Two of the sharper observers of American politics are somehow completely baffled as to why the Build Back Better bill doesn't have more popular support. Stephanie Ruhle and James Carville just don't know!
Carville then decides it's .... Democratic messaging. Well, to a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
"I want to get practical and political. The president has two huge bills. Massively important in Washington, long-term significant solutions. I want you to think about what people are complaining about every day right now at their dinner tables. How do Biden's bills help them right now? That's what people care about," Ruhle said.
"They should keep certain things in there, pass them and do them right, and then run on the things you didn't do in 2022. To me, that makes a lot of sense. But they've got to negotiate to get something done so people can see there's some action. They're right, gas prices are high. I would point out that wages went up in the last jobs report," Carville said.
"They did, but unfortunately inflation is going up faster," Ruhle retorted.
"Then should the Biden administration focus on messaging, rather than think about broad Build Back Better, should they be more explicit and say this is going to give you affordable child care? This is going to give you affordable medicine. That people can get their head around."
"Absolutely. There was a poll by CBS, that 10% of people even know what's in this," Carville said.
"If you're saying we've got legislation, $2 trillion, well, people if they're just spending $2 trillion on nothing, they're not going to be for it. If you tell them what we're spending the $2 trillion on, then they'll be for it. It's that simple. and I don't think that they or even the congressional wing of the party has done a particularly good job of telling people exactly what's in this.
"It's not just throwing $2 trillion away. It's actually making people's lives better, and if I -- for instance, in home health, if I'm taking care of an elderly person or have someone in a nursing home and I know that that's in there, that's really important to me. That makes me feel better today. And there's hundreds of things like that that are in there."
"You just got to let them know," Ruhle said.
Let's see if there are any clues as to why people JUST DON'T KNOW what's in the bill, shall we?
Eric Boehlert in his Press Run newsletter:
Democrats are trying to pass a bill over GOP objections that contains hugely popular initiatives, but most voters don’t know that the good stuff might soon be voted on. Instead, all they keep hearing about is the cost. Because of that disconnect, there is not currently a majority of people who think Build Back Better would help them and their family or help the economy, according to the survey.
The irony is that CBS reported the polling results without ever acknowledging that Americans likely don’t know what’s in Build Back Better because news outlets like CBS have done such a poor job explaining it. Hyper-focused on the price tag, which is precisely where Republicans want the public attention to be, the press pays lip service to the historic contents of the bill.
I keep saying this when people complain about Dem messaging: Don't blame the Dems when the media simply refuses to do their job. All of their incentives are toward covering the Republican clown show, and pushing the agenda of their corporate interests.
