Mitt Romney's controversial Olympic past draws scrutiny

[Lucy Goosey]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/07/27/romney-olympics-london-salt-lake.html

By Romney's account, the government spent about $600 million helping the Salt Lake Olympic Committee. An additional $1.1 billion was planned for projects like roads and bridges, infrastructure improvement projects that the government probably would have paid for eventually, though the timing of the Games may have sped up the construction.

Romney has made himself the very public face of the effort, claiming that he personally cut millions from the budget, wooed major companies and won sponsorships himself and pulled the whole endeavour back from the brink of failure. His record in Salt Lake was the cornerstone of his run for governor in Massachusetts, a campaign he announced in March 2002, just weeks after the Games concluded.

Romney, who promises to slash federal spending if elected president, rarely acknowledges the federal support for the 2002 Games on the campaign trail. His aides say much of it was for increased security costs after the 2001 terrorist attacks, which occurred about five months earlier.

But Romney doesn't mention the commitments the government had already made to cover costs associated with the Games — or elaborate on his role in persuading congressional appropriators and critics to give the Games more money.