Frank Luntz's Newest Memo? How To Kill Financial Regulations Reform
As anyone who watches Mythbusters can tell you, you really can buff a turd. Why, GOP pollster and messaging strategist Frank Luntz does it on a regular basis! And this time, he's targeted financial regulatory reform.
I wonder what this amoral hack sees when he looks in the mirror - besides the bad wig, I mean:
In addition to tying regulatory reform to a massive government takeover, Luntz's memo includes several other data points and messaging suggestions as a blue print for the legislation's defeat. Opponents, he writes, would be well served to link the package to the financial industry bailout (which, it should be noted, is fundamentally not part of the legislation). According to accompanying polling data, 52 percent of voters said they would be "much less likely" to vote for their member of Congress if they voted for a financial reform bill that contained a fund to bail out banks and Wall Street.
"Public outrage about the bailout of banks and Wall Street is a simmering time bomb set to go off on Election Day," Luntz wrote. "Frankly, the single best way to kill any legislation is to link it to the Big Bank Bailout."
Another effective strategy to kill the bill, according to Luntz, is to make the case that it was written in secret by lobbyists.
"The American people are tired of add-ons, earmarks, and backroom deals - but they are mad as hell at 'lobbyist loopholes,'" Luntz wrote. "You must put proponents of the legislation on the defense, forcing them to attempt to justify the 'lobbyist loopholes' and exemptions placed in the bill... Highlight the exemptions. Broadcast them. Remind them, 'The legislation is filled with lobbyist loopholes that exclude certain wealthy, powerful industries from regulations.'"
On the specific issue of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, Luntz argued that opponents should stress the high-cost of creating an additional regulatory body in addition to the damaging effects it will supposedly have on "small business owners" (as opposed to, merely, small businesses).
"Owning a small business is part of the American Dream and Congress should make it easier to be an entrepreneur," wrote Luntz. "But the Financial Reform bill and the creation of the CFPA makes it harder to be a small business owner because it will choke off credit options to small business owners."
These lines or arguments are similar to the ones used by regulatory reform opponents in the past, often with some success. What's telling is that they are being trotted out again in this type of economic environment.
Thanks to the Five Fascists of the Apocolypse on the U.S. Supreme Court, we will be seeing these lies 24/7, on every t.v. and radio station.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
http://en.allexperts.com/e/f/fo/four_horsemen...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
http://www.neatorama.com/2007/06/25/gluing-ol...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Luntz knows you can fool some of the people some of the time. But you can fool a republican base voter inperpituity.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
If indeed he's just filling his pockets, maybe the Dems should up the ante and hire him.
Lord knows we could use someone to provide us with some good talking points. After all, we do have right on our side.
but you'll have one hell of a time getting the MSM on our side.
This guy deserves to lose all the money he's made in some spectacular financial collapse or Ponzi scheme. He then deserves to lose his health insurance coverage and be driven into bankruptcy for being such an immoral piece of dung.
Do you think Democrats are finally ready for Frank Luntz onslaught of horrible lies?
Unfortunately, the lies give the "Democrats" the cover and deniability they need to vote the whims of their corporate masters. So they'll huff and they'll puff for a time, then rollover and give the lobbyists what they wanted all along. Toss in some window dressing legislation about banning usurious interest rates for Civil War widows with 28 year mortages, 24/7 media buy in to the big lie, and you've got yourself REFORM!
Let's pull our own Luntz and banish "banks" and "financial institutions" from our vocabulary. From now on they are "money lenders" and "money changers".
Don't refer to "profits" or "commission". Use "the skim", "the vig", "the juice", "the take", or "the rake".
Who could resist a law that makes the money lenders clearly state their skim?
I wonder what this amoral hack sees when he looks in the mirror - besides the bad wig...
He sees a dirty stinking Tory...that's what he sees...
Isn't this the same Luntz that wrote the memo on how to kill health care reform??? lol Got news for him . health care reform passed. It's now law.
pennlady
the financial reform is to keep these companies from committing suicide. The stockholders should vote out any board whose company fights against the reforms. Deregulation empowered CEO to destroy companies while making insane amount of compensation. Heads I win tails you lose.
The $2.9 TRILLION DOLLAR bailout of Wall Street, orchestrated by REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT George W. Bush!!!
Dems need to continue reminding people ON THE MSM that the Global Financial Collapse:
a) was a result of Republican policies
b) began in June 2007 (a good 20 months before Obama took the Oath) and
c) the biggest redistribution of wealth in U.S. history was presided over by George W. Bush.
Most of all, they need to borrow a page from the Rove/Luntz playbook and scare the shit out of them, only not by lying, by telling them the truth: Elect Republicans if you want a repeat performance.
Healthcare passed and is law , 15 recess appointments , your base of morons is out of control and it looks like Obama and company are finally done playing patty cake with you assholes Franky .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
I thought this was bookie reform?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
This scumbag has been writing lies for right-wingers for decades. He co-wrote Gingrich's "Contract with America". He's a ruthless manipulator who only succeeds because our media has also become a corporate tool for manipulation.
Frank Luntz and Lee Atwater will never be as well-known by name as, say, Nancy Pelosi or George Soros. We liberals simply don't have the authoritarian base that craves personal attacks and demonization. We really are at a disadvantage, because the liberal base isn't so easily manipulated by framing and wordplay.
If Dems manage to let Republicans ride on the public outrage over bailouts, they are incompetent fools and proving themselves as corrupt and in the pockets of Wall Street as Republicans. To the public, it will look like they are even more so. Don't let Republicans take initiative on this.
The public will back the Financial Regulations Reform if it is pushed through hard and with a clear message against the insanity on Wall Street! It will be easy as long as there is no waffling and they show some spine and conviction. The common man will have their back all the way.
The Luntz memo is important, but this isn't "new" - the linked piece is from February 1st, and the memo was much discussed on the intertubes then and since. It's still relevant, but it'd be nice to link it to a new statement or some specific anti-reform measure.
And I fully expect them to do nothing again. They were handed the play book for GOP opposition to HCR and they ignored it completely. Now given a memo by the same author, we would be fools to think the Dems would do anything different.
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