One Bad Thing Begets Another: How Romney & Bain Capital Are Bad For Texas And America

I have always believed that all things are connected, related or are dependent on each other in some way or another. One idea may give birth to another, one course of action creates another  and one outcome has an effect or consequence on another idea, place or even person. It has even been said that people are related or connected to each other by only six degrees. All things are connected, one action has repercussions against another .

Take Mit Romney's actions against education as Governor of Massachusetts. Governor Romney's cuts to his state's education system not only had immediate and obvious repercussions against students young and old; these consequences also rippled outwardly just like in a pond to ultimately affect the economy of Massachusetts as well while Romney was Governor. These consequences, by no means went unnoticed. As Obama Campaign Press-Secretary Ben LaBolt was clear to point out both the effects and the inter-related consequences of previously mentioned consequences:

"We've already seen what Romney Economics means for students at every level of their education. Mitt Romney might not want to talk about his lackluster record in Massachusetts, but it's an important window into what he would bring to the White House. Let's start with K-12 education. By his second year as governor, Romney had already forced Massachusetts schools to take the second largest cuts per pupil in the country. Those cuts forced school districts to lay off thousands of teachers along with librarians and even police officers, 14,500 in all. Not exactly the record of the job creator. When he got elected he tried to cut funding for early literacy in kindergarten programs, vetoed a bill to create universal pre-k in Massachusetts and questioned the value for early education. As governor he vetoed programs that would've helped reduce class sizes in the earliest grades where individual attention is the most important. Romney still believes against all evidence that smaller class sizes are harmful. None of this helps students in Massachusetts get ready for college and the workforce."

LaBolt clearly understands how indeed one action or outcome affects another. For starters, by attacking the very foundation-education-from which the young residents of Massachusetts will be able to gain the knowledge and skills to be competitive and useful members of the work force.Not having a qualified work force is just one of the many reasons why American companies find themselves operating in overseas markets. A poorly educated work force is a poorly trained and hampered work force. One poor action begets another.

These attacks on the educational infrastructure of Massachusetts where carried out while Romney was Governor; but his damaging actions go further than the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As one of the founding members of Bain Capital, Mitt Romney carried out the acquisition of several financially troubled businesses in our very home state of  Texas, for example and sadly, these local businesses would not grow and prosper, but rather fail and be forced to close and thus ultimately affect the very communities that they would form part of. All this, while under Bain Capital and Mitt Romney's watch and guidance.

Places of business like AMF Bowling in Corpus Christi, Alliance Entertainment in Dallas and Ampad in Denison. Said actions do only one thing, and that is deny hard working Texans and Americans a chance at security and ultimately the fulfillment of the American Dream.

In his 2010 book The Buyout of America: How Private Equity Is Destroying Jobs and Killing the American Economy, Josh Kosman described Bain Capital as "notorious for its failure to plow profits back into its businesses," being the first large private-equity firm to derive a large fraction of its revenues from corporate dividends and other distributions. The revenue potential of this strategy, which may "starve" a company of capital, was increased by a 1970s court ruling that allowed companies to consider the entire fair-market value of the company, instead of only their "hard assets", in determining how much money was available to pay dividends. In at least some instances, companies acquired by Bain borrowed money in order to increase their dividend payments, ultimately leading to the collapse of what had been financially stable businesses.

Here again is yest another example of how one action influences, affects and or carries on to another. Bain Capital's practice of not to inject capital back in to the very businesses it was taking over with the proposed intent of helping ; but rather only interested in increasing it's very own corporate dividends ultimately did only one thing, and that was hurt the communities of Dallas, Denison and Corpus Christy.

One action can affect another Mr. Romney. If you hurt the the educational foundations of your state, you end up hurting  your future work force. How can we compete with China or India under such circumstances?

If Bain Capital chooses not to  reinvest it's capital into the very companies that need it most and thus ultimately help the very communities that benefit from this source of employment, then how Mr. Romney do you expect cities like Dallas and Denison to thrive and prosper? One action creates another for better or worse.

I don't think it is a stretch of the imagination to say that what Romney did while at Bain Capital or as Governor will have an influence in his economic policies as President of the United States.

One action influences another.