Posted on 10/12/2011 9:14:29 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
As Allahpundit wrote of last night's Senate vote to block the president's jobs bill, the outcome was just about as perfect as it could have been for the president, whose jobs package, loaded as it was with tax hikes Republicans were bound to reject out of hand, wasn't designed to pass in the first place. The vote last night provides the basis for Democrats to blame Republican obstructionism for the next 13 months of a slow-to-no recovery, and blame ‘em they will. But they won’t just blame “Generic Republicans.” As the Senate now lays its plans to vote piece by piece on the American Jobs Act, Democrats are tightening their message against the Tea Party.
According to a memo now circulating from New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer’s office, Democrats consider the Tea Party’s growing unpopularity as the GOP’s “Achilles heel” — and they’ll exploit that for all its worth. An excerpt from the memo:
By linking the GOP to its extreme Tea Party fringe, Democrats can bolster the prospects for the president’s jobs ideas, or at least make clear who is responsible for the stalling of the recovery.
Democrats can make this link by branding the school of thought that resists against any job-creation measures as “Tea Party economics.” The opponents of the President’s jobs proposals should be invoked as “Tea Party Republicans.” If their obstruction continues, it will risk a “Tea Party recession.”
The memo employs its own strategy, referring repeatedly to “Tea Party economics” and to “Tea Party Republicans.” It also drives home that the debt ceiling debate did more to damage the Tea Party brand than it did to damage the brand of establishment Republicans or Democrats. That’s disappointing, given that many Tea Partiers originally demanded Cut, Cap and Balance in return for a debt ceiling increase and the final deal that emerged was a far cry from that. In other words, in the midst of that debate, Tea Partiers in Congress compromised every bit as much or more as any other contingent in Congress.
But Democrats will only be successful at demonizing the Tea Party if Tea Partiers cease to make the case that has always been at the core of the Tea Party movement. It boils down to this: The $14,695,102,108,238 debt is an enormous drag on the economy and it costs jobs. When debt reaches 90 percent of GDP (ours is higher than that!), the economy loses about 1 percent of growth each year. That translates to 1 million jobs annually.
Republicans rightly voted against the American Jobs Act last night because the first stimulus was a miserable failure and because more spending will just add to the debt that’s dragging down the economy in the first place. Yes, the president’s plan was “paid for” with tax hikes. But Barack Obama has yet to be serious about a long-term plan to cut spending. Democrats are fond of saying that Republicans oppose “revenues,” that they’re not open to any tax hikes whatsoever. But Republicans have introduced tax reform proposals that would close tax loopholes on the corporate side just as the president says he wants (but hasn’t substantively done anything to bring about, probably because that would affect his ability to engage in crony capitalism). What Republicans opposed last night are tax hikes to fund more spending totally unaccompanied by any deficit and debt reduction plan. What’s so wrong with that?
What Schumer’s memo underscores is the need to take the case to the American people — from which the Tea Party emerged, after all. Hate to say it, but the president has done an effective job doing just that with the AJA. According to a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll, the American people trust the president on the issue of jobs more than they trust Republicans by a 49 percent to 34 percent margin. Before he toured the country to tout his jobs package, Americans trusted Obama and Republicans about equally on the issue of job creation. The president is able to make his bill sound sensible, but only when Republicans fail to unmask it for what it is — a second stimulus, as likely to be only about as successful as the first.
Those are all democratic bills 100%.
Just absolute MORONS
The Tea Party as the fringe?? as extreme??
Yeah Socialists, Communism,Islamist and other assorted scumbags always believe that those that want freedom and liberty are extreme..........
Sorry Chucky. Obama is going down and hopefully so is much more of your political party
I don't trust a Washington Post or ABC news poll any farther than I trust Obama, and my trust in him is the same as his name ZERO.
I wouldn’t be laughing...
Remember, we are dealing with a media who, in 2006, convinced the sheeple that 4.4% unemployment was HORRIBLE!, and “The Worst Economy Since The Great Depression!”.
A media who, in 2008, convinced the Sheeple that a guy with a questionable background, who’s ONLY biz experience was selling ice cream cones, and drugs to kids in college, would be a great President because of the color of his skin.
The constant attacks on the Tea PArty have driven it’s approval among the sheeple down from the mid-70’s, to the 30’s now. And this, while most people don’t even know what the Tea Party is!
NEVER, EVER underestimate the Power of Propaganda.
Our side has made that mistake too many times, and it has harmed America greatly.
Schumer is a fool on a fool’s errand.
The Tea Party voters sent their candidates to Congress to stop the fascist madness, and that’s what this vote did. Now Schumer can goosestep about the country and get cheers from fascist mobs for his fable, but it won’t work.
The schumanist is a schmuck with ear flaps.
LOL. Give that a shot there, Chuckles the Clown.
STATUS UPDATE:
THAT was a recession, THIS is change!
Debbie Wasserman Schultz: ‘We own the economy’
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2735113/posts
he should have checked with Sgt. Schultz first.
Bump
Bump
If the dumbass Republicans knew how (or had the guts) to do that, the Dems wouldn't be running the country into the ground right now.
They can try their wittle stwtegery...Tea Partiers do not exist in a vaccuum...and we are perfectly capable of turning that stupid assertion aside.
It might play well in the bluest states...but in red and purple, its a LOSER. so by all means...run yer mouth.
Fumer is irrelevant and will probably retire after McConnell is Majority Leader. The real question is, when did Hotair get so sucky?
Chucky the tea party are voters so why would you and your ilk insult a large majority of voters based on polls taken in the cities where no one knows anyone like that and only what lies the MSM have whispered into their ears?Dumb move
Dingy Harry couldn’t get his own caucus on board for this thing — the ‘rats control the Senate after all. I didn’t realize that there were so many TEA Party Democrats in the Senate.
The tea party job-creation plan is to "invest" in the people instead of the government. This can be done by letting the earners spend their own money and resources without nanny state bureaucrats kneecapping the economy at every turn.
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