GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney insisted in an interview today that Republicans have hurt themselves politically by spending too much money.

   He said he prefers disagreements among staff members and said he, too, would veto the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

   In an interview with Prime Buzz, Romney said, “As a matter of fact, if decision is presented to me where everyone agrees with me in the room, then I’m uncomfortable,” he said.

   The former Massachusetts governor, who today announced his Missouri leadership team, talked to Star political correspondent Steve Kraske. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

   Kraske: You’ve called President Bush “a fine leader.” How would a Mitt Romney presidency differ from President Bush’s administration, in both substance and style, in two or three major ways?

   Romney: Anyone running for president would hope their White House, like this president’s White House, would continue the example he had of being an individual of personal integrity and honor. I think that’s good to have in the White House.

   I believe in surrounding myself with people who are certainly more able and more brilliant than I. If I find lots of smart people, I love having them around me. I value confrontation and debate.

   As a matter of fact, if decision is presented to me where everyone agrees with me in the room, then I’m uncomfortable. I want to hear the opposite view and get a chance to weigh both perspectives or multiple perspectives before I make a decision to go ahead.

   I like a deliberate, analytical process before making decisions, where you can.

   There are important priorities we have right now, that I think are coming into focus. One is to move from the fronts we face in Iraq and Afghanistan, which we need to be successful in both of those fronts, but we need to move also to a global effort to help defeat the violent jihad throughout the world. That is not just a military effort on our part, but also a combo of our resources with other nations of the world to help support moderate Islamic states.

   I also believe we’re gong to need to reform some of our most basic programs in this country, to make them more viable long term: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, among those programs. We’re certainly not going to change promises made to seniors, but we want to make sure we can honor the promises we made in the future.

   In a new Newsweek poll, only 45 percent of registered Iowa Republicans say America is ready for a Mormon president — in spite of the fact that you’re the front-runner in the state. What do you say to people who have their doubts?

   I don’t think that people in this country choose people based on what church they go to. That’s done in the Middle East — not in America.

   Polls of that nature are interesting, but not terribly descriptive of what people actually do.    Because someone might say I won’t vote for a Mormon, but I’m planning to vote for Mitt Romney.

   You vote for the person, then accept the good, the bad and ugly that might go with them.

   If only the thing you knew about me were my faith, that might be a real problem. But fortunately there’s a little more dimension to me. At least I’m told that by my wife.

   Is the faith issue holding you back?

   I don’t believe so. I won the straw poll in Iowa. I just saw a poll that showed me doing well in South Carolina.

   People say they wouldn’t want to vote for this, they wouldn’t want to vote for that, but when you look at the individual, they take the whole package.

   I do think people respect a person of faith, and Americans want someone who actually believes in God, and believes that we are children of the same God, and believes that liberty was a gift of God.

   Are there differences between faith? Yes, but there’s much more that unites us.

   Is electing a Mormon president the same hurdle for you as electing a Roman Catholic president was for John Kennedy?

   I think John Kennedy jumped that barrier for all of us. I don’t think that every faith must establish the new pathway.

   In terms of what people will ask about, sure they ask me about my faith, but they’ll ask other candidates something that might be different about them. But when it comes to voting, they decide on issues and the person’s vision for the future, and the kind of things they’ve been able to do in their life.

   You’ve been saying on the campaign trail recently that when “Republicans act like Democrats, America loses.”  What do you mean by that?

   Washington is a real mess. The political process has been badly broken there. It’s going to take both parties to make some important changes. From my standpoint, changes begin with us.

   When we were in the position of having both branches, executive and legislative, we spent too much, we earmarked too much. To many people our ethical standards were found wanting.

   If that’s going to be the case, America is the loser because people expect Republicans to hold back spending and to abide by high standards of ethical conduct.

   What happened to the GOP?

   I can’t point fingers, I can’t name a person, or suggest how it happened to so much, as just Republicans found themselves in a position of power again. Frankly, we just spent too much money.

   It was an opportunity for Americans to reform some basic spending reforms, and the job didn’t get done.

   I’m running not to defend the past, but to describe a brighter future.

   If Mitt Romney were president today, would he veto the SCHIP bill as President Bush has threatened to do this week?

   Yeah. Yeah, I sure would. I’d veto it out of my belief that we should have every citizen insured. I put forward a plan in my state that gets every citizen insured. I put forward a program for the nation that gets every citizen insured.

   The SCHIP pathway is a very expensive way to spend more money and not get us much down the track of getting everybody insured.

   The right pathway to get everybody insured is to help people get private insurance.

   The SCHIP pathway is simply the wrong way.

   It’s unfortunate the Democrats used this vehicle. It would have been far wiser to have a more comprehensive plan to have everybody insured.

   I’ve heard you say the single biggest difference between our health-care plan and Senator Clinton’s is that she favors a federalized approach to the issue and you want a state-by-state approach. Tell us about that.

   That’s one difference.

   Number two, I want the people who are uninsured to get private insurance. She wants them to get government insurance.

   Her plan requires $110 billion a year, and new taxes. Mine uses money we’re already spending by providing those funds to states for their own programs.

   On Iraq, can you tell us when you want to begin withdrawing troops?

   I support General Petraeus' plan, which is to begin withdrawing troops after first of year, about a brigade a month.

   I hope we see Iraqi military will make such progress that we can continue troop withdraws even after next July. But we’ll have to see the conditions on the ground.

   I think Republicans and Democrats want to bring our troops home as soon as we can. But in my view, we want to make sure we don’t leave behind a safe haven for al-Qaida…

   What’s the one single-biggest mistake that’s been made there in Iraq?

   It’s kind of a list. After Saddam Hussein collapsed and his military collapsed, it was apparent that we had not prepared sufficiently with what had followed. We didn’t have the plans in place for what we would do.

   My guess if you were to ask the president the same question, he would come up with similar list.