Of all the snappy sound bites Mitt Romney and his campaign surrogates on certain cable “news” programs like to toss around, one of my favorites is “Job Creator,” as in you can’t tax the Job Creators if you want the economy to improve.

It’s also one of the easiest Romney election myths to debunk.

When George W. Bush inherited a budget surplus and a reasonable tax rate from Bill Clinton in 2001, Bush and his Republican Congress slashed tax rates, arguing that the government shouldn’t have a surplus in its budget. They could have done something intelligent with the surplus, like paying for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, or reducing the National Debt, but they chose not to.

Instead they borrowed more money to pay for the wars and makeup for the loss of revenue due to the ill-advised tax cuts.

Of course Republicans have belatedly come to realize the debt is a national problem, now that Mr. Obama is in the White House; they were less concerned about it under Ronald Reagan and George W.

It was disturbing how so many of Mr. Bush’s advisers and supporters were so eager to send our young men and women to fight a war, yet so reluctant to dig in their own pockets to help pay for it.

After eight years of lower taxes, the American economy was heading for a meltdown and unemployment was skyrocketing. Surely if lower taxes on the “Job Creators” actually created jobs, everyone in America who wanted one would have one.

Mitt Romney has now filled his campaign ranks with many of the same neo-conservative ideologues whose sole concept for economic recovery is to lower taxes.

At least they are consistent. If you have a surplus: cut taxes; if you have a deficit: cut taxes.

Merlyn Marten

Proctorville