{"id":5942,"date":"2011-12-13T10:53:45","date_gmt":"2011-12-13T18:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5942"},"modified":"2012-01-08T08:17:37","modified_gmt":"2012-01-08T16:17:37","slug":"occupy-messaging-who-are-the-real-job-creators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5942","title":{"rendered":"Occupy Messaging: Who Are The Real Job Creators?"},"content":{"rendered":"

For too long now, right-wing propagandists like Frank Luntz<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

One of the most recent and insidious examples of this practice is the conservative effort to replace references to “the rich”<\/em> with the phrase “job creators.”<\/em> 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<\/a> 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.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The agenda that Republicans have adopted has literally no popular constituency. Every poll taken<\/a> on the subject reveals that majorities of Americans (including majorities of Republicans) favor increasing taxes on the rich. Even polls of the rich<\/a> 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<\/a> released a video beseeching Congress to raise their taxes.<\/p>\n

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”<\/em> 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:<\/p>\n

(click to view larger)
\n\"Job<\/a><\/center>
\n<\/p>\n

[Addendum]<\/strong> President Obama asked these questions<\/a> in his economic address last month:<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

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? <\/p>\n

Are you willing to fight as hard for middle-class families as you do for those who are most fortunate?<\/p>\n

What’s it going to be?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,3,8],"tags":[183,1141,961,929,301],"class_list":["post-5942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-graphix","category-propaganda","tag-barack-obama","tag-economy","tag-infographic","tag-jobs","tag-republicans"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-1xQ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8459,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8459","url_meta":{"origin":5942,"position":0},"title":"[Reprise] The REAL Job Creators: Share This Infographic To Undo GOP Fallacy","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/17\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"With the presidential election behind us, the public discourse turns once again to more substantive matters, first of which is the fearful prospect of the so-called \"fiscal cliff.\" Setting aside the fact that the cliff itself is a figment of media imagination, it is nevertheless necessary for congress to address\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7621,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7621","url_meta":{"origin":5942,"position":1},"title":"Fox News Again Ignores Key Results Of Its Own Poll","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/19\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"You may not have heard that Fox News released a poll yesterday. The reason for that is that Fox News barely made any mention of it themselves. And when they did bring it up, it was to trumpet results that advanced their partisan agenda. Here is a selection of what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6100,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6100","url_meta":{"origin":5942,"position":2},"title":"The Decadence Index: How The Wealth Gap Is Hastening The Fall Of The American Empire","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/4\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"If there is anything that history teaches us about empires, it is that they are temporary and often fall of their own decaying weight. Ancient Rome is notorious for a descent that was widely speculated to have been driven by a massive class disparity. The aristocratic patricians devolved into a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=219"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1269,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1269","url_meta":{"origin":5942,"position":3},"title":"Are Conservatives Getting Stupider?","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/14\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"\"I sense intellectual deterioration of the once-vital conservative movement in the United States.\" Those are the words of Judge Richard Posner, a Reagan appointee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Posner is also one of the founders of the Chicago school of law and economics,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art\/Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Art\/Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62187,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=62187","url_meta":{"origin":5942,"position":4},"title":"PROJECTION: The Creators of Trump’s Project 2025 Say Biden is Plotting to Retain Power By Force","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/13\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The extremist right-wing faction in America that forms the core of the Cult of Trump has long been defined by the regressive policies advanced by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation. It's an organization that has recently enjoyed a spike in media attention with its release of \u201cProject 2025,\u201d a 900 page\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump Insurrection","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-insurrection.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-insurrection.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-insurrection.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1323,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1323","url_meta":{"origin":5942,"position":5},"title":"Brent Bozell To GOP: Set A Torch To That Big Tent","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/6\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Brent Bozell, the president of the uber-conservative Media Research Center, has issued a bit of advice for the Republican Party that ought to make Democrats everywhere ecstatic. \"Incoming memo to the GOP: Set a torch to that big tent of yours. 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