Obama is lying through his teeth when he talks
about Romney outsourcing jobs while at Bain Capital.
Summary
Obama accuses Romney
in a series of TV ads of being a “corporate raider” who “shipped jobs to China
and Mexico,” asking if voters want to elect an “outsourcer in chief.” But some
of the claims in the ads are untrue, and others are thinly supported.
Bain Capital, the venture capital firm founded by Romney in
1984, is the focus of the Obama campaign’s attacks. There is no question that
Bain invested in some companies that helped other companies outsource work and
that some of that work went overseas. That was the core business for Modus
Media and SMTC Corp. — two outsource companies featured in a June 21 article in
the Washington Post that has been the basis of recent Obama TV
ads. Bain also invested in U.S.-based companies that sold goods manufactured
here and abroad, and some of those companies closed U.S. facilities and
eliminated U.S. jobs.
But after reviewing
numerous corporate filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, contemporary news accounts, company histories and press releases,
and the evidence offered by both the Obama and Romney campaigns, we found no evidence
to support the claim that Romney — while he was still running Bain Capital —
shipped American jobs overseas.
1. One TV ad, called “Come and Go,” claims that Romney “shipped
jobs to China and Mexico.” But two examples cited by the Obama campaign
occurred after Romney left Bain. There’s no clear evidence that a third company
shipped jobs to China under Romney.
2. A second ad called “Revealed” mocks Romney’s tough talk
about cracking down on China’s trade practices by saying “all he’s ever done is
send them our jobs” and citing the Washington Post article. But the
newspaper article contained no examples of U.S. jobs being shipped to China
while Romney was working at Bain.
3. The “Come and Go” ad casts Romney as a “corporate raider,”
but that term, loaded with negative connotations, is simply inaccurate. Bain
didn’t engage in hostile takeovers when Romney was at the helm.
4. That ad also repeats the claim that as governor of
Massachusetts, Romney was “outsourcing state jobs to India.” But it wasn’t the
state that outsourced contracts. Rather, Romney vetoed a measure that would
have prevented the state from doing business with a state contractor that was
locating state customer-service calls in India.
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