Under Romney, Bain Took Loads of Government Aid

When Mitt Romney says he favors a small government, does he mean the kind that built a Bain Capital-owned company in California a conveyor belt bridge between two of its buildings? Or the kind that helped buy new equipment for a Bain steel plant in Indiana—a plant he's featured in campaign ads? Those are just a few of the many examples Bloomberg says it's found of Bain taking government handouts, a tradition dating back to Romney's first decade as CEO.

Much of the government help was from local governments that wanted to prevent the companies from moving; New York City, for instance, gave a Bain company tax breaks to prevent a New Jersey move. Asked about the disconnect between Romney's rhetoric and Bain's record, a Romney spokeswoman simply said that such incentives were "not at all uncommon." (More Mitt Romney stories.)