Romney Ridicules Gingrich's Job Creation Claims IRMO, S.C. - Mitt Romney's stump speeches at rallies like the one here on Wednesday night are largely patriotic goo, but in the last day or two he's also thrown in a newly sharpened jab at Newt Gingrich. It's a reaction to Mr. Gingrich's preposterous claim in Monday night's debate that he and Ronald Reagan created 16 million jobs, and that he and Bill Clinton later created another 11 million. "Sometimes you've got to smile," Mr. Romney said here. I watched Speaker Gingrich talk about all those jobs he created when he was a new congressman working with Ronald Reagan. He'd been in office as a congressman two years at that point. Him taking credit for the jobs created in America during the Reagan years is a bit like Al Gore saying he invented the Internet. Yes, sometimes you do have to smile, especially when Mitt Romney decides it's time to chide someone else for saying something ridiculous. He's wrong, of course, about Mr. Gore making that claim, but he's right, of course, in pointing out that Mr. Gingrich's wild claims of responsibility for prosperity are a joke. Mr. Gingrich had no leadership role during the Reagan years, and had nothing to do with the tech boom that produced many of those jobs under Mr. Clinton. But Mr. Romney always seems to hit a wrong note just when he is on the verge of saying something reasonable. He could have just chided Mr. Gingrich for serial exaggeration, but instead spent the day explaining that the former speaker was obviously wrong because "government doesn't create jobs - it's the private sector that creates jobs." Government can't create jobs, but President Obama should be tossed from the White House because he hasn't created enough jobs? Following this thread all the way along undermines Mr. Romney's most fundamental claim to the presidency - that his business experience equips him to create jobs and right the economy. Why bother, if there's nothing government can do? There are, in fact, many ways for government to produce job growth; it's just that Mr. Romney doesn't want to do any of them. Economists do, and have spent the last three years calling on Washington to spend more money on public works, and to stimulate consumer demand by putting more money in lower- and middle-income people's pockets (and NOT the rich, they have plenty and they don't spend a small tax break). A payroll tax cut and extended unemployment insurance are very effective ways to do so. The president's stimulus policies have led the private sector to create 2.2 million jobs since they went into effect, but no Republican will acknowledge that, preferring to count the jobs lost in the early weeks of the Obama administration to make it look like a net loss. Mr. Romney has either opposed or belittled all those proposals when Mr. Obama suggested them, and his only prescription is one that has failed to create jobs time and again when it was tried: cutting regulations, spending, and taxes for the rich.