Struggling to Understand How Rich Mitt Romney Is

It’s hard for most of us to imagine being worth a few million dollars. That’s serious greenbacks, putting us beyond worry and squarely in the land of comfort. But if we were Mitt Romney, who is worth a quarter-BILLION dollars, that would be chump change.

And while all the presidential candidates are in that comfortable, worry-free zone, Romney’s wealth, according to a fascinating piece of research in the Tampa Bay Times, blocks out the sun.

For every $100 personally owned by Romney, President Obama has $4.20, Newt Gingrich has $2.70 and Ron Paul has $2. And Rick Santorum, closely trailing a victorious Romney in last week’s Iowa caucus, has but a single buck.

But wait, there’s more.

Romney’s estimated $250 million makes him the third-richest candidate to run for the White House in the past 20 years. Only third-party candidate Ross Perot, a Texas billionaire who made his money building a technology business, and Steve Forbes, who inherited much of his wealth from father Malcolm Forbes and Forbes magazine, were richer candidates.

So how did Romney get all this lucre? It’s not from clean Mormon living.

Mitt Romney grew up in patrician style as the son of George Romney, who served as Michigan’s governor as well as CEO of American Motors and was himself a presidential candidate in the 1960s. Mitt Romney inherited plenty of family money, but he insists he has passed it on to his kids and charity. Romney’s big personal money was made as a founder of Bain Capital, a leveraged-buyout firm that has become well known for buying undervalued businesses, slashing costs (and often firing staff), then rebuilding the companies to sell off or take public. Romney racked up many millions using the Bain formula. And he’s still profiting from it to the tune of millions of dollars every year.

Judging by the fact that Romney refuses to release his income tax records, we can also guess that he’s preserving and growing his wealth the same way the other members of the 1% are – shifting taxable income into reduced-rate capital gains, exploiting estate tax policy, and taking every Bush-era tax cut that comes his way.

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