Specifically, Romney invested in a hedge fund known for investing in bankrupt companies or companies on the verge of bankruptcy. The fund was directed by GOP donor Paul Singer. According to the report, a handful of prominent Romney donors also invested in the hedge fund.
Democratic Chair Chris Redfern said Romney “wanted to ‘let Detroit go bankrupt,’ and when President Obama and Sherrod Brown made the bold decision to rescue the auto industry, Romney took steps to make money off of it.”
Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan of Youngstown said the report “lifts the veil on how guys like Romney make so much money. They do it by exploiting the suffering of others,” he said.
But Chris Maloney, a spokesman for the Romney campaign, called the report a “partisan, left-wing study meant to distract from the $1 billion of taxpayer funds the Obama Administration handed over to the UAW in the Delphi bankruptcy.”
Romney has criticized Obama for allowing Delphi union retiree pensions to be topped off with $1 billion of federal money during the 2009 auto rescue, while 21,000 non union salaried retirees saw their pensions cut by anywhere from 30 to 70 percent. The salaried retirees have been fighting that decision ever since.
GM owned Delphi until 1996, and Delphi still supplies auto components to the auto manufacturer, so Delphi’s fate was linked to the auto bailout.
Bruce Gump, a Delphi retiree who worked at the company for 33 years, questioned the report’s credibility and called it “another attempt to deflect the Delphi issue away from the president and put it back on Romney.”
“It should not be a political issue at all,” he said. “This is a straightforward right and wrong issue. The president has the ability to resolve it and he has yet to do so.”
Meanwhile, Sharen Neuhardt, a Democrat challenging Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, in the newly redrawn 10 Ohio congressional district, sent out a release Thursday trying to link Turner to Romney’s investment.
“Given that Rep. Turner has made the Delphi pensions one of his top issues in Congress, it would be hypocritical of him to remain silent and not demand an explanation from Romney,” Neuhardt campaign spokesman Michael McGovern said.
Turner spokesman Tom Crosson said Obama and the Democrats have to answer for what happened at Delphi.
“Internal Treasury Department emails have revealed that the Administration was responsible for slashing the pensions of Delphi Salaried Retirees,” he said. “The Treasury Department has still failed to provide all of the documents repeatedly requested by Congressman Turner and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee on how the decision was made at Treasury’s direction to slash these pensions, which deserve to be restored.”
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