Politifact: Mitt Romney’s companies sent jobs overseas (Greg Sargent, The Plum Line, WP)

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/politifact-mitt-romneys-companies-sent-jobs-overseas/2012/07/16/gJQAuttmoW_blog.html


“Mitt Romney’s companies sent jobs overseas.”

Is that statement true or false?

It passed mostly unnoticed, but on Friday, a well-respected fact-checking organization — one cited by the Romney campaign itself on occasion — essentially agreed that this is a defensible assertion.

In its Friday piece, Politifact gave a “half true” rating to the following Obama campaign claim: “Mitt Romney’s companies were pioneers in outsourcing U.S. jobs to low-wage countries.” But if you dig deep into the piece, you find that the main reason for the “half” true rating was the Obama camp’s claim that Romney’s companies “pioneered” this practice. Politifact disagreed with that.

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[RedStateLiberal]

1. So PolitiFact confirms Rmoney's post 1999 Bain record is fair game.

Good. Glad to see at least one "fact-checker" getting something right.

[Igel]

2. Fair game, but trivially so.

Romney owned Bain, so he owned the companies on the behalf of investors (he was one). But he didn't manage Bain, so he wasn't responsible for the actual decisions made.

On the other hand, the companies held, in whole or in part, by Bain did what most others did, and what was necessary to make the companies profitable. Romney and investors that provided the cash for the companies would assume they'd offshore because that was SOP at the time. So he knew what would happen and assumed it would happen, making his direct input redundant. But what would happen was a direct result of being in the business, picking those companies or hiring the people who would pick the companies and manage them.

So, yeah, it's right. But the conclusion that it's because Romney was a CEO and actively managing Bain isn't entailed. And it risks making every pension fund and investor equally culpable, at least in (D) rhetoric, for such decisions. They know they're not.

[RedStateLiberal]

3. Well I disagree with them if they think it's trivial.

Whether he was actively managing or not, he signed documents that show him as CEO, chairman of the board, president, and sole stockholder of Bain so he's responsible for what the company did until he was no longer legally responsible.

I am confused why the so-called "fact checkers" are trying to nuance this point so much. Seems obvious to me but I no longer trust PolitiFact or FactCheck.org unless I can verify their claims elsewhere.

[LiberalFighter]

4. Romney is also responsible because he created Bain for that purpose.

That is the mission of the company.