Perry Lambasts Romney For Handing Out Pink Slips
EmailANDERSON, S.C. – Texas Gov. Rick Perry picked up the attacks on Mitt Romney this morning, trying to capitalize off the former Bain Capital executive’s comment that he once feared getting a pink slip.
“Now I have no doubt that Mitt Romney was worried about pink slips — whether he was going to have enough of them to hand out because his company Bain Capital with all the jobs that they killed, I’m sure he was worried that he’d run out of pink slips,” Perry told the crowd at Mama Penn’s restaurant.
Perry laid into Romney for heading a company which Perry alleged eliminated hundreds of South Carolina jobs.
“There is something inherently wrong when getting rich off failure and sticking it to someone else is how you do your business and I happen to think that’s indefensible,” said Perry. “If you’re a victim of Bain Capital’s downsizing, it’s the ultimate insult for Mitt Romney to come to South Carolina and tell you he feels your pain, because he caused it.”
Perry cited two South Carolina companies impacted by Bain Capital’s downsizing. Holson Burnes, a company controlled by Bain Capital in Gafney, shut down a photo album plant, causing 150 workers to lose their jobs after Bain Capital charged them $20 million in management fees. Perry also cited GS Industries in Georgetown, S.C., which Bain Capital merged with a company in Kansas City, resulting in the dismissal of 700 steelworkers in the two cities and the payment of $65 million in management fees.
Perry, who is looking to South Carolina to reboot his struggling campaign, also continued the attacks on Rick Santorum for voting to raise the debt ceiling eight times and supporting a number of earmarks.
But it wasn’t all negative attacks Perry lobbed at his opponents. The Texas governor heaped a little praise on Ron Paul when asked if he’d be a suitable chairman of the Federal Reserve, saying Paul would be the “ideal person to head up the Fed and put a little fear in their hearts.”
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“There is something inherently wrong when getting rich off failure and sticking it to someone else is how you do your business and I happen to think that’s indefensible,” said Perry.
Perry then added, “But, when it comes to Wall Street betting billions on the failure of toxic mortgages that were bundled into Credit Default Swaps, then of course I am all for it. Because that’s different. That’s where I have MY money”
Posted by: A Cynic | January 9, 2012, 10:43 am 10:43 am
“Perry laid into Romney for heading a company which Perry alleged eliminated hundreds of South Carolina jobs.” Is ABC News so lazy that it can’t check on the alleged aspect of your write up?” What the heck has happened to journalism? Is it true or isn’t it?
Posted by: Peep101 | January 9, 2012, 12:04 pm 12:04 pm
“Perry laid into Romney for heading a company which Perry alleged eliminated hundreds of South Carolina jobs.” Is ABC News so lazy that it can’t check on the alleged aspect of your write up?” What the heck has happened to journalism? Is it true or isn’t it? Posted by: Peep101 | January 9, 2012, 12:04 pm
From the article: “Perry cited two South Carolina companies impacted by Bain Capital’s downsizing. Holson Burnes, a company controlled by Bain Capital in Gafney, shut down a photo album plant, causing 150 workers to lose their jobs after Bain Capital charged them $20 million in management fees. Perry also cited GS Industries in Georgetown, S.C., which Bain Capital merged with a company in Kansas City, resulting in the dismissal of 700 steelworkers in the two cities and the payment of $65 million in management fees.”
What the heck happened to reading comprehension in this country?
Posted by: A Cynic | January 9, 2012, 12:30 pm 12:30 pm
Well, it looks like Schumpeterian economic theory is being thrown under the bus by our erstwhile nominees. Um, Rick, luv ya, but when companies aren’t viable, they need to go away. It’s painful on the individual level but propping up zombie companies does no one any good. The result is things like Solyndra and the Chevy Volt, huge money losers both. Or maybe the AIG bailout is more to your liking?
Posted by: DocinPA | January 9, 2012, 12:38 pm 12:38 pm
You mean like Solyndra, GM, and Chrysler?
Posted by: John Giglio | January 9, 2012, 12:47 pm 12:47 pm
Doc…spot on. While I’m not a big Romney fan, I don’t have a problem with shutting down operations that are not viable. Sometimes it makes sense to keep a “losing” unit up…for instance you think the markets are about to turn. But sometimes the right thing to do is to cut the dead tissue away so the body can heal and the patient can live.
Posted by: GortRules | January 9, 2012, 12:52 pm 12:52 pm
Attacking Romney/Bain is NOT an attack on capitalism.
Romney is part of the northeastern Harvard-Wall Street-Washington elite. Call it crony capitalism or vulture capitalism, it is NOT traditional free market capitalism. It is based on bubble money and government bailouts, artificially pumping up stocks from quarter to quarter. It is run by lawyers and accountants and generic MBAs, privileged sons and daughters of old money.
Real capitalism is about manufacturing and selling things, technology, innovation, hard work, entrepreneurs taking risks, small/family business. Real capitalism is about competition, supply and demand, serving customers. Romney never bootstrapped a business from scratch. Bain was about buying and selling assets and getting a quick return for investors. Romney got the job because he was the son of a rich politician. Bain had several bailouts.
Romney is part of the same culture that brought us the Obama regime.
Posted by: Peter Verkooijen | January 9, 2012, 1:39 pm 1:39 pm
Bain Capital and many other Private Equity LLCs created a new model of “Locust Capitalism” that gives genuine Free Market Capitalism a bad name.
While technically legal, legal does not always mean moral and ethical.
Venture capitalists help build companies and jobs.
Private equity LLCs who did ANY LeveragedBuyOuts de-industrialized America 1978-2000 by diverting huge amounts of capital into Financial Engineering.
Private Equity and Hedge Funds monetized and destroyed the housing market 2000-2008.
Romney does NOT understand how the REAL economy works.
I have a BA from an elite college and three master’s degrees, and transitioned from manufacturing management on the factory floor in 1975 to industry-specific global technical consulting, and then global supply chain management in 2000. Exactly what all the politicians say everyone should do – eduction and climb the value chain.
and my career still ended by age 49 because I should have just gotten one of those Harvard MBAs and stolen millions that way.
Instead, every year 1978-2001, I delivered one million dollars to one or another private equity shark’s personal bottom line, and then got “downsized” when I got “too old”.
Leeches are more beneficial to humanity than private equity LBO sharks like Romney, who has NO SOUL.
Romney should retire to his four homes and find a new hobby.
Posted by: K2K | January 9, 2012, 5:09 pm 5:09 pm
A vote for Romney is a vote for more of the Wall Street policies that got our nation into this mess. Make no mistake, Romney is NOT a conservative! Romneycare = Obamacare!
Gingrich, Santorum and Paul are all Washington insiders – they are part of the problem too. Rick Perry is the only outsider who hasn’t been tainted by Washington or K street. Perry has the executive experience and conservative principles that will get America working again!
Posted by: Susan | January 9, 2012, 5:37 pm 5:37 pm