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The Spectacle Blog
Summary:
We are totally screwing up the messaging. My proposal herein may not have all the numbers add up exactly on each of the two parts of it, and frankly, I don’t care. That wasn’t the point — and it is silly to get hung up on exact numbers anyway. The important thing is to make our side look and sound like something the public should like.
Here’s a key idea in the first:
[F]iscal conservatives should highlight specific cuts not begrudgingly, but as if the cuts themselves are gifts to their constituents.
Tactically, here’s an example of the sort of thing I describe:
The House, for instance, could pass two bills to ward off the (poorly named) fiscal cliff. The first would extend the Bush-era upper-income tax cuts along with perhaps the expanded per-child tax credit also at risk of expiring – but coupled with the closing of a some upper-income loopholes and deductions and with the easiest, most popular of spending cuts to make it revenue-neutral.
This is important. We always lose when we try to do too much at once.
Meanwhile, I agree with Ali and Patrick Ruffini, etcetera, about the long-term needs for tech geeks and all sorts of other improvements. But in the short run, we need to learn how to tie better legislative packaging with better PR packaging — so that BOTH sorts of packaging work together and give us strategic and tactical negotiating edges.
View all comments (11) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Quin Hillyer
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/12/04/how-to-negotiate-budgets
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Bob K| 12.4.12 @ 5:11PM
If you want them to like it you have to be able to tell them in a way that won't make their eyes glaze over.
On that note, try rewriting your explanation in the second example in the black print above until you make it simple to understand.
Occam's Tool| 12.4.12 @ 7:36PM
Good point, Bob. 3 pages max, very simple language.
Trinacria| 12.5.12 @ 11:33AM
One fears there's no language simple enough to convey rational concepts to the irrational mind...
Oldefarte| 12.4.12 @ 7:55PM
How about this plan instead:
Republicans should detail what governmental programs/agencies/departments/expendatures are duplicative/triplicated [and as such excessivesly expensive to the pocketbook of the American taxpayer] and therefore should be eliminated; initiate a plan of zero-based budgeting so that expendatures begin at "0" and increase forward [through congressional committee discussion and implementation] based upon demonstratable public need/necessity; formulate legislation to completely and totally outlaw labor union representation over federal employee salary/benefits; design legislation to return managerial control of public education to states where it can become more effectively managed as beging closer to the actual schools; begin legislation discussions of permitting/developing any/all domestic energy sources available with the goal of seriously reducing the 2/3 supply dependency that ths country now has upon Middle Eastern produced oil; develop fiscal planning to completely eliminate the Federal defecit/debt within ten years from the present and to thereafter legally require a balanced Federal budget annually; and finally develop plans/committees etc to totally revise federal income taxiation laws/rules of the IRS in order to eliminate unnecessary subsidies/deductions/ credits etc which are only politically favorable but not economically/fiscally sound public policies!!!!!
Oldefarte| 12.4.12 @ 7:58PM
PS: Oh wait I forgot, we can't do my above suggested..........BHO and the Democrats are in charge of this country and we STUPIDS gave them that authority!!!!!!!
Dai Alanye | 12.4.12 @ 8:31PM
Agreed, Quin. Concrete, understandable bills from the House are better than generalized proposals. In effect, put Obama on the defensive by forcing him to reply to definite Republican legislative actions.
As far as taxes on the "super-rich" as the Dems like to call them, go for closure of specific exemptions for incomes above a level significantly higher than Dems want. Cut in at, say, one million bucks per individual rather than the $200,000 Obama insists upon. As I see it, for practical political reasons we will need to have some form of "soak the rich." Let it be on more reasonable, fairer-sounding terms. No change in rates, but elimination of specific, dollar-denominated deductions.
Indy| 12.4.12 @ 9:28PM
Here's the pitch the GOP should have made back in the last debt ceiling debate and should have campaigned on:
The stimulus was a one shot deal so it must be removed from the budget baseline. Most Americans agree the stimulus spending was a failure which was nothing more than political payoffs, if it were removed from the baseline we would go a long way to reducing the deficit. So why is this never mentioned, even by budget wonk Paul Ryan or Senator Rand Paul?
RJ| 12.4.12 @ 11:40PM
All we hear from Obama and the Democrats is raise taxes on the rich. The response is the federal government spends $1.1 trillion more than it takes in each year, which can't go on. How much does the increased taxes in the rich cover? (Not much) and what percentage of the income tax revenue do the rich already pay? (a good deal of it). Conclusion: so get serious before the problem gets worse and find ways to reduce spending.
Simon Templar| 12.5.12 @ 10:07AM
The are losing, Quin, because they have no message, no plan, no bargaining strategy, no communication skills, and no leadership.
They are losing because they are willing participants in being played and they REFUSE to learn anything from past experiences and insist on the same actions and reactions.
This is, of course, largely based on the assumption that they are just stupid and stubborn and not actually colluding with their so-called political opposition in creating even larger government.
I personally believe it is a mixture of both, stupidity and collusion.
Trinacria| 12.5.12 @ 11:30AM
With all due respect, everyone seems to be missing the point here. Quin et al. remain convinced that the problem centers around messaging; however, effective message delivery is predicated on the recipient possessing the capacity for reason. When the operative philosophical precept is "I gots mine's", the requisite capacity for reason no longer exists.
Don't believe it? Ask yourself the following: Did Obama win the election because he was able to present a more cogent and compelling rational argument, or did he win because he made an appeal to man's basest instincts? Hint: "I got's me a Obama phone!"
We're not approaching a fiscal cliff; we approached an existential cliff 4 years ago and leapt head first. We're just waiting to hit the floor of the canyon.
Oldefarte| 12.7.12 @ 11:26AM
I couldn't agree more! It's now only a matter of time. If JC was nominated by Republicans in four years, it would not make one iota of difference. The STUPIDS are now in control of this nation!!!!!