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Bain Capital is a classic “strip and flip” shop — a private equity firm that made its money buying businesses and sucking profit out of them by any means possible that often resulted in a stack of pink slips for everyday Americans. Romney “made fortunes by bankrupting five profitable businesses that ended up firing thousands of workers.” Here’s how it often went down. Romney’s Bain would buy a company and increase its short-term earnings through firing workers and shuttering plants in order to borrow enormous amounts of money. The borrowed money was used to pay Bain dividends, however, those businesses...

Republican Former Massachusetts Governor Willard Mitt Romney and Bain Capital and Numerous Health Care Corporations Today's Wall Street Journal summarized the investments made by Bain Capital, a venture capital and private equity firm lead by Governor Romney, The Wall Street Journal, aiming for a comprehensive assessment, examined 77 businesses Bain invested in while Mr. Romney led the firm from its 1984 start until early 1999, to see how they fared during Bain's involvement and shortly afterward. Among the findings: 22% either filed for bankruptcy reorganization or closed their doors by the end of the eighth year after Bain first invested,...

Debating in Tampa Florida this month, Mitt Romney strongly denied that his investment company Bain Capital did "any work with the government like Medicaid and Medicare." However, under Romney's "supervision," Bain purchased and ran the Damon Corporation which pled guilty to Federal conspiracy charges - as a result of tens of millions in systemic Medicare fraud... According to a cited Forbes report, in 1989, Bain Capital purchased controlling interest in Damon Corp. a medical testing company located in Needham, Massachusetts. "During the time that Bain held its ownership of the company, Mitt Romney personally sat on the board of directors.."...

As Ben Domenech notes in his Transom, Mitt Romney’s advisors have now advised him to support “a $2 gas tax, a VAT, and open Taliban talks.” Add to that list not repealing Obamacare. Norm Coleman, an advisor to Romney, went on record saying We’re not going to do repeal. You’re not going to repeal Obamacare… It’s not a total repeal… You will not repeal the act in its entirety, but you will see major changes, particularly if there is a Republican president… You can’t whole-cloth throw it out.

In fact, Romney increased taxes by $309 million, mainly on corporations. These tax hikes, described by Romney apologists as loophole closures, totaled $128 million in 2003, $95.5 in 2004, and $85 million in 2005. That final year, Romney proposed $170 million in higher business taxes, the Boston Globe reports. However, the Bay State's liberal, Democratic legislature balked and only approved an $85 million increase. Tax rates on many corporations almost doubled because of legislation supported by Romney, Boston Science Corporation chairman Peter Nicholas explained in Jan. 6, 2008's Boston Herald. Also, from 5.3 to 9.8 percent, Romney raised the tax...

Democrats to others they disagree with, especially if it deals with an Obama political policy: "you are a racist." McCain: Gingrich is "dangerous." Romney: Gingrich is "erratic." Lots more where that came from, too. Especially from Romney. Romney during the last debate: Santorum is "angry." Gov. Christie: Newt is embarassing to the GOP. Get ready....soon Romney and his supporters will be calling Gingrich a "racist"? There will be nastiness, but Romney started it all with his vicious ad-hominem laced ads in Iowa, and neither Gingrich, Santorum or Paul have even come close to taking the hurling of personal insults to...

I'll give a link to the entire Forbes.com article below, which I am quoting and excerpting. I believe that pro-Gingrich people are running ads on this. "In 1989, Bain Capital purchased controlling interest in Damon Corp...During the time that Bain held its ownership of the company, Mitt Romney sat on the board of directors...during that same period, Damon Corp. was busy selling fraudulent reimbursement claims to the tune of millions of dollars...By the time Damon Corp. pleaded guilty...Bain was long gone having sold the company in 1993 to Corning Inc... When Mitt Romney was confronted with the matter during his...

Mitt Romney could face new questions about his overseas investments after a campaign official acknowledged to NBC News that his campaign is revising his financial disclosure forms to report more than a half dozen offshore holdings, including income from a multi-million dollar Swiss bank account that was not disclosed last year. The tax returns released by the Romney campaign this week showed that the Ann Romney Blind Trust had reported $1,783 in interest income from a bank account held at UBS in Switzerland in 2010. But the Swiss bank account -- as well as other offshore investments in the Cayman...

"The main reason the Republican establishment overwhelmingly favors Mitt Romney over Newt Gingrich is that Romney stands a better chance of beating Barack Obama," says Jonathan Chait at New York. So it's a problem for Romney that "as the campaign goes on, this seems to be growing less true." A new Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that negative views of Romney have "spiked" over the past two weeks, from a net +4 favorability rating (39 positive/34 negative) to a -18 rating (31 positive/49 negative) — very similar to Gingrich's -22 rating (29/51). The shift is most notabe among independents, who...

As Ben Domenech notes in his Transom, Mitt Romney’s advisors have now advised him to support “a $2 gas tax, a VAT, and open Taliban talks.” Add to that list not repealing Obamacare. Norm Coleman, an advisor to Romney, went on record saying We’re not going to do repeal. You’re not going to repeal Obamacare… It’s not a total repeal… You will not repeal the act in its entirety, but you will see major changes, particularly if there is a Republican president… You can’t whole-cloth throw it out. But you can substantially change what’s been done.

In 1989, Bain Capital purchased controlling interest in Damon Corporation, a medical testing company located in Needham, Massachusetts. During the time that Bain held its ownership of the company Mitt Romney personally sat on the Board of Directors. And during that same period, Damon Corporation was busy submitting fraudulent reimbursement claims to Medicare to the tune of millions of dollars charged for unnecessary blood tests. ... By the time Damon pleaded guilty to defrauding the United States Government of $25 million - and paid a total of $119 million in what was, at that time, the largest penalty of its...

Are we watching the meltdown of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney? Fending off pointed attacks by fellow GOP candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum ... Romney looked ...flustered, stiff, and at times just babbled In comparison, Gingrich looked like he still had all the momentum from Saturday’s South Carolina primary win. He calmly answered questions ...(snip) The biggest surprise in the debate: Gingrich was not asked about his personal transgressions, ... ...After his 12-point South Carolina win, Gingrich has surged ahead in the Florida polls, leading 41% to the former Massachusetts governor's 32%. Still, Romney does expected to win Florida....

Just days before the South Carolina primary, polls showed Mitt Romney leading Newt Gingrich. Then came the debates and the question about Gingrich's private life, which brought a devastating response from the former Speaker of the House — and a standing ovation from the audience. Apparently the television audience felt the same way, judging by the huge turnaround in the support for Gingrich. The stunning victory in South Carolina brought Newt's candidacy back to life. But the message from South Carolina was about more than a reaction to how Gingrich dealt with a cheap shot question from the media....

Romney today on Fox News Sunday claimed to be a Washington outsider and would if elected to the presidency bring change to Washington's insider ways. Well, guess his working with Senator Kennedy to impose socialist healthcare on his Massachusetts constituents was just an exception to his Reaganesque conservatism and dedication to liberty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4iTtNGjFY4&feature=player_embedded And link to article: http://www.letfreedomringblog.com/?p=11908 ‘Ideal TEA Party candidate’ Romney praises Ted Kennedy Newt sat on a couch with Nancy Pelosi. Mitt collaborated with, then praised, Ted Kennedy in putting Romneycare. I’m pretty certain that actions are infinitely more important to TEA Party activists than empty gestures....

Just days after his 2002 election, Mr. Romney hired Douglas Foy, one of the state’s most prominent environmental activists, and put him in charge of supervising four state agencies. Gov. Mitt Romney and Douglas Foy at a March 2006 event. Mr. Foy had initiated a lawsuit that led to the cleanup of Boston Harbor and had worked to protect fishing grounds and seashores. Once in the Romney administration, he served as the governor’s negotiator on a regional climate-change initiative and put emissions caps in place for coal-fired power plants. With Mr. Foy by his side, Mr. Romney joined activists outside...

Mitt Romney penned an op-ed in the Orange County Register Monday carrying the new line of attack on President Obama's energy policy: the Solyndra collapse is more evidence he wrote that the government "shouldn't be playing venture capitalist" when it comes to alternative energy projects. "It's not merely that government bureaucrats are bad at picking winners" he wrote. "The very process invites cronyism and outright corruption." But Romney is a private-sector venture capitalist by vocation, and during his tenure as Massachusetts Governor, he set up a program almost exactly like the ones he's now denouncing. In 2003 Romney launched the...

DAMON CLINICAL LABORATORIES Romney Was Board Member Of Company Fined Over $100 Million For Medicare Fraud – At The Time, It Was The Largest Criminal Fine For Health Care Fraud In History Romney Sat On Board Of Damon Clinical Laboratories, A Bain Capital Portfolio Company Fined Nearly $120 Million In 1996 Due To Medicare Fraud. “A Needham clinical laboratory agreed yesterday to pay $119 million in criminal and civil fines after pleading guilty to charges that it defrauded the nation’s Medicare system by seeking reimbursements on millions of dollars worth of unnecessary blood tests. … Damon Clinical Laboratories Inc. admitted...

Politics Buzz Mitt Romney has been firmly pro-life since his 2005 conversion after legislation came to his desk in regard to Stem Cell research. But a trek over to the website of Commonwealth Care, the state funded health insurance program for low and moderate-income Massachusetts adults who don't have health insurance, created by RomneyCare, offers a copay for abortions.

Newt Gingrich's fluent, policy-rich performances in the early debates, laced with derision for the media's attempts to question the Republican candidates, propelled him to the front of the GOP pack in early December. His command of the stage here in Myrtle Beach for the 16th (yep, there have been that many, and the next is in Charleston on Thursday) could just be the lifeline he needs to achieve the task he has set himself - overcoming Mitt Romney's clear lead in the South Carolina polls to win the state on Saturday. Romney was under pressure over releasing his tax returns...

Mitt Romney has long called himself a venture capitalist, experience he says helps him understand the economy better than other candidates for president. But he spent much more of his career in leveraged buyouts than in the investments in start-up companies known as venture capital...