"I like Being Able to Fire People" Mitt Romney
Rivals Jump on Romney's Fire Comment
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney drew fire from his Republican opponents because of the statement he made saying "I like firing people." In order to understand that statement, you have to place that statement in its proper context. When making that statement, Romney was making reference to insurance companies. Romney was stating that he likes to fire people who don't provide services that would be satisfactory to him. I feel the same way. If I wasn't satisified with the coverage of my own health insurance from Company "A", for example, then I would stop conducting business with them and go to Company "X" or whomever provides health insurance. Just because I do business with somebody, it doesn't mean I will perpetually do business with them. If a particular business doesn't satisfy me with the service they provide me, then I'll "fire" them and find another provider. That's part of the free market. There was nothing wrong with the statement Mitt Romney made.
Consequently, Romney's Republican opponents such as Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, and Rick Perry have been taking Romney to task over those comments. They're acting like political opportunists, even though they don't have much of a chance in securing the GOP nomination. It's ridiculous. Jared Law, who writes articles for the 9/12 Project Network, said it appears that Gingrich, Huntsman, and Perry are all working for Obama's re-election campaign. Maybe they are. You never know. This presidential race is a joke anyway. Even Rush Limbaugh said it sounds like Newt is using left-wing social engineering. Gingrich knows better. These internal political attacks against Romney for his business ventures from his GOP opponents is ludicrous. I guarantee you President Obama will probably use that line off the GOP playbook when he faces Mitt Romney in the Fall.
Mitt Romney has been questioned by his Republican rivals over how successful he really has been in turning small businesses into major job-creating enterprises. Romney was a venture capitalist from Bain Capital, who invested money into tiny businesses, which grew over time. Some of the companies Romney invested in that grew into large enterprises are Dominoes Pizza, Staples, Sealy, Sports Authority, Dunkin' Donuts, Burger King, and the list continues. There also have been businesses that Bain invested capital into have failed as well. That's a part of capitalism. There are times when a venture capitalist will take a risk investing in some company that doesn't survive. In a capitalistic economy, some businesses will succeed and others will fail. That's part of the free market. Newt has been alleging that Romney chose business investments that failed and in turn profited handsomely from them such as the case with a Kansas City steel mill which failed. In other words, Gingrich was saying that Romney was a predatory capitalist who is out to destroy capitalism, which isn't accurate. "You would certainly have to say that Bain, at times, engaged in behavior where they looted a company, leaving behind 1700 unemployed people," Mr. Gingrich said during Sunday's January 8th candidate debate on "Meet the Press." It's ironic that Gingrich would make such a statement when you consider he profited from Freddie Mac, the federally-funded home mortgage giant who was bailed out by taxpayers to the tune of $153 billion. Newt Gingrich was paid nearly $2 million by Freddie Mac. What a hypocrite! When Freddie Mac was going bankrupt, Gingrich was profiting handsomely from the failing mortgage giant. Gingrich was a lobbyist for Freddie Mac who was trying to connect the agency with key members of Congress to protect the home loan mortgage giant.
For 25 years, Romney pursued a very successful career in business before plunging into politics. He pooled venture capital into the private sector. There's nothing wrong or illegal about that. Some of them failed and some of them succeeded. Newt Gingrich doesn't have a leg to stand on criticizing Romney. One thing that is apparent is that Romney knew how to invest in business. When you engage in venture capitalism, there is an element of risk to it, which is part of capital investment.
Some of the information I obtained was from the headline from the Washington Times. The headline was Romney Rivals Sound Like Democrats. The link I posted to this blog is from the Huffington Post. You can click on the above link to read that story.
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