Romney's estimated wealth in millions ($250)

[IChing]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican Mitt Romney is expected to report financial assets between $190 million and $250 million, an amount that would likely make him the wealthiest of the 2008 presidential candidates.

Aides to the former Massachusetts governor said his assets have been held in a blind trust that he and his wife set up when he took office in 2002. The adviser who provided the estimate of his assets cautioned that the number is based on 2005 and 2006 financial activity and could amount to a bigger total once the disclosure report is filed later this year.

The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity because the totals have not been officially released. The deadline for filing financial disclosures is Tuesday but Romney on Friday obtained an extension.

Romney lent his campaign $2 million this year and could clearly tap his wealth again if necessary. Romney is not the wealthiest candidate ever to run for president.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/ROMNEY_WEALTH?SITE=FLROC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Jim Warren]

1. Guess Mutt has heard the buzz.......

'bout Bloomberg.

[HawkerHurricane]

2. The fact that he's wealthy doesn't bother me.

The fact that he's a Republican hypocrit catering to the Religous Reich bothers me.

[LibDemAlways]

3. The disparity of wealth between the haves and the rest of us

in this country is obscene. Ordinary people get into debt just trying to make ends meet, face lay-offs, are one illness away from bankruptcy...and Mitt's sitting on a nest egg of possibly more than $250 million...spouting repuke talking points and supporting a war being fought by ordinary people whose families are scraping by. Sickening.

[Erika]

4. Yep

His family is old time GOP wealth. Anyone ever asked Mitt if he ever held a real job?

[toopers]

22. Of course, those questions could be asked of a lot of politicians . . .

on both sides of the aisle.

[Honeycombe8]

10. The disparity due to greed or taxes..bad. Wealth due to work...good.

I have no problem with someone being wealthy, when I'm not. Esp. when they earned it, or their parents earned it.

If you're not wealthy, and I'm not wealthy....I tend to think it's because WE didn't do what was necessary to get wealthy. Others did.

Did you get a college degree? Did you get a post-graduate degree? Did you become licensed in a lucrative profession? And then work in that lucrative profession for years? Or did you risk it all and open your own business, after seeing a need, and then work at it for years?

People who become wealthy often set out to become wealthy, or they followed a plan that would naturally lead to wealth. I didn't. I wasn't raised that way, and my mom didn't know anything about money. But I think it's great that others have done it. It's admirable.

Now, the Paris Hiltons, who squander their money, don't seem to do anything worthwhile whatsoever, and yet people fight just to stand next to them...I have a problem with those people being so wealthy.

[LibDemAlways]

14. I wasn't commenting on wealth, per se, only on the

disparity between the people at the top and those doing the grunt work at the bottom.

I used to work in the human resources department of an insurance company, and knew the salary of every employee. Many employees were at close to minimum wage, while the guys at the top were taking home $60K a month plus million dollar quarterly bonuses. That was obscene.

The whole Repuke philosophy is based on one simple tenet - I've got mine. Screw you - and it's exactly how these corporate robberbarons function.

[anotherdrew]

16. "what was necessary to get wealthy" only thing, it doesn't involve anything we'd call 'work' n/t

[Honeycombe8]

24. Most people get wealthy from "doing" something. No one "gives" it to them.

Lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs - these people have worked for the money they got. And they have worked long and hard.

CEOs, even, have paid their dues in their earlier days, beginning with excelling in school.

Bill Gates is the richest man in the country, maybe the world? Not only is he very philanthropic, he earned his money. He did something that no one did, and most could not. Warren Buffett - earned his moeny.

Donald Trump - he turned what money he had, and the lessons he learned from his father, into a vast fortune. He virtually lived and breathed his career, totally focused on it. He earned his money.

Most rich people got a head start. They were born wealthy or smart or white or good looking. But still, it wasn't just that. They actually DID something. Good for them. That's the American dream. I'd like to think that if I opened a business, and if it were successful, that I could become wealthy from it. Otherwise, why would I do it? (But I'm not the type to open my own business, unfortunately.)

[1932]

5. Well, as long as his house isn't huge, his haircut is cheap, and he never worked for Fortress Invst.

oh, and it doesn't matter whether the policies he supports further polarize wealth in the US and the world.

[Eurobabe]

6. America, after all, is a plutocracy, haven't you heard?

[Evergreen Emerald]

7. how much does he pay for a hair cut?

How much does he spend on light-bulbs?

[JoFerret]

8. Remember: The riches of the few

the riches of the few are the savings of the many. (Debs)

Applies to Romney and all the others - Republicans and Democrats.

Too bad the system only allows the rich to run for high office as by that time they are ALL thieves.

[GregW]

9. So?

Does having money make you a 'bad' person?

[rec_report]

13. 'So' - the point is, when Ned Lamont was running against Joe LieberBush,

every day, the Hartford Courant referred to Lamont as 'the millionaire businessman from Greenwich,' in an effort to dissuade people from voting for Lamont (as if LieberBush is a pauper, lol).
I never knew that Mitt 'Big Dig' Romney had millions, as the corporate-owned media hasn't focused on that fact.
Cheers,
Polar Bear

[rec_report]

15. So - part 2. Odd, we only hear about the wealth of John Edwards.

That's another aspect that needs to be addressed.
Polar Bear

[captain jack]

11. To the philistine above me

How did I know someone would come on here and say, So. I think before "So?" is declared an investigation into the legitamacy of his massive wealth is essential. He is runnung for president right? It's no wonder that politicians so easily become corrupted when some in the public feel "So?" an appropriate response to a civil servants finances. The naivete makes me ill. I know alot of you credit- card-rich-folks fancy yourselves wealthy and feel a man with a bank account of 250,000,000+ could be your friend or nieghbor, however, a man nor women with that much money knows shit about me or my fellow working class people and has no purpose being president except for the dillusional that say "So?" as if they spent that last week. And if ya did you should not be here talking to most us proletariats.

[captain jack]

12. I felt this appropriate.

"When a man tells you he got rich through hard work, ask him whose."

[LibDemAlways]

17. You nailed it. It isn't the oil field worker

who's retiring with a golden parachute. It isn't the Wal-Mart cashier going home to a mansion. The guy inspecting airplane parts at Boeing isn't driving a Benz to work.

But it's the hard working people at the bottom of the economic totem pole that make it possible for the elite at the top to prosper, and all too often their reward is a lay-off, a job outsourced, a cut in benefits, a raise deferred or denied as a "cost saving" measure. The name of the game in corporate America is absolutely to screw the worker in every way possible and imaginable.

[Socal31]

20. what?

So there are no legitimately well-off people out there?? Sounds like you have a chip on your shoulder.


Anyway I dont see the difference if he has 250 mil, or is just in the 10+ millions like alot of candidates. That is more than most of us will ever have. We need to focus on the POLICY! What does he think about immigration? What does he think about Iran? (even though im sure its the same as the rest of that side of the candidates). He is part of a cult for god sakes! These are important things, not how big his bank account is.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

25. FYI: The majority of wealth is inherited.

In perhaps the most damning refutation of life-cycle theory, economists Laurence Kotlikoff and Lawrence Summers showed in 1981 that as much as 80 percent of current U.S. wealth was inherited and concluded that “the pure life-cycle component of aggregate U.S. savings is very small. American capital accumulation results primarily from intergenerational transfers.”


Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
http://www.minneapolisfed.org/pubs/region/03-06/clement.cfm

[captain jack]

26. No chip on my shoulder, I'm content with the truth.

Here I was under the impression that well off was 50,000 give or take. Far away from 10 million. I guess me and my millions of fellow workers have missed that boat. I'm reminded of a politician that said recently, ...take your average american making 100,000 a year...

I don't know of any multi-millionaires that can claim an honest living nor a clear conscience, nor represent the no-hand-me-downs working class. I do however know many 5 figure folks that can sleep at night.

I tell you what, I'll consider his policy and his bank account. Multi-tasking is what we workers do best.

[rove karl rove]

18. never knew he was THAT rich

does he tithe to the Mormon Church? Does anyone know?

[Nimrod2005]

23. He has to at 10%

[Seabiscuit]

19. Screw Romney!!!!! n/t

[Vinca]

21. You'd think the guy could afford something other than motor oil for his hair. nt