With Election Day on the horizon, a Bain-owned company in Freeport, IL, is moving out equipment as it shuts down operations in the U.S. to ship 170 jobs overseas. On Monday, workers and community members blocked the loading dock for a second time to prevent equipment from being removed from the plant. Three community members -- including the daughter of a Sensata worker -- were arrested when they refused to move after the company called the police.
The company -- Sensata -- emerged as a flashpoint in the controversy over Romney’s ties to Bain this summer, with the company’s employees pleading publicly with Romney to help save their jobs from being outsourced to China. Not only does Romney stand to profit from the outsourcing of these jobs to China through the stock he still owns in the company, his 2011 tax returns show that he got a huge tax break by moving Sensata stock to a charity organization he controls -- and that he continues to profit from Bain’s offshore holdings and tax avoidance strategies.
Sensata workers are certainly not alone watching their jobs sail off to China, or to have wealthy American businessmen profit by investing in those companies:
NYT:
The tale of Asimco Technologies, an auto parts manufacturer whose plants dot eastern China, would seem to underscore Mitt Romney’s campaign-trail complaint that China’s manufacturing juggernaut is costing America jobs.
Nine years ago, the company bought two camshaft factories that employed about 500 people in Michigan. By 2007 both were shut down. Now Asimco manufactures the same components in China on government-donated land in a coastal region that China has designated an export base, where companies are eligible for the sort of subsidies Mr. Romney says create an unfair trade imbalance.
But there is a twist to the Asimco story that would not fit neatly into a Romney stump speech: Since 2010, it has been owned by Bain Capital, the private equity firm founded by Mr. Romney, who has as much as $2.25 million invested in three Bain funds with large stakes in Asimco and at least seven other Chinese businesses, according to his 2012 candidate financial disclosure and other documents.
“How is it China’s been so successful in taking away our jobs?” he(Romney) asked recently. “Well, let me tell you how: by cheating.”
That was Mitt Romney the candidate for president. Mitt Romney the millionaire, or is it billionaire --trust him, you'll never know for certain -- that Mitt Romney is calling the American people "suckers."
Some day I would like to see people who do everything they can to avoid paying taxes ostracized as the unpatriotic, selfish, leeches they are.
