Another gem from Mother Jones:
In the clip below, Mitt Romney is describing the real reason for Bain. Not to act as a job creator like Romney often says, but to invest in other companies with the hopes that in five to eight years, Bain could “harvest” to make a profit.
I’ll let Romney explain in his own words:
Bain Capital is an investment partnership which was formed to invest in startup companies and ongoing companies, then to take an active hand in managing them and hopefully, five to eight years later, to harvest them at a significant profit…
Yes, we all know the real reason anyone goes into business is to make a profit. But if you listen to Mitt Romney on the campaign trail, he will have you believe that Bain existed for the sole purpose of creating jobs. Romney is often heard saying, “I know how to create jobs. I’ve done it before,” and he attacks the president, falsely stating that Mr. Obama’s policies “destroys jobs.”
We’ve seen ads from the Obama reelection team detailing companies that went bankrupt after they were bought by Bain, while Romney and his investors walked away with huge profits. Romney’s campaign usually respond by saying that Bain created more jobs than were lost. His campaign also points to Staples as their success story. But hearing Romney’s mission statement in the video, it seems that Staples’ success was in spite of Bain’s intervention, not because of it.
Here’s the video, filmed in 1985.
