Update your dictionaries: just as recently, when Obama pushed for it, the bailout became “rescue”, so does the economic plan gets readjusted to fit lower expectations. The announcement comes surprisingly from the NYT
In a notable shift, Congressional leaders and officials of the incoming Obama administration are actively trying to retire that term and use the more marketable “economic recovery program” as the descriptor for the multibillion-dollar economic initiative to be considered early next year.
I suppose the pollsters have decided we like that word better
“ ‘Stimulus’ is Washington talk, and ‘economic recovery’ is how the American people think of it,” said Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff for the incoming White House team.
Public opinion researchers have found that voters do not consider the term particularly reassuring, perhaps because past stimuli have not proved to be personally rewarding or maybe because the phrase is just too Pavlovian in trying to elicit a predetermined economic response.
but it seems THE ONE is on the page as well
President-elect Barack Obama hit the economic recovery theme hard in his recent public pronouncements as did his top advisers. Speaker Nancy Pelosi caught herself last week just as she was about to let the S-word slip. “We’re not using the word ‘stimulus,’ ” Ms. Pelosi confided at a news conference.
And somewhat, this is not about hypocrisy either, but the “power of imagery” (read – the power of the media) and the auto industry is blamed again:
a check to cover a quick trip to the electronics store.
Still, they are well aware that imagery has proved powerful in the economic crisis. Besides the ill-fated labeling of the bailout, executives of the nation’s automakers learned the hard way last week that flying to Washington on corporate jets to plead for federal aid was not the most effective message for car manufacturers to send.
Oh, I won’t cry for those CEOs, but I know the money were refused because some of them were going into pension funds – helping actual workers rather than bankers.
So, I prefer to end this one with the buried lede
For Democrats like Mr. Emanuel, there is a serious purpose behind the semantic stagecraft: they want the public to get accustomed to the idea that turning the economy around is going to take some doing and that the money coming down the Congressional pike is not just a short-term, one-shot burst intended to produce instant results.
and it was also the Republicans term
Republicans, who note that they have been talking about their own “economic recovery” proposals for quite a while, are skeptical that the Democrats are doing anything more than changing a few lines in the talking points.
They may be skeptical, but I see a lot of significance in using GOP talking points
7 comments
November 26, 2008 at 12:58 pm
sister of ye
It startles me the venon directed not toward the auto company CEOs – I live in Detroit, I have no illusions about them – but against the auto workers. “Overpaid” is the kindest thing I’ve seen them charged with. It’s like they perpetrated an evil plot against their fellow workers by being the most effective holdouts against the wage deflation of the last 35 years. And they haven’t held it off entirely.
I thought liberals were supposed to be for the working man and women participating in their company’s economic gain. I guess the academics prefer the “little people” to be victims starving in garrets. And the working class finds it easier to be angry at their fellow workers than the cheapskate employers whose jobs they need.
Let’s not even get into how horrible those workers are to expect to receive their pensions. Uh, folks, it’s deferred compensation, not company largesse. So much for working people trying to ensure for their own future comfort. Guess if you’re not rich enough to be a Wall Street playah, you’re supposed to starve.
November 26, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Mawm
sister, I hadn’t heard they were blaming the “over paid” auto-workers. How pathetic. I guess Detroit’s downfall has nothing to do with stifling innovation, so they could keep making the same gas guzzling cars.
November 26, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Woman Voter
Clips from We Will Not Be Silenced, a documentary on the 2008 election.
http://www.WeWillNotBeSilenced2008.com
We Will Not Be Silenced Promo Clips
……………………
The documentary is almost finished, take a look at what happened in the ‘Democratic Party’. I will not be silenced, and if you believe in the concept of democracy you should be concerned with election reform, and the concept of One Person One Vote!
Make some noise stand up for democratic principles…don’t be silenced.
November 26, 2008 at 4:03 pm
edgeoforever
sister of ye
I personally rather has some of this money go to the auto workers. Any workers for that matter, rather than the fat cats who created the crisis.
November 26, 2008 at 4:19 pm
adagioforstrings1
re: sister of ye:”I thought liberals were supposed to be for the working man and women participating in their company’s economic gain”
That’s the point, though. Their companies have not been gaining anything…they’ve been losing market shares & hemmoraging money.
From a 2005 Detriot News article about the UAW job banks program where union workers get paid for literally not working:
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/278419.php#278419
“Ken Pool is making good money. On weekdays, he shows up at 7 a.m. at Ford Motor Co.’s Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, signs in, and then starts working — on a crossword puzzle. Pool hates the monotony, but the pay is good: more than $31 an hour, plus benefits. “
December 2, 2008 at 11:06 am
bqueen
“I suppose the pollsters have decided we like that word better”…
that or Axelrod’s consulting company, which advises corporations how to manipulate the public…
It’s a Goebbel’s-takeover and both know/knew how to use language to manipulate the unwitting public.
April 14, 2009 at 7:30 am
“Change” you can thesaurus on « Not Your Sweetie
[…] As for Obama, he started updating our lexicon with the economy: the bailout became rescue and for a while the stimulus became recovery. […]