Debate Fact Check: Net Jobs and Obama on Iran
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, a private equity firm, came under scrutiny at Saturday night’s Republican debate, leading him to claim that he helped create 100,000 jobs, even when layoffs from downsized firms were factored in.
He has made the same claim in other places, as well, telling Time magazine last month that the job creation figure was “net-net.”
But the Romney campaign bases that 100,000 figure on the current employment of just three major companies that Bain Capital invested in during Mr. Romney’s tenure: Staples, Sports Authority and Domino’s Pizza.
In fact, documenting a “net” gain of 100,000 jobs — with layoffs at other companies included — is extremely difficult. Neither Bain Capital nor Mr. Romney is willing to disclose the number of layoffs at companies that Bain Capital has invested in.
At one such company, a medical diagnostics firm called Dade Behring, global employment grew over all during the years Bain was an investor in the 1990s, primarily from hiring abroad. But during that period, Dade’s United States employment fell by more than 1,700 jobs, as Bain Capital oversaw corporate mergers and plant closings.
(More here.)
Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, a private equity firm, came under scrutiny at Saturday night’s Republican debate, leading him to claim that he helped create 100,000 jobs, even when layoffs from downsized firms were factored in.
He has made the same claim in other places, as well, telling Time magazine last month that the job creation figure was “net-net.”
But the Romney campaign bases that 100,000 figure on the current employment of just three major companies that Bain Capital invested in during Mr. Romney’s tenure: Staples, Sports Authority and Domino’s Pizza.
In fact, documenting a “net” gain of 100,000 jobs — with layoffs at other companies included — is extremely difficult. Neither Bain Capital nor Mr. Romney is willing to disclose the number of layoffs at companies that Bain Capital has invested in.
At one such company, a medical diagnostics firm called Dade Behring, global employment grew over all during the years Bain was an investor in the 1990s, primarily from hiring abroad. But during that period, Dade’s United States employment fell by more than 1,700 jobs, as Bain Capital oversaw corporate mergers and plant closings.
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
The Jobs figure I addressed in a MN Political Roundtable commentary previously, so let's focus on the Iran statement.
ROMNEY : We have a nation, which is intent on becoming nuclear. Iran has pursued their -- their ambition without having crippling sanctions against them. The president was silent when over a million voices took to the streets in Iran. Voices he should have stood up for and said, we’re supporting you. And he’s -- and he’s failed to put together a plan to show Iran that we have the capacity to remove them militarily from their plans to have nuclear weaponry.
Yes, the FactCheck states what President Obama said, but more focus should be given to Romney's comment regarding sanctions as well as the failure to put up a plan.
Well ... so what's Romney's plan ?
Implement a Fifth Round of Tougher Sanctions:
Sanctions are not ends in themselves. They are intended to persuade Iran to change course and abandon its nuclear program. President Obama deserves credit for pushing for a fourth round of international sanctions on Iran early in his term, just as before him President Bush deserved credit for the three previous rounds. But time has shown that existing sanctions have not led the ayatollahs to abandon their nuclear aspirations. We therefore need to ratchet up our pressure on Iran with a fifth round of sanctions targeted at the financial resources that underpin the Iranian regime and its Revolutionary Guard Corps, focusing on restrictions on the Central Bank of Iran, as well as other financial institutions. We should place sanctions on all business activities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which include much of Iran’s petroleum industry. To stanch the flow of the petroleum commerce that supports the Iranian regime, we should pursue sanctions on firms that transport such products to and from Iran.
Ideally, these sanctions would be implemented through the U.N. Security Council, but persuading Russia and China to go along might prove impossible. In the absence of a U.N. imprimatur, the United States should be ready to take action in conjunction with as many willing governments as possible. And if necessary, we should be prepared to act on our own. To that end, Mitt Romney will step up enforcement of existing U.S. laws that bar commerce with Iran, such as the exportation of refined petroleum products to Iran.
This is from the Romney website with bolding added by me. So if I read this right, Romney praises Obama and then acknowledges that sanctions might be impossible to result in change.
Too bad, Newt Gingrich's comments were not reviewed ... he used a rather large gap to describe Pakistan's nuclear potential (between 1 and 200) but then said that if the Iranians shutdown the Strait, that the world economy would stop in 48 hours ...
Yep, Ron Paul nailed Gingrich ... chickenhawk.
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