Jane Ham, Las Vegas

Tue, Dec 2, 2008 (2:02 a.m.)

The New York Times’ Bob Herbert, in his column in the Las Vegas Sun Wednesday, implies that President George W. Bush didn’t “get it” about creating jobs. But I remember several times over the past few months when President Bush reported U.S. job growth — that is, until the September market crash.

But it shouldn’t be the job of the federal government to create jobs with taxpayers’ money. American business will create American jobs if only the feds quit overtaxing and over-regulating them.

Herbert says the American economy hasn’t come this close to flat-lining since the 1930s. Not true. The worst recession since the Great Depression was in 1981, the effect of the Carter administration’s stagnant economy, high inflation and soaring interest rates.

Herbert promises us that President-elect Barack Obama will create (government) jobs by fixing our “long neglected, crumbling infrastructure.” Does he mean no work has been done on our roads and bridges during the Bush administration? Maybe even the Clinton administration? What were all those orange cones I had to drive around doing there? And why does the federal government have to repair all the infrastructure with taxpayers’ money? Aren’t the states and counties responsible for fixing their own roads and bridges — with their taxpayers’ money?

Herbert also says we are moving away from spending money on war and “lavish tax cuts for the rich.” I wonder how many non-rich Americans will be surprised to find their taxes going up when Obama allows President Bush’s “tax cuts for the rich” to expire.

The most infuriating of Herbert’s remarks is that our major economic competitors (European countries) are spending up to 9 percent of their gross domestic product on their infrastructure. Of course they are. They can afford to. They don’t have to spend their taxpayers’ money on their military because good old Uncle Sam protects them from terrorist attacks with our military forces.

Now that one of the biggest cities in the world, Mumbai, India (formerly Bombay), has been attacked by terrorists, with more than 125 people murdered, perhaps Obama will finally quit saying the McCain campaign was trying to scare American voters with the fear of terrorist attacks.