Former President George W. Bush says the tax cuts he implemented in 2001 and 2003 helped lessen the effect of the Great Recession and should be continued.

“I think that keeping taxes low did help buffer a difficult economic situation,” Bush tells Forbes Media Chairman Steve Forbes. The former president is referring to the downturn of 2007-2009.

“And I think raising taxes is going to take capital out of the hands of those creating jobs.”

Editor's Note: Obama’s Economic ‘Fix’ is In . . .

Most people don’t realize that small businesses create about 70 percent of new jobs and that these businesses often pay income taxes at the individual rate, Bush says.

“If the goal is private-sector growth, tax policy ought to encourage, not discourage, the job creators, the small businesses.”

And that constitutes an argument against increasing taxes for the wealthy, he says.

“If you raise taxes on the so-called rich, you’re really taxing job creators, which either means that people don’t really understand the implications, or the objective is not private sector growth but public sector growth.”

Democrats feel differently, of course.

“This should be a no-brainer,” Robert Reich, Labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, write in the Chicago Tribune. “Rich Americans are taking home a larger share of America's total income than they have at any time since the 1920s, yet paying the lowest tax rate in more than 30 years.”

Editor's Note: Obama’s Economic ‘Fix’ is In . . .