Wednesday, February 8, 2023

SOTU PEU Faceoff: Santos vs. Romney

I'd wondered how threatened private equity underwriters (PEU) have been by the presence of fraudster George Santos in Congress. 

At last night's State of the Union Address Senator Mitt Romney (Bain Capital founder) and Rep. George Santos (Harbor City Capital) took turns calling each other an "ass."  Many consider "ass" a synonym for private equity.

The public becomes aware of dysfunction when the system pushes too far.  George Santos personifies that dysfunction.  He went from being late on rent to a salary of $750,000.  That money came from a sponsor(s).

Romney's early sponsors at Bain Capital came from Panama shell corporations.  Those investors made huge returns on the backs of portfolio company workers.

Mother Jones reported the experience of one worker at a Bain Capital owned furniture company:

We’ll walk into a room and there’ll be a big poster that says like, “We only had five reviews yesterday. Obviously, you people don’t care enough. You don’t try.” It’s all in angry red markers. They’ll say, “I don’t know when you guys stopped caring.” They’re insane. They’re screaming in your face. They have no problem saying these things on the floor in front of customers. It’s coming from above and trickling down.

I think they’re a sinking ship. If you’ve been there long enough, you know what it was like before. Now there aren’t any fresh-baked cookies. There aren’t any ponds left in the stores. Bain is going to suck every penny out of it and then discard it once they’ve completely ruined it. All of us salespeople, that’s how we feel. Once the last penny is out of the jar, they’ll sell it.

Enough voters have worked for a company acquired by private equity and are familiar with management cutting core service elements, crapifying the workplace and yelling at employees for not meeting greed inspired targets.

I believe the public is able to internalize the incredible offensiveness of George Santos' fraud.   It's tangible, seen in everything the man does.  Romney's PEU greed is more aloof, alien and flourishes out of the sunlight.  Is this in part why the senior Senator evaluated the new Congressman's seat selection?

Santos is too out front, too self promotional, and rose too quickly without paying his PEU dues.  He may be the prism through which the public can see:

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one. 

And they will know who they serve.

Update 2-11-23:  The man who lied that he met the job requirements to land a position blames the employer for his illicit act.  Daily News reported:

Rep. George Santos says he only said he went to college because Long Island Republicans would never have endorsed his candidacy if they knew he had just a high school diploma.

“I would have never gotten the nomination from Nassau County GOP if I had not concluded college,” he told Newsmax. “To say that I deceived, and (ran) a campaign of deception is just not fair. That’s just a political spin.”

No, George Santos.  You ran a campaign of deception and are now deflecting it with political spin.  Deception is the PEU way and its exposure should concern many in Congress.