Monday, December 12, 2005

The Circle of Dough

I read in the papers today that a group of investors, including Bain Capital is buying Dunkin' Donuts. Bain Capital, you'll all remember, is the Boston-based venture capital firm that now-Governor Mitt Romney successfully spun off of Bain & Company in the mid 1980's. Why is this interesting? Well, cronies of the Governor from Bain and its affiliates formed the Commonwealth PAC, which has been judiciously sprinkling money around in early primary states in preparation for Romney's presumed presidential campaign, something that I noted in my first ever blog post. Let's also not forget that Dunkin' Donuts has more employees using the taxpayer funded Free Care Pool, because they do not provide health insurance, than any other company in Massachusetts. Should we be worried now that the company that has the most to lose by enacting employer mandated heath insurance is now owned by the Johnny Appleseeds of the Romney 2008 Campaign?

I suppose it's just a cycle that plays out every day, at all levels of government; Bain spends money on behalf of Romney, Governor Romney fights tooth and nail to kill legislation detrimental to Bain's asset, Dunkin' Donuts. Isn't it nice how well that works out for everybody? Well, everyone except the Massachusetts taxpayers who are the ones who end up paying for Dunkin' employee's health care. But since when was anyone ever concerned about them?