first plant, based in part on which region offered the best tax incentives. In June 1994, Bain put $18.2 million into Steel Dynamics, making it the largest domestic equity holder. It sold its stake five years later for $104 million, a return of more than $85 million.
As Bain made its investment, the state and county pledged $37 million in subsidies and grants for the $385-million plant project. The county also levied a new income tax to finance infrastructure improvements to benefit the steel mill over the heated objections of some county residents.
"I'm very pro-business, but I'm not pro-business-welfare," said DeKalb County resident Suzanne Beaman, 58, who fought the incentives. Steel Dynamics "would have done fine without our tax dollars, I have no doubt."
Yep, Romney will be more of the same if he gets elected. Ron Paul is doing so well, because people want a change, too bad 75% of Republicans are willing to settle for another Beltway Boy.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
By the way, this part is interesting: "The county also levied a new income tax to finance infrastructure improvements to benefit the steel mill over the heated objections of some county residents."
More and more government agencies, state, county & local, are using these techniques to get the public to pay for private-sector infrastructure improvements for private businesses. They go by a couple of names, "TIF" (Tax Increment Financing) or "TIDD" ("Tax Increment Development Districts")... It's like forcing everyone else to pay for a new sports stadium; or the highway/road/water-infrastructure for a new plant or shopping area. They go in and convince some of the local business owners in an area that they should vote for it--and convince their employees that it is "in their best interests", and they ram through a 20-25 year tax-increase on top of the existing sales/property taxes in a district. All of that money comes off the top and goes into a fund in a bank... The bank uses the money to sell preferred bonds to the wealthy high-rollers and Private Equity firms (think: Bain Capital), and the bank makes money off of the bonds; the bond-purchasers make money off of the bonds; and the residents who live in the area--who generally don't have enough political clout to stop it--end up paying it off over 20-25 years, and it's money the developer of the project doesn't have to pay.
And what I hate about corporate welfare is so often they steal from the little companies to bring in a big company. Make main street stores that hve been there forever pay for the new mall on the outskirts of town. Not very fair to me.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
Although you certainly can't hear the tone of a person's voice in print...I swear I can hear it in the voice of liberals today as they come to realize that Mitt Romney is the person to beat if they are going to put their "man" back in office for another four years of economic disaster. You really should see how intensely the Los Angeles Times is attacking Mitt today. In defense of the Times though, at least they have the decency to put their "fair and balanced" attacks on the OP-ED page of their newspaper instead of posting it on the front page or page two like the Denver Post has been known to do with other shrill speakers like Mike Littwin so it sort of looks like "news" instead of "opinion".
I think it's safe to say that neither Mike nor LJ will be voting for Mitt...knock me over with a feather. But the truth still remains...when it's time to vote, most conservatives and many moderates will vote for Mitt. If the economy doesn't improve significantly...or at least the "fair and balanced" press in collaboration with the Administration can't dupe us into thinking it's improving....then Mr. Obama will be joining the long line of unemployed in 2013. Surely there must be a job somewhere for a community organizer. Perhaps he can find work in California....sounds like Governor Brown could use the help with the budget.
lionshead2010 wrote: Although you certainly can't hear the tone of a person's voice in print...I swear I can hear it in the voice of liberals today as they come to realize that Mitt Romney is the person to beat if they are going to put their "man" back in office for another four years of economic disaster. You really should see how intensely the Los Angeles Times is attacking Mitt today. In defense of the Times though, at least they have the decency to put their "fair and balanced" attacks on the OP-ED page of their newspaper instead of posting it on the front page or page two like the Denver Post has been known to do with other shrill speakers like Mike Littwin so it sort of looks like "news" instead of "opinion".
I think it's safe to say that neither Mike nor LJ will be voting for Mitt...knock me over with a feather. But the truth still remains...when it's time to vote, most conservatives and many moderates will vote for Mitt. If the economy doesn't improve significantly...or at least the "fair and balanced" press in collaboration with the Administration can't dupe us into thinking it's improving....then Mr. Obama will be joining the long line of unemployed in 2013. Surely there must be a job somewhere for a community organizer. Perhaps he can find work in California....sounds like Governor Brown could use the help with the budget.
And speaking of the economy... here's another thread that has the 285 Bound liberals and socialists peeing in their pants... you can almost hear the fear in their voice...
Yes, I love the concept of a guy who kills 15,000 jobs for breakfast while pocketing a 900% profit, and has no clue what it's REALLY like to worry about a "pink slip", and who can't remember which side of an issue he's on from one day to the next, running against Obama...
Bring it on. After the Republican feeding-frenzy on their own this week, the oppo-material writes itself.
I think a lot of folks will vote for Romney (holding their noses) to vote against Obama. And that's unfortunate. I personally don't like either one. Don't know what I'm going to do.
People will vote for "change" just like in the last election. Is Romney the perfect candidate? Nope. Is he light years better than the person sitting in the Oval Office right now? You bet he is....and the liberals know it. That's why they are salting the earth early. In their minds Romney must be stopped at all cost..no matter what.
I'm really looking forward to talking about how many jobs the Obama Admininstration has actually created with its policies. Though I suspect it will be a very short conversation as there won't be much to talk about. They can try to bend the numbers but as soon as the Republicans are done kicking each other in the shins in the primaries....they will turn their attention to Obama's record...and when they do, they are going to have a field day.
He's already created more in 3 years than Bush did in 8 years... And he did it while Boehner's Idiots renamed post offices, and attacked gay marriage and abortion, and did NOTHING for job-creation. No problem.... Running against an obstructionist do-nothing Congress?!?! No problem.
