Food stamp king, jobs footman

Since January 2009, a net of 194,000 new jobs have been created. During that same time, 14.7 million have been added to the food stamp rolls.

Did Romney and Bain Capital create jobs?

Many,  many thousands at Staples, Sports Authority, Gartner Group, Steel Dynamics, and save others by creating turn arounds.  Now let’s compare those tens of thousands of jobs created with how many Barack Obama’s administration has created by frivolously throwing tax dollars at campaign contributors and union buddies.

“There are two ways to look at job creation. The first is to look at jobs created and lost in Bain Capital’s companies at the time Romney left Bain Capital at the beginning of 1999. The second is to look at jobs created and lost in those same companies today. This gives Romney and Bain Capital credit for having invested in those companies when they were young. It is inappropriate to include companies that Bain Capital invested in after Romney left because he did not have any impact on those investments.” . . .

“Among Bain Capital’s investments under Romney, the large job creators are clearly Staples and Sports Authority. Both of these were small, young companies when Bain Capital invested in them. Bain invested in Staples when it had only one store, so there were likely fewer than 200 employees at the time. Bain appears to have invested in the Sports Authority when it had fewer than ten stores. Unfortunately, there are no public data to say how many people were employed at that time. At the end of 1998, Staples had more than 42,000 employees, Sports Authority had almost 14,000, Gartner Group had almost 3,000, and Steel Dynamics had over 500. So at the beginning of 1999, when Romney left Bain Capital, these four companies alone employed almost 60,000 total employees. While some of the job growth at Sports Authority came from acquisitions, there is no doubt that these four companies created tens of thousands of jobs over the period.

Fast forward to today. By the end of 2011, Staples had about 89,000 employees. Sports Authority is now a private company. The last time it reported employee numbers, in 2006, it had 14,300 employees. In addition, Gartner Group had over 4,400 and Steel Dynamics had over 6,000 employees. Using the most recently available data, these four companies alone employed almost 125,000 total employees.

Bain Capital also successfully turned around several existing businesses during Romney’s tenure. For example, Bain Capital bought Wesley Jessen Vision Care for $6 million in 1994. It had been a division of Schering Plough and was not profitable. Bain Capital and a new CEO turned it around and sold it to Ciba Geigy for over $300 million in 2001. When it was sold, it appears to have had 2,600 employees. Today, the company is part of Ciba Vision.

Overall, then, the companies Bain Capital funded under Romney have created tens of thousands of jobs using any measure.”
http://www.american.com/archive/2012/january/how-many-jobs-did-romney-create-at-bain

You wanted it; now own it!

Aren't we all just so sick of the whining, apologies, snipes and darts of this current administration? Is it the victim mentality we've become accustomed to? Blame the other guy? Bush inherited a mess too; he got a technology bust and I'll show you my old accounts from 2000 in case you're too young to remember. He got one heck of some bad intelligence reports, at least according to the Congressional investigations after the fact, after all the warnings of the late Clinton years about WMD and the dangers of Saddam. I don't ever recall hearing Bush blame Clinton for anything. Yes, the talkers, bloggers and media did, but President Bush was, well, Presidential. He followed the tradition, which he continues to follow, of not criticizing former presidents, not besmirching the reputation of the other guy, knowing someday he would be yesterday's news. I think Al Gore started it, even though he was never President. He thought he should have been and opened the door.

Today we hear Biden making excuses for the non-stimulating stimulus. He just might be an old Democrat who believes Obama's handlers had some intention to save the economy, rather than just use it as an opportunity to float his own agenda. Maybe if he'd been serious, we would have seen some action. We have the 1930s as a template. Both Hoover and Roosevelt made things worse with their meddling, but FDR contributed most by trying to change society rather than the economy.

Here's the nonsense on "Organizing for America" Obama's personal song of glory on the internet:

President Obama inherited a terrible mess: a $1.3 trillion deficit, two wars, rising unemployment and unprecedented crises in our banking system. The Obama Administration has worked tirelessly to address our immediate problems of rising unemployment, falling home prices and limping credit markets, while taking a longer view in laying a strong foundation for future economic growth that benefits all Americans. We are fighting for economic recovery on all fronts.

He probably doesn't write this any more than his speeches, but he knows that "fighting for economic recovery" is total nonsense. You don't burden the country with cap and trade or government trillions for health care when only 10% need it, if you are serious about restoring the economy!

But Bush did have one advantage Obama will never have. A vigilant, critical press and media. We may not even have a media by the end of Obama's terms. You couldn't miss a single mistake or thought or vacation of Bush. And it was always wrong. Poor Bo. Think what he could have accomplished if he just believed in us.