The Real Mitt Romney

After seeing the success of the right wing propaganda movie “Obama 2016” which is based on very little facts but instead a look at what he might do according to the uber conservative director I thought I would look at who the real Mitt Romney is, not based on imagination but based on his real history.

　

1. MILITARY SERVICE

Lets start with his military service or lack there of, he was called to service four times during the Vietnam war but chose not to go fight for his country by either claiming school studies or ministry service in France. When asked about it in 2007 he wished he had served saying

“I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there, and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam.”

While it sounds good it is a far cry from what he stated in 1994 when his response was to the Boston Herald with

“It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam, but nor did I take any actions to remove myself from the pool of young men who were eligible for the draft,” Romney told the newspaper.

This last statement is a flat out lie as the man got not one but four deferments to avoid service. He follows in a long history of Republicans running for office who support war while avoiding service themselves. Unlike most others though he protested in favor of the war he would not fight in. This man wants to be in charge of the largest military in the world and make it even bigger, even beating the war drums with Iran.

　

2. BUSINESS

His business career can be summed up as profit at all costs. While he claims to have left Bain Capital in 1999 he filed as the sole owner until 2002 with the SEC and had a large salary of over 100,000 a year until then so we will go with the SEC facts not Romney’s word.

While at Bain Mr. Romney bought Damon , while being at top executive and financial officer the company was making profits, in 1993 the company was bought by Corning and they immediately spotted a fraud. Turns out that while under the rule of Romney Damon was running a Medicare fraud and charging for tests they did not run. Mitt Romney originally claimed he was a proactive board member who helped uncover the fraud and took corrective actions to stop it. Court records released by the Globe show a different story and reveal that the fraud occurred right up to the time Bain sold the company to Corning and prosecutors gave sole credit to Corning for cleaning up the Fraud. Romney later admitted that the board did not report to federal investigators the findings from the alleged internal inquiry (which sounds like he’s admitting knowing about it but not reporting it). The company was fined over 100 million dollars.

While Mitt originally was pro choice he changed his stance while Governor of Mass to be pro life, this wouldn’t be a big story because people change their minds all the time but a story in Mother Jones makes this a big story. Now this depends on if you believe the words out of Mr. Romney’s mouth or the truth, In 1999 Bain Capital invested in a company called Stericycle which made money in medical waste disposal. Again not a big story except the company collected from family planning clinics which included aborted fetuses, so the pro life Romney is against abortion but all for making money off of it?

In the 2000’s Bain invested in many companies that outsourced jobs to China and India, Mitt claimed he left in 1999 and had nothing to do with that (even though his government filings say different) but even if you believe that story the facts again get in the way. While on the campaign trail he attacked China for stealing American jobs but on April 17,1998 a Bain affiliate filed a report with the SEC that it had acquired part of Hong Kong based Gobal Tech Appliances which makes household appliances in China. Mitt Romney was identified as the person in control of the investment and “sole shareholder”. According to Mother Jones the firm publicly acknowledged that it’s strategy was to profit from US companies outsourcing production abroad. So his denial of being involved in outsourcing is again a flat out lie.

Won’t even get into the FDIC 10 million in debt forgiveness that kept Bain from going bankrupt but what is obvious is every chance Mitt Romney had to make the choice between his morals and profit he always chose profit.

　

3. OLYMPICS

We often hear “Mitt Romney saved the Olympics”, first off you have to accept that the Olympics where in great danger at the time and needed saving. One of the first things Mr. Romney did was to register as a lobbyist and head to Washington for a bailout. As a registered lobbyist he brought in 1.3 billion dollars to help get the games back on track, it is still a record for government spending on the Olympics more then doubling the 600 million on the 96 Atlanta Olympics.

John McCain called complained at the time calling the federal spending “incredible pork-barrel project” a “rip-off to taxpayers” and even called for a federal investigation. The Salt Lake City Council insisted the federal funds went to legitimate purposes but also added the Olympics where an excuse to get a lot of things done for the city including new roads and bridges.

Sports Illustrated documented “shady” spending including a bridges to nowhere, a millionaire receiving cast to build a road and a billionaire ski resort owner got federal assistance to buy public land. He ended his lobbying career only after a second bribery-style Olympic scandal surfaced showing politicians where offered free tickets to events.

So did Romney “save” the Olympics? I would say no, the taxpayers saved the Olympics and we will never know how much Mr. Romney paid himself as a lobbyist since several of the financial documents have been destroyed.

4. SECRETS

The final thing is the fact that Mr. Romney will reveal nothing to the public, from his tax records which may hide a felony to his time as Governor when as they were leaving they took the hard drives with them hiding all the work that was done. Recently we found out that a lot of the financial and other records from the 2002 Olympics that Mr. Romney “saved” have been destroyed. While every candidate before him has released the names of their big money donors Willard Mitt Romney still refuses to tell us who is bundling money for him, is he doing this so he can give them all favors and jobs if he is elected and people won’t know it’s payback for bribes? What is this man hiding? He is the most secretive candidate in history and makes Richard Nixon seem open and honest.