How Freeport Became Bainport, Thanks to Mitt Romney, Bain Capital and
China
Thanks to Bishop Willard Mitt Romney and Bain Capital, you can watch a Chinese flag flying in
Freeport, Illinois, replacing an American flag that was taken down before the
job outsourcers arrived. You can see the Chinese flag at 1:09-1:12 in the video
below.
Freeport, Illinois is the site of one of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates. At
that time the nation was engaged in a national debate about the rights of
slaves. The "free" in Freeport might have appealed to Abraham Lincoln as he
strode to the podium, seeming like an omen that he was on the right path.
But today citizens of Freeport have suggested that its name should be changed to Bainport, because they feel they and their jobs were sold out to China by Bain
Capital and Mitt Romney. They carry signs that say things like "Romney has a
jobs plan ... too bad it’s for China." Freeport is only 65 miles from Paul Ryan’s
hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin. Like Myth Romney, Lyin' Ryan loves to talk tough about China. But
his boss is "the man" when it comes to liquidating American factories and
outsourcing the jobs of American workers to China.
Ironically, Romney recently visited Janesville and talked about how jobs were
his top priority — at the same time Freeport workers were being instructed to
train their Chinese replacements!
Bain has quite understandably declined to comment. But Bain has made lots of
money by owning Sensata Technologies, the owner of the shuttered factory,
quadrupling its initial 2006 investment in six short years. Workers insist that
the factory is profitable and makes top quality auto sensors. "I understand
business needs to make a profit. But this product has always made a ton of
money. It's just that they think it is not enough money. They are greedy," said
Tom Gaulraupp, who has put in 33 years at the plant and now faces the prospect
of becoming jobless at the age of 54.
According to Freeport workers who wrote a group letter to Romney, "The worst
indignity is that many of us are being asked to train the Chinese workers who
are taking our jobs." One of them, Cheryl Randecker, said, "This just adds insult to injury.
They’re going to be here three months and they’re not going to leave knowing
everything they need to know." It appears that Romney and Bain are not only
outsourcing American jobs to China, but American technology and know-how as
well. The plant's machinery is being disassembled and shipped to China.
"I didn't have a clue what Bain was before this happened," said Randecker, "Now
when I hear Romney speak it makes me sick to my stomach."
To add further insult to injury, Bain's underlings actually took down the factory's American
flag and put up a Chinese flag, before the job outsourcers arrived. Sensata
spokesman Jacob Sayer acknowledged that the decision to shift production to
China was "an unfortunately event" for Freeport and said that he understands why
it could be "difficult" for the workers to train their replacements. He claimed
to have no idea why the American flag was removed before the Chinese engineers
and technicians arrived, but that seems like an act of obvious deference, and
hard to jibe with Romney's and Ryan's purported tough stance toward China.
Being told to train his replacement was humiliating and surreal, but Tom
Gaulrapp said the worst part was when the plant’s American
flag was taken down before the Chinese engineers arrived. Gaulrapp
decided it was time to take a stand against outsourcing, and the man he blames
for the loss of his job is Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who
founded Bain Capital. Romney’s ties to Bain Capital have burdened the Republican
nominee’s hopes of winning the November 6 election, as Democrats unfavorably
portray him as a money-mad corporate raider who pioneered the outsourcing of
American jobs to countries with lower labor costs.
Freeport Mayor George Gaulrapp, no relation to Tom, says, "You can’t keep
sending your jobs offshore and still have a middle class ... This company is
competitive globally. They make a profit here. But Bain Capital decided to
squeeze it a little further. That is not what capitalism is meant to be about."
Dot Turner, who joined the firm when she was 18 and put in 43 years on the
factory floor, has suddenly found her long-cherished retirement plans thrown
into disarray. She is 62 and knows that finding another job will be tough.
According to her, "When Romney talks about creating jobs, it is just a big fairy
tale."
Romney claims that Bain "created jobs" and is a model for the American future.
That argument stuns Illinois governor Pat Quinn: "If he thinks that is the model
for American economic growth then he is barking up the wrong tree," Quinn told
The Guardian.
Bonnie Borman and other victims of Bain and Mitt Romney have watched their plant
being dismantled and shipped to China, piece by piece, while they show teams of
Chinese workers how to do their jobs. "It's not easy to get up in the morning,
training them to do your job so that you can be made unemployed," said Borman, a
mother of three who has worked for 23 years at the Sensata auto sensors plant.
Romney claims he knows nothing about this. But the New York Times
explains that Romney "owns about $8 million worth of Bain funds that hold 51
percent of Sensata’s shares. If Sensata saves money by closing the Freeport
plant, that could add money to Mr. Romney’s trust accounts, now or after the
election."
Tom Gaulrapp in a letter to the Freeport Journal Standard said: "We
presented [Republican representatives] with over 1,000 local petition signatures
urging them to support a simple piece of legislation called “The Bring Jobs Home
Act,” which would revoke tax incentives for businesses who outsource jobs to
other countries and provide tax incentives for those businesses which bring jobs
back to America. We, frankly couldn’t, and still can’t, fathom how anybody could
be against this piece of legislation ... However, we were dismayed when the
Speaker of the House refused to allow the bill to even be debated on the house
floor and the House Republicans effectively killed the legislation ... I have
given 33 years of my life to the company and my American Dream has been
destroyed."
"It is kind of like part of your family being shipped out. I worked with that
stuff for years. Now there's nothing left but a discoloration on the floor where
the equipment used to sit," Gaulrapp said.
About 35 minutes into the first presidential debate, President Obama launched into a
discussion of corporate taxes: "Right now, you can actually take a deduction for
moving a plant overseas. I think most Americans would say that doesn’t make
sense."
Amazingly, Romney pretended not to know anything about American companies taking
such deductions, although under his direction Bain Capital was a pioneer of such
"savings."
The Nation refuted Romney, saying: "That’s not actually a debatable point. The US tax code
has, since the 1980s, provided multinational corporations with tax breaks for
moving jobs overseas. Democrats and Republicans have talked for years about
changing the code. The issue was debated in the Senate as recently as July, when
Republicans blocked action on the 'Bring Jobs Home Act,' which would have
provided a 20 percent tax break for the costs of moving jobs back to the United
States. That measure would, as well, have rescinded business expense deductions
that CNN notes are now 'available to companies that are associated with the cost
of moving operations overseas.' For Romney, whose debate performance was not
encumbered by facts, those details were of no consequence. Capitalizing on the
post-truth moment in which he found himself, Romney turned the entire discussion
on its head and suggested that Obama was making things up. '[You] said you get a
deduction for taking a plant overseas,' the Republican said to the Democrat.
'Look, I’ve been in business for twenty-five years. I have no idea what you’re
talking about. I maybe need to get a new accountant. But—but the idea that you
get a break for shipping jobs overseas is simply not the case.' That’s just
wrong. It is the case.
And it is unimaginable that anyone who made a fortune with a company that, in
the words of The Washington Post, “invested in a series of firms that
specialized in relocating jobs done by American workers to new facilities in
low-wage countries like China and India” would be unaware of the tax breaks for
firms that, um, relocate jobs. Just as it is unimaginable that anyone who has
been involved in American politics over the past two decades could be unaware of
an issue that the US Senate has debated, that party platforms have discussed and
that voters in swing states such as Ohio and Wisconsin take very seriously.
Romney’s recently released tax returns made it clear that he and his accountant
are quite familiar with navigating the tax code. Romney should know that the law
currently allows a company that closes its American plant and moves
manufacturing operations overseas to deduct that moving expense. The New York
Times says, "It is true."
Reuters writes that there really are "deductions
allowed for a company if it closes its plant in the United States and moves it
to another country.” The conservative Boston Herald declared
Romney's statement a "huge gaffe."
Even Fox News’s fact check admits that US companies "can claim a deduction
for the costs associated with moving jobs overseas." The only real question is
why Republicans
recently blocked a Democratic bill that would have provided a tax credit to
companies that move jobs back to the United States and ended tax breaks for
companies moving operations overseas.
The Boston Herald called this a "huge gaffe," saying that
Romney's "implication was clear: I ought to know. Experts tell the
Herald that many
corporate relocation expenses are tax-deductible and companies can take the
deductions whether they move a plant overseas or just to a neighboring state ...
One thing is clear from the Romney tax returns that have been made public. The
former Bay State governor’s accountant is very familiar with legal ways to
aggressively minimize his taxes, so despite the president’s skepticism last
night, maybe Romney can find trillions in tax loopholes — even if he says he
couldn’t find this one."
Obama made the issue a central theme of his
post-debate speech to more than 30,000 backers on the University of Wisconsin
campus in Madison. Recalling Romney’ record as a Bain Capitalist, Obama said,
"The Mitt Romney we all know invested in companies that were called pioneers of
outsourcing jobs to other countries. But the guy on stage last night he said
he’d never heard of tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. Never
heard of them. And he said, if that’s true, he must need a new accountant. So
now we know for sure that wasn’t the real Mitt Romney because the real Mitt
Romney is doing just fine with the accountant he already has. The man on stage
last night: he does not want to be held accountable for the real Mitt Romney."
Utah
Senator Orrin Hatch was among the Republicans who spoke against the bill:
"... there has always been a deduction allowed for a business’s ordinary and
necessary expenses — and expenses associated with moving have always been
regarded as deductible business expenses. So allowing a deduction for these
expenses is not the special thing. It is the rule."
Senate Republicans blocked the Democrat-led "Bring Jobs Home Act." Why?
"Unfortunately, there's a constituency in
Congress that supports tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas," White
House Press Secretary Jay Carney lamented shortly before the legislation died,
in response to a question about why, three-and-a-half years after Obama's
election, the president hadn't made good on his campaign promise.
It seems Romney, Ryan and the Republican are pro-China and anti-American-worker
to such an extent that they "talk the talk" but never "walk the walk" when
American jobs are at stake. Immoral Aid?
As Hurricane Sandy threatens 50 million American with devastating floods, I am
reminded of Mitt Romney's statement that it is "immoral" to borrow money to help
flood victims. Romney, a former Mormon Bishop and therefore someone who should
presumably understand the term, didn't call it "immoral" for the federal
government to borrow billions to bail out the Olympic games, or his rich Wall
Street cronies. He obviously doesn't consider it "immoral" to borrow the better
part of $7 trillion dollars to rescue the super-rich and increase defense
spending for things the Pentagon hasn't even requested. According to Bishop
Romney, it seems the only people it's "immoral" to
help are the 47% of Americans who need help the most, including flood victims,
distressed auto workers, and poor girls and women who need Planned Parenthood’s
help with contraceptives, family planning and preventive healthcare.