2012 Election Thread (probably contains partisan bickering)

[pioneer98]

I realize Romney is now completely separated from Bain, but Bain continues to off-shore factories to China even this year. Close to home, too.

Illinois city calls on Romney to stop Bain-owned company from off-shoring 170 local jobs

The city council of Freeport, Ill., approved a resolution Monday evening that will call on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to step in and save roughly 170 local jobs being outsourced by a company owned by Bain Capital.

Last year, Massachusetts-based Sensata Technologies announced that it was closing its Freeport plant by the end of 2012 and shipping the jobs to China. The U.S. positions, the company claimed, would be phased out gradually. Sensata Technologies makes sensors and controls that are used in aircraft and automobiles.

The resolution organized by Sensata employees calls on Romney -- who co-founded Bain -- to "come to Freeport to meet the people directly affected by Bain Capital's outsourcing and to step in and stop the outsourcing of these jobs from Freeport to China."

Rep. Bobby Schilling (R-Ill.) currently represents Freeport, and after redistricting goes into effect, the new congressman will be Rep. Don Manzullo (R-Ill.). Both lawmakers wrote to Sensata CEO Tom Wroe on July 6, urging him to keep the jobs in the U.S.

"I appreciate your comments regarding understanding the competitive pressure facing companies in today's global marketplace and I assure you that we strive to balance our duty to our shareholders with our duty as corporate citizens, just as you strive to balance the interests of your local constituents with that which is best for our country," responded Wroe. "Closing the Freeport facility is the right strategy for our business in order to deliver value to our shareholders and to support our global customers."

Neither Schilling nor Manzullo responded to comment on the Freeport resolution involving Romney.

Romney may not be entirely clean on this deal.
Romney avoided major tax hit by shifting stock of offshoring firm

Mitt Romney saved himself hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes in 2010 by transferring stock in two companies from his personal account to a nonprofit entity he set up. The stock maneuver included $172,397 in shares of Sensata Technologies, a company now under fire for a high-profile effort to offshore central Illinois jobs to China.

Sensata produces sensors, switches and various mechanical controls. The Attleboro, Mass.-based company is owned by Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney founded, and it already does most of its work in overseas plants. A remaining factory in Freeport, Ill., garnered national attention when remaining workers began pleading with Romney to exercise his influence over Bain Capital to save their jobs.

Romney had received the Sensata stock as part of a Bain payout; he listed no cost for it on his tax return. By transferring that stock to his nonprofit Tyler Charitable Foundation, he avoided roughly $25,000 in capital gains taxes he would have owed. He also shaved an additional $50,000 off his tax bill by deducting the charitable contribution from his income.

[greenback44]

It's generally bad news when Michelle Leder mentions you or your company:

We haven’t actually printed this out, but the footnote appears to take up a chunk of a single page on pg. 54, which, trust us, is long for a single footnote. That it’s part of a normally routine disclosure known as Item 12: Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management makes it even more unusual. The footnote tries to explain the 4.7 million shares of Domino’s owned by Bain Capital Funds. (For more details on Bain’s connection to Domino’s, this Boston Globe story is a good primer). Here’s the footnote in its entirety:

Consists of (i) 1,849,036 shares of Class A-1 Common Stock owned by
Bain Capital Fund VI, L.P. (“Fund VI”), whose sole general partner is
Bain Capital Partners VI, L.P., whose sole general partner is Bain
Capital Investors VI, Inc., a Delaware corporation wholly owned by W.
Mitt Romney, (ii) 2,104,694 shares of Class A-1 Common Stock owned by
Bain Capital VI Coinvestment Fund (“Coinvest Fund”), whose sole general
partner is Bain Capital Partners VI, L.P., whose sole general partner
is Bain Capital Investors VI, Inc., a Delaware corporation wholly owned
by W. Mitt Romney, (iii) 96,419 shares of Class A-1 Common Stock owned
by Sankaty High Yield Asset Partners, L.P. (“Sankaty”), whose sole
general partner is Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors, LLC, whose
managing member is Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors, Ltd., a Bermuda
corporation wholly owned by W. Mitt Romney, (iv) 385,675 shares of
Class A-1 Common Stock owned by Brookside Capital Partners Fund, L.P.
(“Brookside”), whose sole general partner is Brookside Capital
Investors, L.P., whose sole general partner is Brookside Capital
Investors, Inc., a Delaware corporation wholly owned by W. Mitt Romney,
(v) 6,164 shares of Class A-1 Common Stock owned by PEP Investments PTY
Ltd. (“PEP”), whose controlling persons are Timothy J. Sims, Richard J.
Gardell, Simon D. Pillar and Paul J. McCullagh, (vi) 161,215 shares of
Class A-1 Common Stock owned by BCIP Associates II (“BCIP II”), whose
managing partner is Bain Capital, Inc., a Delaware corporation wholly
owned by W. Mitt Romney, (vii) 34,702 shares of Class A-1 Common Stock
owned by BCIP Trust Associates II, L.P.(“BCIP Trust II”), whose general
partner is Bain Capital, Inc., a Delaware corporation wholly owned by
W. Mitt Romney, (viii) 26,043 shares of Class A-1 Common Stock owned by
BCIP Associates II-B (“BCIP II-B”), whose managing partner is Bain
Capital, Inc., a Delaware corporation wholly owned by W. Mitt Romney,
(ix) 10,221 shares of Class A-1 Common Stock owned by BCIP Trust
Associates II-B, L.P. (“BCIP Trust II-B”), whose general partner is
Bain Capital, Inc., a Delaware corporation wholly owned by W. Mitt
Romney, and (x) 50,349 shares of Class A-1 Common Stock owned by BCIP
Associates II-C (“BCIP II-C” and collectively with BCIP II, BCIP Trust
II, BCIP II-B and BCIP Trust II-B, the “BCIPs” and the BCIPs, Fund VI,
Coinvest Fund, Sankaty, Brookside and PEP, collectively, the “Bain
Capital funds”), whose managing partner is Bain Capital, Inc., a
Delaware corporation wholly owned by W. Mitt Romney.

By our count, there’s just shy of 20 different entities described in that footnote, with Romney listed as the “sole owner” of most of the underlying companies, which makes it one of the more complicated footnotes we’ve come across. It may not be quite as complicated as Enron’s now infamous footnote 16 from 2000 (see the heading Related Party Transactions). But to paraphrase Charlotte the spider, that’s some footnote.

http://www.footnoted.com/disclosure-dev ... -footnote/

[Socnorb11]

Can someone explain to me what that means, and why (if) it's bad for Romney?

[slide_into_first]

Can someone explain to me what that means, and why (if) it's bad for Romney?

ask greenback

[greenback44]

Can someone explain to me what that means, and why (if) it's bad for Romney?

It means Romney has setup an enormously complex web of subsidiaries; generally stuff like that is done to manage tax obligations in some way. I don't know that it's bad for Romney, since Americans tend to get bored whenever anyone gets into the gory details of tax manipulation ("Romney taxes = Obama birth certificate"), but it's probably a good example of the kind of valued-added created by a Bain Capital takeover.

[MrSaigon]

You know what's horrible? Doonesbury. It's been on the cover of the Sunday comics here for a year or so. It's never funny, and I always have a hard time with the shortsightedness of political 'comedy' that can only sniff one shade of BS. Seriously, why does Doonesbury get to be someone's job? I could do this [expletive]. Anyone here could.

[slide_into_first]

I am not sure obama can turn this to his advantage- if mitt did nothing illegal, he will say he is better able to turn around the economy, which he's not but people who think Obama had enough time to turn it around and failed will believe Romney.

[Hungary Jack]

Can someone explain to me what that means, and why (if) it's bad for Romney?

It means Romney has setup an enormously complex web of subsidiaries; generally stuff like that is done to manage tax obligations in some way. I don't know that it's bad for Romney, since Americans tend to get bored whenever anyone gets into the gory details of tax manipulation ("Romney taxes = Obama birth certificate"), but it's probably a good example of the kind of valued-added created by a Bain Capital takeover.

Sorry, but I don't see the enormous complexity of this structure. Corporations reside in Delaware because of favorable liability laws.

I would never argue that Romney, or most wealthy people, do not try to game the tax system. It's human nature to try to keep more coconuts for yourself. Our tax laws encourage it.

But Mittster's effective tax rate was darn near 15%, which is pretty consistent with someone who is independently wealthy, not drawing a salary, and living primarily off capital gains. I am sure he has figured out to take his income as capital gains rather than investment income, especially with yields so low and the tax laws favoring capital gains so strongly. When you are worth $200+M, you can sell $1M worth of your portfolio, and net near $800k (assuming state taxes of 5%), which is probably what Romney is doing.

I am not surprised that no one here called out Obama for his utterly ridiculous and repugnant comments on the government's role in job creation and entrepreneurship. What an asinine thing to do say. Hopefully he really does not believe it.

[lukethedrifter]

Saying that entrepreneurs succeed within some real context is repugnant? Call me a Communist then.

[slide_into_first]

If the Republicans get the White House and retain their control of Congress, the terrorists will have won. Despite Obama being a numb nuts corporate puppet, he is the lesser of two evils. So I don't care what idiotic things he says.