I heard this on the national radio news while driving home today, Mitt Romney saying, "I want more people having good wages and better benefits."
Given Romney's history at Bain Capital of slashing wages, benefits and jobs at Bain-managed companies, and his hostility to labor unions who actually achieve "good wages and better benefits" for their members, that seemed ironic at best, another Romney lie designed to bamboozle voters at worst.
Romney spoke at a campaign event featuring 10 local business owners in Costa Mesa, CA, and the local papers clued us in on these job creators.
More, below.
The theme of the event, "We Did Build It", was emblazoned on a big Rovian sign behind the semi-roundtable.
The obvious subtext is that small businesspeople succeed without any help from government, a recent Romney campaign talking point.
In its story, the Daily Pilot mentions three of the business owners -- two in medical supply/services, and one a defense contractor.
All of them directly dependent on government for a major part of their income.
John McDermott, chief executive of medical-device maker Endologix in Irvine, tells an absurd tale about how a 2.3 percent tax on his presumably high-priced devices in the Affordable Care Act will hurt his business.
He said the little tax
could increase his business expenses by up to $1 million.
That means he may not hire up to 50 new employees in the near future.
"It forces us to re-think our business, slow down potentially, which I think everyone here at this table doesn't want to do," he said.
The only thing that would "slow down potentially" McDermott's business would be less demand for his products (which has not been happening under Obama, see below).
McDermott was discreet not to mention that the ACA will generally lead to an increase in demand for medical devices, since 50 million or so more will be insured under the ACA.
The other medical type, Ruth Lopez Novodor, chief executive of Beverly Oncology and Imaging, said she "cringed" when thinking about the impact of the ACA on her business.
Again, she is playing a Republican role, not telling the truth about the positive impact on her business of having more business from newly covered people.
The defense contractor, Kellie Johnson, owner of Ace Clearwater, a specialty parts manufacturer for government and defense projects, told a tale of woe about having to pay 40 percent to the federal government, because she pays individual tax rates on her take of the company's profits.
Maybe Johnson heard that on talk radio, and is not consciously lying, but the fact is that the top income tax rate, kicking in at $375,000 after deductions, is just 35 percent.
And if she had competent tax advice, she would be paying herself dividends and be taxed at 15 percent.
Like Romney.
Over at the conservative Orange County Register, its story notes that the host of the event, Jim Burra of Endural LLC , a manufacturer of plastic shipping containers for engines and transmissions, gave his 15 employees the day off (presumably without pay).
McDermott is in this story, too, with the interesting background that his company has grown from 250 to 400 employees in the last two Obama years.
He's still whining that he can't pass along a measly 2.3 percent to hospital buyers of his "minimally invasive device for treating abdominal aortic aneurysms."
Sounds like a crock -- effective "minimally invasive" devices save money for hospitals and they know it. That's how McDermott's company almost doubled in two years.
Kellie Johnson is here, too, extra details are that her 200-employee firm manufactures components for the aerospace and power generation industries and was founded by her grandfather.
But her complaints about a made-up top tax rate were not highlighted by the OC Register.
Instead, she whined about the public education system not training employees for her.
We have openings we can’t fill; our education system has let us down big time. College isn’t for everyone but we have eliminated career technical education programs and vocational education, so companies have to train their own workers.
Johnson is also not a fan of the current "free trade" regime, which Romney supports and has personally profited from.
She said that taxes put companies like hers at a 20 percent cost disadvantage to the nine major trade countries to the United States.
Finally, there's Tom Benson, owner of Bud’s Beach Cities in Signal Hill, which makes sunroofs and other auto accessories.
Benson dissed the Small Business Adminstration, which has helped millions of successful small businesses get going.
He bought Bud's with money from an "angel investor", aka a rich relative or friend, so every budding entrepreneur can make it like that.
Benson also complained about the EPA and the NLRB, which in today's world only go after companies who egregiously pollute the commons and/or mistreat their employees.
Orange County has always been a red part of California, so finding two-handfuls of conservative business owners there was easy for the Romney campaign.
Romney's hand-picked Costa Mesa collection of conservative small business owners naturally agreed with him on everything, and provided video and audio that the campaign will use to try to convince voters that Romney will use his power as President to create jobs with "good wages and better benefits."
Romney has never done that, except for a few hundred jobs at Bain Capital.
But our economy does not need more high-paid vulture capitalists.
It does need millions of jobs with "good wages and better benefits" that will provide the consumer demand creating more millions of jobs with "good wages and better benefits."
Romney not only has no clue about how to do that, he essentially does not want to do that.
As his record at Bain makes crystal clear.