How Can the Dems Get The Truth Out About the Debt Ceiling Disaster?

[Martin_Hyde]

@BrainGlutton

Southern conservatism is chiefly to blame.

I heard drive by hyperlinking was actually the real culprit.

[Evil_Captor]

I am thinking the Dems’ best bet is a massive on-target messaging campaign with talking points along these lines:

Republicans are to blame for the debt ceiling debate – there would never have been one if they had not decided to hold the debt ceiling hostage to their political will.

Democrats were ready to vote through a **clean debt ceiling bill **in 2010, but Republicans took the economy hostage.

Republicans have behaved like (deadbeats, cheats, welshers) by refusing to authorize repayment of money already borrowed.

Republicans have been irresponsible, childish and short-sighted in causing the debt ceiling debacle, and now all Americans will pay for Republican childishness (or whatever).

When questioners bring up the need for reducing American debt, the automatic response should be:

The Republicans turned down a $4 billion deficit reduction bill, TWICE what they wound up accepting, months ago!

(Some Democratic talking heads, notably Robert Reich, have been saying that during a recession the government should stimulate the economy by spending, not cut back on spending, and that’s why holding the economy hostage over deficit reduction was a poor idea. This is a very poor line to take, not because it is incorrect – it is absolutely correct – but because it makes people think about economics, which makes their little heads hurt. The people we will be trying to reach are the salt of the earth, if you know what I mean.)

Republicans have betrayed the American people, forcing them to pay billions for nothing, just to do some political grandstanding.

Congressional leaders and White House spokesmen should repeat these points over and over and over again, especially the key phrases underlined in bold.

I welcome criticism of any and all of these points, and suggestions for better points.

[Evil_Captor]

@John_Mace

This issue doesn’t lend itself well to sound-bite campaigning.

I have just provided a list of sound-bites, heh. I think there’s some potential there.

Firstly, you need to make people understand that the debt limit isn’t about covering our asses for money we might allocate sometime in the future. It’s about paying for things we already bought. I think a lot people see “debt limit” and thing: Oh, they want to spend more money in the future. Well, this money is, for all practical purposes, already “spent”.

Yeah, I actually used this as a sound bite, calling the Republicans deadbeats, chisilers and welshers for advocating a refusal to honor our debts.

The next part is a little easier, since you can point out how many times the debt limit has been raised and how it was basically just something that has to be done. That once a budget is passed, we Americans should assume that we’re good for that money. And that the rest of world gets very nervous when we imply that we’re not.

I had not thought of that, I bet there is a way to render this sound-bitey.

Thirdly, whatever you do, don’t mention the time when Obama voted against raising the debt ceiling. You can talk about his vote being symbolic, and not something that threatened our credit rating, but it just doesn’t look good.

Definitely, though Republican talking heads will parrot it endlessly. A quick “not part of a serious attempt to oppose raising the debt limit” is about the only response that works, I think.