http://www.motherjones.com/politics/...ors_picks=true
As Romney chastises the president for
pointing out that successful business ventures benefit from a larger social compactand accuses critics of pining for "
free stuff," Romney is simultaneously touting an Olympic effort that, more than any other in American history, succeeded thanks to public investment—some of it sunk into questionable projects of marginal value to the Salt Lake games. "The $1.5 billion in taxpayer dollars that Congress is pouring into Utah is 1.5 times the amount spent by lawmakers to support all seven Olympic Games held in the U.S. since 1904—combined," Donald Barlett and James Steele
reported for
Sports Illustrated in 2001. Those numbers were adjusted for inflation.
How the Salt Lake Games came to receive more money than any games in American history isn't much of a mystery. The organizers, including Romney, asked for it. In his 2004 book,
Turnaround, Romney acknowledges the central role of the federal government in making the Olympics possible.
"No matter how well we did cutting costs and raising revenue, we couldn't have Games without the support of the federal government," he wrote.