Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and head of the 2002 Winter Olympics, believes spending on the games has gotten out of control.
“To guarantee that the athletes remain the focus of the games, and that the Olympics endures for generations to come, it is time to limit the excess,” Romney wrote in an op/ed published on USA TODAY’s website Tuesday.
Romney wrote that the International Olympic Committee should set budgets for the games and only award them to country’s willing to adhere to the spending constraints.
He writes:
Are the Olympics worth it? Every two years, Olympic critics argue that the money should be better spent on causes such as fighting poverty and disease. I am a staunch defender of the Olympics, but I think it's time to draw spending boundaries.Reports claim that China and Russia each spent in the neighborhood of $50 billion on their Olympics. The London Games cost at least $15 billion. Greece's $11 billion Olympics pushed the country toward collapse. Arguably, the Olympics would be worth every penny if the spending were absolutely necessary. But it's not.