OBAMA'S (AND DEMS') BAD MESSAGING. INTENTIONAL OR STUPID?

Okay, hurricane Irene and Obama's Huge Speech have now blown over. Let's examine the wreckage and damage caused by the latter.

I realized in a phone conversation that the Dems in general, and Prez O in particular, have a gigantic problem with messaging. Take this snippet from the New York Times:

Mr. Obama went before Congress in September to push for a $447 billion package of tax cuts and new government spending.

The centerpiece of the bill, known as the American Jobs Act, is an extension and expansion of the cut in payroll taxes, worth $240 billion, under which the tax paid by employees would be cut in half through 2012.

Opinesters are opining away over whether these tax cuts will create any jobs at all. Consumer confidence is extremely low. So, the misnamed payroll tax cut (really a cut to contributions to Social Security) might not stimulate much.

But a point is being missed by anyone I can see: When Pres. G.W. Bush eased the heavy burden on the pitiable and downtrodden wealthy, he and his amen-chorus Repubs called it a TAX CUT. When Prez O and the Dems put forth the same plan, albeit for greedy and overprivileged working people, they happily call it SPENDING which has to be PAID FOR. That's not a subtle distinction, that's an encapsulation of the last 30 years of conservative framing of the argument! The Democrats spend. Spend, spend, spend. Even when they cut taxes, that's spending. And you wonder why it's a no-win every time. The Dems are playing uphill with this brainless messaging.

Worse, in this case, it could be intentionally put that way in order to puff up a jobs bill that really spends far less than half of its total on putting anyone to work. At the center of the bill is a vacuum that must be now filled with other CUTS. Cut, cut cut. Is this a never-ending rerun?