RSSEmail letters, June 1, 2012
As businessman, Romney had advantages that President Obama did not
The Sentinel’s editorial yesterday (It’s not the ‘Bain’ of our economy) failed to mention several pertinent aspects of the “business experience” of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
First, because Bain Capital is a “private” equity firm not required to disclose its “investments,” and because Romney has not released a full record of the firm’s ventures under his leadership, it is not yet clear whether he was a “job creator” or a “vulture capitalist” (as his Republican primary opponent Texas Gov. Rick Perry – not the Obama campaign – first characterized Romney’s record).
Second, private equity firms serve the economy by injecting equity into marginal businesses – just as President Obama attempted to inject “stimulus” into the flagging economy he inherited after eight years of Republican profligacy. However, Romney’s decisions were unencumbered by ideological obstructionists, while President’s Obama’s stimulus efforts were substantially gutted by Republicans demanding more tax cuts.
Third, while the decisions of private equity firms are driven by “the numbers” – quantifiable data reducible to spreadsheets – and are intended to benefit only a small constituency of investors, presidential priorities (as aptly summarized in the Preamble to our Constitution) are seldom so quantifiable and ostensibly serve the “common good.”
Fourth, when private investment was not forthcoming, even Romney turned to the federal government to bail out the Salt Lake City Olympics. Now, even though the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy diverted much-needed revenue from the federal budget into self-perpetuating political campaigns, the federal government remains the only source of “equity investment” available to fuel public sector jobs needed to rekindle the economy.
Finally, while Romney famously asserted that he “wasn’t worried about the poor, because they have a safety net,” both his economic prescriptions and the Ryan budget would weaken that safety net – even as more formerly “middle class” Americans are falling into it.
BILL HUGENBERG
Grand Junction
Kids for Compassion Club in Basalt thanks community supporters
The Basalt Middle School has a Kids For Compassion Club that’s been going on for two years now, involving 5th through 8th grades and the whole community.
Members of the club have designed T-shirts and have sold them to raise money to buy bear-proof recycling bins. We also worked with the mayor of Basalt and the town council to become the second International Compassionate City.
We planned and staffed a Saturday Basalt BASH and Compassionate Spirit Week; we also passed out Compassionate wristbands and participated in the Roaring Fork Clean-up. We have encouraged people to be compassionate.
Next year, some of our goals are to establish pen pals with Japan and Pakistan. We also will be working on the 50 Acts of Compassion to save our earth. Look for our Kids for Compassion Booth at Basalt BASH Event this summer.
One of the biggest things that happened this year is that Timbo’s Pizza became the first Compassionate Business in Basalt. We want to thank Timbo’s Pizza for supplying free lunch for the Compassionate Student of the Week.
The idea of having a Compassionate Student of the Week started when we came up with goals such as getting people to think about empathy and compassion.
We had ideas to get the school involved. We collected cans for recycling. We nominated a student for being compassionate; we made slips of paper so people could nominate students that were caught being compassionate and we read the suggestions. Then, each chosen student got a free T-shirt and a free lunch that was supplied by Timbo’s.
We would also like to thank Inter Mountain Waste and Recycling. It donated a recycling bin at the baseball field between Basalt Elementary and Basalt Middle School. It also will be picking up our recycling for free in the summertime.
Thank you for all your support.
STEPHANIE NEVAREZ, BIANCA GODINA
Basalt Middle School Kids for Compassion Club
Basalt
COMMENTS
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.June 2, 2012
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
734 South 7th Street
Grand Junction, CO 81501
Dear Editors:
Contrary to the “conventional wisdom” espoused by the Sentinel’s editors—“It’s not the ‘Bain’ of our economy” (May 31, 2012) – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s business bona fides at Bain Capital constitute dubious credentials for the job of President.
In fact, Romney was a “welfare king”—the beneficiary of substantial “corporate welfare” indirectly redistributed to Bain Capital through a distorted and unfair tax code, but all in the name of mythological “free enterprise”.
Thus, when Bain Capital’s infusion of private equity into a marginal or failing business allowed that endeavor to survive, Romney justifiably made money.
However, if that business failed, Bain Capital did not loose its investors’ money (as one would rightly expect in the context of true “capitalism”), but rather made money – by legally absconding with the business’s cash reserves and pension funds.
Consequently, taxpayers picked up the tab for the unemployment benefits payable to the hundreds (if not thousands) of former employees who had lost their jobs; for the Food Stamps for which many of those now newly jobless workers became eligible; and for the emergency room visits and other medical expenses incurred by families who had lost their medical insurance – thanks to Bain Capital’s involvement.
Economists call this “externalizing” the true costs of an economic endeavor. In other words, while a capitalist enterprise reaps the profits of its “entrepreneurship” (while avoiding as many taxes as possible), it foists many of its “costs of doing business” onto society (taxpayers).
Thus, business corporations and their executives reap disproportionate benefits by operating in a free society under the protection of taxpayer-funded courts. If corporations and the “1%” all paid their commensurately fair share of taxes (and did not also receive gratuitous corporate “welfare”) – the burden of “free enterprise” would not fall so heavily on the “middle class”.
Bill Hugenberg
543 Rim Drive
Grand Junction, CO 81507
Word Count = 300 257-1998
Mr Hugenbergs version of Private Capital Firms is somewhat simplistic.
Bain Capital, as well as other Private Venture Capital companies buy parent companies with the intention of providing additional capital where it is needed, replacing management if that is called for and determining which subsidiaries need to be reworked or closed down.
The whole idea is, IF a company can be made profitable and have a future, to save it and put it on solid, profitable, footing with good management.
Those that cannot be saved and made profitable will necessarily be closed down and people will lose their jobs, go on unemployment, go find other jobs, etc.
Those jobs were doomed prior to Bain Capital purchasing the parent corp.
Bain saved many companies that were otherwise doomed without the skills, expertise, capital and management teams that Bain provided.
The comment “Thus, business corporations and their executives reap disproportionate benefits by operating in a free society under the protection of taxpayer-funded courts.” is extremely disingenuous of Mr Hugenberg because he is well aware of the fact that Corporations are among the biggest taxpayers in America.
While “vulture capitalism” does exist to some extent, it is hardly mainstream, and Venture capitalists do not buy companies just to put people out of work. They buy them to save, and make profitable, as many companies as they can.
To do otherwise would be to deny the investors their profit.
And, also known to Mr. Hugenberg, those evil profits are used to purchase another group of companies, and the game starts all over.
Bain, and other Venture Capital companies save 10 times as many jobs as they cannot save. And they do not kill jobs just because it’s fun.
Without companies like Bain, there would be hundreds of thousands people without jobs due to bad management, underfunding, and a whole host of other reasons that companies fail.