Attention Republicans: As a small-business owner, I can assure you that cutting my taxes, trashing my schools and teachers, and decimating my fire, police, and government regulatory services that keep corporate greed in check are not ever going to get me to hire anyone.

It is and will always be customers that create jobs -- mostly middle-class customers that have not been squeezed into poverty through your efforts to transfer the majority of the nation's wealth to the richest 1 percent of us. I will hire new employees only when I have enough new customers to justify new employees.

Cutting taxes for ultra-wealthy individuals, corporations, and those who would sacrifice our clean water, air, and land for short-term profits does not create lasting jobs. Does everyone forget the 16 million American jobs we have lost due to Bush and Republican policies? Wake up and smell the greed.

Brian Smith, Cuyahoga Falls