I hope it's not true that the Republicans do. That would mean that even though they understand how the economy works, they stood by during the Bush administration and watched the disaster taking shape and did nothing to stop it then or later. And when President Obama tried to start a recovery from the disaster (quite successfully), the Republicans took every opportunity to block his efforts and blame it all on him even though they were the ones who let it happen.
I should think that Mitt Romney would disavow any knowledge of the causes of the great recession. Otherwise, his party would have to explain why they refrained from stopping it even though they knew how to do it.