Posted by
dieneces on Wednesday, October 01, 2008 10:35:10 PM
In a recent article on rollcall.com, Erin Billings and John Stanton layout the Senate leadership's strategy for passing bail-out legislation. Interestingly enough, the authors of this article explain that both Reid and Mcconnel's strategy is nearly identical. It consists of two main points: 1) talk about how 'inaction' will have dire consequences - give examples, &c - 2) rebrand it: try to overcome the initial sale of this plan to the public. The second part of the plan is most interesting. In essence, it implies that if senators talk about this as a 'main-street rescue' rather than a 'wall-street bail-out' that the public will collectively bend over and grab its ankles.
Underlying this plan is a perncious assumption - that citizens of the United States can be swindled into doing something they don't want to do. Recall that constituents were contacting their representation in both houses of congress - the people's ire was in concert against this plan. To overcome this strong sentiment, their plan it to rebrand this sucker?
While I don't typically applaud the American public's ability to grasp issues, this one cuts across nearly all demographics into which people are placed. In keeping with this, I suggest that our leaders in both houses of congress forget about rebranding and try a completely new idea. Let the SEC tweek mark-to-market, slash the capital gains and corporate tax rates - take artifical risk out of the market. This will immediately 'inject liquidity' (as many talking-heads are wont to say).
One more point: John F(ing) Kerry tells leaders of both parties and the media to "connect the dots" for the common person - will somebody please vote this dunder-head out of office???