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demonizing the rich
Oct. 28th, 2012 11:15 amWhen the US gov't bailed out GM and Chrysler, it also had to bail out its biggest supplier, Delphi. Delphi, its stock worth pennies, was owned by a hedge fund. The owners told the Treasury and GM to hand over $350 million immediately, “because if you don’t, we’ll shut you down.” This is extortion. Anybody want to talk about union thugs?
Romney has slammed the bailout as a payoff to the auto workers union, but once things got running again, the owners closed 25 of the 29 US plants. Delphi now had only 5000 US workers (none of them union), and over 100,000 overseas. In addition, the company was incorporated overseas and doesn't pay any taxes.
And then they terminated health insurance for nonunion pensioners. And then they terminated pension payments altogether. So the government had to take over the payments. But the government has limits on how much it can pay. So someone took out ads that blamed Obama for taking away their pensions.
And people think we demonize the rich. We don't. We demonize the demons. I'm not trying to make these people out to be monsters for making 400 times their original investments, they're monsters for extorting it from the taxpayers. And then firing tens of thousands of US workers. And blaming this on Obama. And calling it a union payoff, when no unions benefited, an it wasn't the unions that demanded the payout. And spending large sums on their profits on Romney's campaign.
Romney? He made millions directly from the Delphi bailout, as he invested money in the hedge fund that owned it.
It's a little more convoluted than this, but that's the basics.
http://www.thenation.com/article/170644/mitt-romneys-bailout-bonanza#
Romney has slammed the bailout as a payoff to the auto workers union, but once things got running again, the owners closed 25 of the 29 US plants. Delphi now had only 5000 US workers (none of them union), and over 100,000 overseas. In addition, the company was incorporated overseas and doesn't pay any taxes.
And then they terminated health insurance for nonunion pensioners. And then they terminated pension payments altogether. So the government had to take over the payments. But the government has limits on how much it can pay. So someone took out ads that blamed Obama for taking away their pensions.
And people think we demonize the rich. We don't. We demonize the demons. I'm not trying to make these people out to be monsters for making 400 times their original investments, they're monsters for extorting it from the taxpayers. And then firing tens of thousands of US workers. And blaming this on Obama. And calling it a union payoff, when no unions benefited, an it wasn't the unions that demanded the payout. And spending large sums on their profits on Romney's campaign.
Romney? He made millions directly from the Delphi bailout, as he invested money in the hedge fund that owned it.
It's a little more convoluted than this, but that's the basics.
http://www.thenation.com/article/170644/mitt-romneys-bailout-bonanza#
