Occupy Messaging: Who Are The Real Job Creators?

For too long now, right-wing propagandists like Frank Luntz have been manipulating language to distort the real issues that impact so many lives of American citizens. They engage in dishonest wordcraft that disguises their true meaning in order to shape public opinion and deceive voters. It’s time to counter that rhetorical offensive by restoring definitions that actually reflect reality.

One of the most recent and insidious examples of this practice is the conservative effort to replace references to “the rich” with the phrase “job creators.” It is of no interest to these hacks that no evidence exists to validate the claim. In fact, NPR’s congressional reporter, Tamara Keith, asked members of congress and representatives of conservative business groups to refer her to business people who could substantiate the assertion that tax cuts for the wealthy would induce them to increase hiring. They were unable to come up with a single name or example to affirm their half-baked theory. However, Keith found several examples of her own that utterly refuted it. This caused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to note that “Millionaire job creators are like unicorns. They are impossible to find and don’t exist.”

The agenda that Republicans have adopted has literally no popular constituency. Every poll taken on the subject reveals that majorities of Americans (including majorities of Republicans) favor increasing taxes on the rich. Even polls of the rich show that they believe that they are not presently sharing the sacrifice required to restore the nation’s economic health. An independent group of Patriotic Millionaires released a video beseeching Congress to raise their taxes.

So the next time you hear some GOP flunky whining about the plight of the rich whose only desire is to be unburdened from the shackles of what are the lowest taxes in decades, remember that they have not, and cannot, certify any claim that lower taxes will spur hiring. In fact, the evidence is all to the contrary. And whenever possible, we need to recapture the phrase “job creators” and use it in a manner that is more in line with reality. Here is a handy, shareable chart that illustrates who the real job creators are:

(click to view larger)
Job Creators

[Addendum] President Obama asked these questions in his economic address last month:

Are you going to cut taxes for the middle class and those who are trying to get into the middle class? Or are you going to protect massive tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, many of whom don’t even want those tax breaks?

Are you going to ask a few hundred thousand people who have done very, very well to do their fair share? Or are you going to raise taxes for hundreds of millions of people across the country – 160 million Americans?

Are you willing to fight as hard for middle-class families as you do for those who are most fortunate?

What’s it going to be?

Advertisement:

8 thoughts on “Occupy Messaging: Who Are The Real Job Creators?

  1. If cutting taxes on the wealthiest Americans creates jobs, why is unemployment so high? We have had the Bush tax cuts in effect now for 8 years and they don’t seem to have created any jobs in the U.S. I heard Jennifer Granholm(former gov. of Michigan)argue, in a global economy, the only jobs tax cuts have created are in China, India, Mexico et al., and she is right. Current tax policy places no incentives on hiring American workers, and as we can see from the unemployment rate, create no jobs in the U.S. Current tax policy not only does not create jobs it is not taxing us fairly and that is something the repubs never talk about. They are just a bunch of selfish pigs who are fighting for the one percent whether they like it or not!

    • I find it astonishing that the GOP can claim that cutting taxes creates jobs based on the past decade. They must be trippin on some pretty pure acid.

  2. Only an idiot could misunderstand that.

    • Yes, the stimulus created jobs. A lot of them.

      This chart has the monthly job adds/losses from Dec 2007 to Jan 2012:
      http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/03/10/gallup-ing-through-the-recovery/
      For the last year of Bush’s presidency we were losing more and more jobs each month. By the time Bush left office we were losing 600,000 to 800,000 jobs every month!

      Obama was sworn into office in Jan 2009. In Feb 2009 the stimulus bill was passed. Now, look at the chart: In March of 2009 the job losses started to drop! They continued dropping for the next 10 months until we started adding jobs in March of 2009. This is just one piece of evidence that proves the stimulus plan was necessary and was successful!

      This chart also explains why the unemployment rate was 6.7% when Bush left office and why it got to nearly 10% under Obama. Two months after Obama took office he had the job situation in the nation going in the right direction. Yet even though job losses were slowing, we were still losing jobs overall which caused the unemployment rate to go up. Bush and the GOP had us in such a deep, deep hole that it took 13 months to start showing positive job growth!

      G.W.Bush had Republican majority in the House and Senate for most of the time he was in office. That meant the GOP could pass pretty much any law they wanted. By the time the GOP lost their hold on the House and Senate we were already in the midst of a serious economic decline. By the time Bush left office we were deep into the second worst economic disaster in the history of our nation.

      Under Obama we have had 20 consecutive months – and 23 out of 27 months – of job growth. The stock market has had steady growth in volume since December 2009. Consumer spending is up, corporate profits are up. These are all facts.

      If you want to go back to the economic policies that put us in that hole by all means vote Republican in November.

  3. Are the “patriotic Millionaires” patriotic only because they agree with you? Is a Millionaire less patriotic because he/she feels they want to have control in directing their money toward causes they feel are important vs. giving it to a government that removes his/her choices and empowers our “trust worthy” politicians? Is anyone who thinks the people should keep more of their money – no matter how much they make – “less patriotic” in your eyes. If I was as interested in giving up more of my freedom, I may agree with you, but I like spending my money all by myself – as I’m sure most people do. Does that make us all all “unpatriotic”? Do you actually have any faith in the people of this country – I would say not since you clearly think the government it so much better at managing our affairs. Just how much is enough – oh yeah, you won’t actually answer that question specifially, it’s easier to keep saying “pay your fair share” whatever that means. or in your case – lets go back to taking 70% of earned income when you get too rich as it was prior to the tax cutting of the 1980s. That’s patirotic!!!

    • Patriotic Millionaires are those who put the welfare of their country before their own greed. Our nation is in a crisis and middle and low income citizens are being asked to sacrifice with regard to Social Security, Medicare, education, wages, etc. Why shouldn’t the wealthy share the sacrifice?

      Personally, I would love to see the portion of income that exceeds a million dollars be taxed at 70%, but no one is proposing that. The only increase on the table is about 4%. And as I noted above, a majority of millionaires polled agree that their taxes should be raised. So quit your phony demagoging about patriotism.

Comments are closed.