Obama’s False Attacks

OBAMA MYTH: Destroying companies

REALITY: Governor Romney’s private sector
record is one of success and turnaround, despite many investments in
companies that were failing at the time.

Eighty percent of the companies Bain Capital has invested in from its
founding to today have grown revenues. When companies grow, they are
able to hire more workers and our economy grows.

Bain Capital pursued an investment strategy that often included
targeting companies in decline and trying to turn them around. In most
cases, it held the companies for many years and invested a significant
amount of human and financial capital into improving operations to help
revive these struggling companies.

When President Obama attacks Governor Romney’s record in the private
sector, he’s also attacking our country’s greatest engine for job
creation: the free enterprise system.

OBAMA MYTH: Rich businessmen profited most from the firm’s investments.

REALITY: The major investment beneficiaries
of Mitt Romney’s work in private equity – and private equity in general
– are the investors in the fund.

The investors include pension funds, charities, and universities. In
fact, over half the money invested in private equity is from pension
funds and charitable foundations alone. The success of private equity
investments helps provide secure retirements for seniors, allows
charities to serve their communities, and provides universities with the
resources they need to educate our youth.

In addition, state and local governments depend on higher returns
from private equity investments to fund employee retirements without
cutting into operating budgets. When investments don’t perform, state
and local governments must offset gaps in investment returns by using
tax dollars otherwise spent on local programs. In California, for
example, one study has shown that a 0.25% decrease in investment returns
could cost local municipalities and school districts $300 million per
year. That’s $300 million less being spent on vital local programs.

When private equity succeeds, it is not just companies that thrive --
it is retirees, charities, local communities, and universities that
benefit the most.

OBAMA MYTH: Bankrupting a successful steel mill in Kansas City, MO.

REALITY: The GS Technologies plant that
Barack Obama has used to attack Mitt Romney was scheduled to be closed
if Romney and his colleagues hadn’t bought the plant and tried to help
turn it around.

In 1993, GS Technologies, a company Bain Capital had invested in,
purchased a struggling Kansas City steel plant from Armco. Prior to this
investment, Armco announced plans to close the Kansas City plant if a
buyer could not be found.

This investment – and $170 million in upgrades – kept the Kansas City
plant competitive in a tough international market and saved the steel
workers’ jobs for eight years.

Two years after Mitt Romney left Bain Capital, the GS Technologies
plant was closed because of foreign steel dumping into the U.S. market.
Thirty-one other steel companies declared bankruptcy during the same
period.

During his three and a half years in office, President Obama has
consistently failed to take the steps necessary to protect American
manufacturing from unfairly-subsidized Chinese imports. On day one,
President Romney will designate China a currency manipulator and take
the steps necessary to make American manufacturing competitive again.

OBAMA MYTH: Shutting down a successful paper plant in Marion, IN.

REALITY: The paper plant in Marion, IN was losing money when Ampad bought it to try to turn it around.

In 1992, Bain Capital invested in American Paper & Pad, or
Ampad. Two years later – while Governor Romney was on a leave of
absence to run for U.S. Senate against the late Ted Kennedy – Ampad
purchased the assets of an unprofitable plant in Marion, Indiana from
Smith Corona.

This was not a healthy plant: In the year preceding Ampad’s purchase, the Marion plant lost more than $1.6 million dollars.

Though the Marion plant would later close, Ampad added nearly 2,500
jobs at other plants between Bain Capital’s initial investment and the
sale of its majority interest. During this same period, revenues grew
dramatically from $8.8 million to more than $580 million.

OBAMA MYTH: A “Corporate Raider”

FACT: Even President Obama’s supporters acknowledge
this isn’t true. Steve Rattner, President Obama’s former car czar, said
that Governor Romney was the “furthest thing” from a corporate raider.
Governor Deval Patrick rejected the characterization of Bain Capital as a
raider and said that Bain was a “perfectly fine company” with “a role
in the private economy.” The truth is that Governor Romney wasn’t
tearing down companies; he was building up strong companies like
Staples, Sports Authority, Steel Dynamics, and Bright Horizons. This
accusation is yet another failed attempt to smear Governor Romney’s
“sterling” private sector record, and even President Obama’s supporters
reject it.

OBAMA MYTH: Shipping Jobs Overseas

FACT: Under Governor Romney’s leadership, Bain
Capital invested in over 100 companies. Of those, President Obama’s
campaign has accused three of shipping jobs overseas. In two of these
cases, the accusations are related to events that occurred in 2000 and
2001, well after Governor Romney left Bain Capital in February 1999 to
lead the Winter Olympics. In the third case, the share of domestic
production actually increased, not decreased, during the time the Obama
campaign points to. This attack is merely an attempt to distract voters
from President Obama’s failed economic record and his refusal to stand
up to China’s unfair trade practices.

OBAMA MYTH: Closing Stores And Laying Off Employees

FACT: Under Bain Capital’s ownership, Stage Stores
doubled the number of employees and doubled the number of stores. During
this time, Stage Stores added locations in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin,
and Iowa. Bain Capital sold its controlling interest in the company in
1997. Years later, Stage Stores filed for bankruptcy, but today it is a
healthy business with 14,000 employees and hundreds of new stores
nationwide.