# Mitt Romney's Dad on Welfare **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 6, 2012, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-dad-on-welfare/633876 "2012-09-06T18:07:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Andiethewestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Andiethewestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andiethewestie)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-dad-on-welfare/633876/21 "2012-09-06T20:58:04Z")
Indeed. As a refugee, I doubt George Sr had bootstraps to pull up. Wasn’t it great that a safety net was there. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-dad-on-welfare/633876/22 "2012-09-06T21:22:11Z")
Public Service Announcement: “Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan” is an anagram of “My ultimate Ayn Rand porn.” ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-dad-on-welfare/633876/23 "2012-09-06T21:26:26Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > No active, practicing “Mormon” currently has more than one wife: You are thinking of the various splinter groups and offshoot polygamous sects. Yes, which is why I mentioned Pappy Romney, but not his descendants as polygamists. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-dad-on-welfare/633876/24 "2012-09-06T21:37:38Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > … > For this to be really damaging, you’d have to be able to say: Mitt Romney got a head start because his father left him money (true?); George Romney only had money to leave because his family got help when he was a child. … > Roddy [NY Times article on Mitt Romney’s inheritance](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/us/politics/fact-check-romney-and-his-fathers-money.html) Mitt’s father George died in 1995. By then Mitt was already quite wealthy. Though Mitt did inherit money from his father’s estate, he gave it to a scholarship fund at BYU. Mitt did take a loan from his father to buy a house, though the article does not mention when that happened. Whether George’s receiving government assistance years before benefited Mitt financially is a bit of a stretch IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![moonshot925](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@moonshot925](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonshot925)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-dad-on-welfare/633876/25 "2012-09-06T21:43:52Z")
Apparently, the Romney family benefited from a $100,000 refugee fund established by Congress. [http://articles.boston.com/2012-01-31/nation/31006143\_1\_mitt-romney-george-romney-romney-story](http://articles.boston.com/2012-01-31/nation/31006143_1_mitt-romney-george-romney-romney-story) I guess this was the welfare relief. ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-dad-on-welfare/633876/26 "2012-09-06T22:53:34Z")
Republicans are not opposed to a social safety net…they just don’t want it to become a hammock. I don’t see the big deal. The Right and Left are in agreement WRT a social safety net. They disagree in size and scope. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-dad-on-welfare/633876/27 "2012-09-06T23:11:32Z")
I’ll go with irrelevant on this. It’s not Mitt, it’s his father, before Mitt was born. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-dad-on-welfare/633876/28 "2012-09-06T23:22:25Z")
After this revelation, I will not be voting for George Romney for President. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-dad-on-welfare/633876/29 "2012-09-06T23:53:09Z")
Yeah, after a couple of hours, I think this isn’t a big deal. It is a funny counterpoint to ‘We Built This.’ ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-dad-on-welfare/633876/30 "2012-09-07T00:40:29Z")
It isn’t a big deal, but it is still funny. And if we wanted a bootstrap puller we should’ve elected George. Okay, if we didn’t want Nixon we should’ve elected George. Too bad a majority of us did. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Andiethewestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Andiethewestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andiethewestie)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-dad-on-welfare/633876/31 "2012-09-07T00:46:45Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > Republicans are not opposed to a social safety net…they just don’t want it to become a hammock. I don’t see the big deal. The Right and Left are in agreement WRT a social safety net. They disagree in size and scope. The way they want to cut programs you’d be hard pressed to get a banana hammock out of Mitt ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-dad-on-welfare/633876/32 "2012-09-07T02:58:38Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > Republicans are not opposed to a social safety net…they just don’t want it to become a hammock. I don’t see the big deal. The Right and Left are in agreement WRT a social safety net. They disagree in size and scope. I agree. If the GOP proposes that welfare be a “hand up, not a hand out” program, then George Romney is a perfect example of how temporary government help can get people through tough times to help them become successful on their own. Not a lifestyle. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-dad-on-welfare/633876/33 "2012-09-07T03:55:21Z")
> [@Andiethewestie](#): > > Indeed. As a refugee, I doubt George Sr had bootstraps to pull up. Wasn’t it great that a safety net was there. To be fair, I don’t think George ever claimed he was some sort of Horatio Alger self-made man and would have found much of the anti-welfare rhetoric of recent times rather weird if not offensive. The apple fell quite far from the tree. ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-dad-on-welfare/633876/34 "2012-09-07T03:58:45Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > I agree. If the GOP proposes that welfare be a “hand up, not a hand out” program, then George Romney is a perfect example of how temporary government help can get people through tough times to help them become successful on their own. Not a lifestyle. It already ISN’T a lifestyle, there is no free lifetime money for being poor anymore. It’s all boogeymen right wing lies to vilify the poor as the source of the country’s problems while the thieving bankers are laughing all the way to…the bank. ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-dad-on-welfare/633876/35 "2012-09-07T09:09:35Z")
> [@George Romney](#): > > They had to be fed by the United States government and clothed by the United States government. Which is why I’ve joined the anti-immigration anti-welfare party! > [@yorick73](#): > > The Right and Left are in agreement WRT a social safety net. Ron Paul isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![CannyDan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cannydan/32/548_2.png) [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-dad-on-welfare/633876/36 "2012-09-07T14:46:31Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > To be fair, I don’t think George ever claimed he was some sort of Horatio Alger self-made man and would have found much of the anti-welfare rhetoric of recent times rather weird if not offensive. > > The apple fell quite far from the tree. Exactly. It’s the current crop I find to be ironic. Hmmm… I wonder if there was a work requirement back then? If so, well, it demonstrates that government regulation of welfare recipients is necessary and produces a positive effect. And if not, well, it obviously means that work requirements aren’t necessary to move welfare recipients into successful futures. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-dad-on-welfare/633876.md?page=1)