Romney's New Rules

January 8, 2012

In October, Mitt Romney famously advised struggling homeowners, "Don't try and stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom, allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up and let it turn around and come back up." But while his policy for underwater mortgage holders is "let them live in cardboard," Mitt declared a new rule Sunday that only those who have paid off their mortgages should run for office. As it turns out, Romney could have added a corollary; only run for President when you have $45 million of your own money to burn.
Romney's New Rule: Public Office is Only for the Well Off
Roughly 30 percent of Americans own their homes outright. As for the other 70 percent, Mitt Romney announced during Sunday's GOP debate in New Hampshire that they shouldn't even consider running for office:

"I happened to see my dad run for governor when he was 54 years old," said Romney. "He said, 'Mitt, never get involved in politics if you have to win election to pay a mortgage.' If you find yourself in a position when you can serve, you ought to have a responsibility to do so if you think you can make a difference."

Romney's New Rule: $45 Million of Your Own Money is a Small Price to Pay to Become President
As it turned out, having $45 million to lose can also make a difference. That's the amount, the Boston Globe reported on July 16, 2008, Mitt Romney decided to eat after losing the 2008 Republican nomination to John McCain. The Globe explained Romney decided he would "not seek donations to repay $45 million in personal loans he made to his failed presidential bid -- the biggest ever made by a candidate in a primary campaign."

The move could clear away the last remnants of a divisive primary race, insuring that he and his financial supporters are focused on helping McCain...Still, Romney's investment in his own campaign and the donor network he built may have helped his vice presidential stock go up. The $45 million helped win widespread name recognition for Romney, who also raised more than $65 million from donors. Since McCain clinched the nomination in March, Romney has asked his supporters to contribute to a Republican National Committee fund that will be used to help McCain's candidacy and he has urged his campaign finance team to work for McCain.

And that, Politico reported at the time, was "one of the chief reasons the Massachusetts governor is looking so attractive" as McCain's number two. "McCain sources tell Politico that they believe Romney could raise $50 million in 60 days. One close Romney adviser said it could even be $60 million."
(When the late Tim Russert asked him "why not tell the voters of Florida and across the country how much of your own wealth you're spending?" Mitt responded, "I'm not concerned about the voters.")
Romney's New Rule: Buying a $12 Million Home is "Downsizing and Simplifying"
Unlike John McCain, Mitt Romney at least knows how many homes he owns. (Which state he lives in, votes in and pays taxes in is another matter.)
Mitt Romney recently sold two of his four multimillion dollars mansions because he and his wife are, according to an aide, "downsizing and simplifying." And only last week, he preposterously claimed that he never intended to run for office again after 2008, saying "I went back and bought a home which was far too expensive and grandiose for the purposes of another campaign."
Just how expensive and grandiose? A $12 million, soon-to-be doubled-in-size California beach side home.
Romney's New Rule: $250 Million is Middle Class
Of course, buying a $12 million mansion is "downsizing and simplifying" if being worth $250 million qualifies you as a member middle class. Which, Mitt insists, it does.
The multimillionaire son of an auto magnate earning millions annually in capital gains and dividend income wasn't content to declare to an audience of jobless voters that, "I'm also unemployed." Mitt Romney also announced that he's part of the "80 to 90 percent of us" who are middle class. And just in case there was any question about Romney's humble lifestyle, Mitt claimed that the same public employees who generally make less than their private sector counterparts make more money than he does:

"The taxpayers shouldn't have to have money taken out of their pay checks to pay people in government who are our servants who are making a lot more money than we are."

Even if they can't afford to make a $10,000 bet on national television.
Romney's New Rule: Tax Returns are Like Toothpaste
On Sunday, Mitt Romney boasted about his loss to Ted Kennedy in the Massachusetts Senate race:

"When I saw Ted Kennedy running virtually unopposed, a man who I thought by virtue of the policies of the liberal welfare state had created a permanent underclass in America, I thought somebody has to run against him," said Romney. "I happened to have been wise enough to realize I did not have a ghost of a chance of beating him. ... I told my partners in my firm, I will be back in six months, don't take my chair. I was happy that he had to take a mortgage out on his house to ultimately defeat me. I am very proud of the fact that I have stood up as a citizen to battle where I felt it was best for the nation, and we're talking about running for president. I am in the race because I care about the country."

In that race, Citizen Romney demanded Kennedy release his tax returns to prove he had "nothing to hide." Now, Romney has a new rule.
While John Kerry and John McCain at least presented a summary of their (and their well-to-do wives') payments to Uncle Sam, the $250 million Mitt has so far refused to do so. Romney reiterated his own paperwork would not be forthcoming. "We don't have any current plans to release tax returns, but never say never," Romney said, adding:

"I can tell you we follow the tax laws, and if there's an opportunity to save taxes, we like anybody else in this country will follow that opportunity."

Or as he put it to CNN's Wolf Blitzer:

"I don't put out which tooth paste I use either. It's not that I have something to hide."

That's one interpretation. Another is that Mitt Romney is desperate to avoid the horrible political optics his tax returns would inevitably produce. After all, because Romney's continuing millions in annual income from Bain Capital (a company the Los Angeles Times recently explained "often maximized profits in part by firing workers")are taxed at the 15 percent capital gains rate, Mitt already pays a much lower share to Uncle Sam than most middle class families.
Romney's New Rule: Hiring Illegal Immigrants is OK Unless You're Running for Office
In 2006, Governor Romney responded "aw geez" when informed undocumented workers had been landscaping his estate. But in another new Romney Rule, it turns out that was OK for the hardline illegal immigration foe. As he explained to Rick Perry during an earlier Republican debate: