A 20-Year Marketing Plan

March, 1991
The Agenda
1. Cut taxes for the wealthy to lower levels than we've seen in recent history.
(Done.)
2. Preserve those tax cuts and make them even deeper.
3. Offset the lost revenue by pushing radical spending cuts that hurt the
middle class.
4. Increase taxes on the middle class. (This also allows Republicans to say
they're not always against raising taxes - they don't mind making
beleaguered middle class voters pay more by removing the mortgage interest
deduction, for example.)
5. Allow the government to default on its $2.6 trillion debt to the Social
Security Trust Fund - money that was collected to fund retirement and
disability benefits - in order to fund this tax giveaway.
6. Ensure that the payroll tax cap isn't raised - or is only raised slightly - as
another way to keep taxes low for the wealthy.
7. Raise the retirement age. That not only preserves income tax breaks for the
wealthy, but enlarges the labor force. That keeps wages artificially low and
ensures an endless supply of low-cost, blue-vested Wal-Mart greeters.
A Hard Sell
 Our plan will milk the middle class
 A Hard Sell
 Decimate or eliminate health care for the elderly
A Hard Sell
 Require drastic cuts in education
A Hard Sell
 Devastate homeowners
A Hard Sell
 Increase joblessness
A Hard Sell
 And condemn millions of older Americans to poverty
The Problem:
The old way isn’t working. People won’t buy these
radical ideas from anyone labeled as ‘far right.’ And
let’s face it: Our ideas are pretty extreme.

How do we sell the unsellable?

We can do it!
Here’s a new idea …
The Marketing Plan: Make Our Program
Seem ‘Moderate’ - and Necessary
1. Sell the Deficit as Problem #1 – in fact, as the only problem
2. Make it a Spending Problem
3. Protect low taxes for our clients
4. Convince the middle class that Social Security is broken
5. Look “technical”; call everyone else “extreme” and “ideological”
6. Stay away from real health reform!
7. Radicalize Washington; Marginalize America
8. Create the “Theology of Compromise”
9. Create our own “experts”
10. Create an artificial economic panic
11. Use our usual tools at the ratings agencies
12. Find people eager to look “rational” to speak for us
Selling the Deficit
 Convince people that the government deficit is our
most urgent problem - the only one that matters.
 That means distracting them from unemployment,
stagnating wages, wealth inequality, the health and
financial security of the elderly
 But protect defense – defense contracts are lucrative!
-- The bottom line: Keep them afraid of dying from
terrorist acts, but fearless about dying because
Medicare won’t be there for them.
Make it a Spending Problem
 Distract them from the ever-decreasing tax rate for
high-income Americans
 Keep the focus on spending
 Start with Reagan
 Keep up the drumbeat
 Get Democrats to push 3-to-1 spending to revenue cuts
Make Tax Increases for the Rich
‘Off-Limits’
 Just be radical and crazy about it
 Get ‘nonpartisan’ operatives like Simpson and Bowles
to propose lowering the top tax bracket even further
(from 91% under Eisenhower, 50% under Reagan, 35%
currently, down to 25%)
 Keep on being radical and crazy
 Did we mention “radical and crazy”?
Promote false myths about Social
Security's fiscal outlook
 It’s just IOUs!!
 Greedy geezers!
 We can’t afford it!
 Note: Use the prospect of a 25% shortfall in benefits in
year 2037 to push bigger benefit cuts now
 Push all the false myths that have been discredited
since 1939, and which were fully discredited by
President Eisenhower’s panel in 1959
Sound ‘technical.’ Make the other
guy ‘ideological’
 Convince journalists that it’s ‘ideological’ and ‘rigid’
not to accept our rigid ideology as fact-based
 Ignore reputable economists whenever they discredit
us
 Make sure that journalists mock anyone who speaks
for a majority of voters – including Republicans – as
‘extreme’ and even silly. (See latest example.)
Stay away from real health reform!
 Medicare is a long-term deficit problem; in fact, it’s the
problem
 Fixing Medicare means fixing our broken health care
system
 That means fixing for-profit health care
 Musn’t do that! Lots of money there for our clients
 Solution: Don’t fix our health problem. Just cap
Medicare’s budget. Then those costs are the old folks’
problem – not ours.
Radicalize Washington; Marginalize
America
 First, make sure that ‘centrist’ and ‘bipartisan’ DC
accepts our program (see foll
 Ignore poll results which show how unpopular our
program is
 Make sure the media ignores them too
 “Explain” that the American people aren’t “practical”
about the deficit, even though their preferred
solutions (ie, higher taxes on our clients) would work
perfectly
The Theology of Compromise
 After building a consensus among DC power brokers,
we must marginalize anyone who disagrees
 “Compromise” must become an ideal, rather than a
means to an end
 Genuine differences of opinion must be dismissed as
uncooperative, “politicians” placing “politics” over
“getting things done”
Move the Center of Debate
 Keep proposing radical, far-right ideas
 Marginalize journalists who point out that they are, in fact,
extreme
 Promote journalists who act as if they are actually
reasonable
 Moving the Center, together with the Theology of
Compromise, is the path to victory
Thought: If this works, by 2011 a Democratic President – perhaps
even one whose biography makes him fresh and “different” –
might endorse the idea that compromise with radical ideology is
more important than an ideal outcome. Let’s think big!
Create Our Own ‘Experts’
 Generously finance any economist willing to push our
ideas (Who can we get?)
 Fund think tanks to push our ideas as ‘nonpartisan,’
‘technical,’ and above old ideas of ‘left’ and ‘right’
(What do you think of this name? “The Third Way.”)
 Remember: We’re the ventriloquists.
Create an Artificial Financial Panic
 Convince people that government debt will ruin their
lives
 That means suppressing discussion of unemployment,
poverty, the need for health care and income security
in old age, etc.
 Increased employment means more revenue for
government – but not worth the risk that our clients
might have to pay for stimulus programs
 Government debt a real problem – but let’s exaggerate.
(How do we like the phrase ‘financial Armageddon’?
Over the top? I say let’s go for it.)
Use Ratings Agencies
 Our Wall Street friends say Standard & Poor’s will say
whatever they want to say. (Can you believe how
pliant these agencies are?)
 Have them instill a panic at the appropriate times by
threatening to downgrade the US government’s credit
rating.
Get Dems and ‘moderate’
observers on board
 Make sure we get some Dems to push our program.
(What do you think of that new kid Durbin? He’s
feisty, but he’ll come around.)
 Get some fresh faces in journalism to go along
 The fresh faces don’t have to agree with us 100%
 They just have to say our ideas are reasonable
Conclusion
 Sure, our proposals are radical ..
 But our plan is solid
 It takes time, money, patience …
 … and confidence
 Remember: It can be done,, nd we’re the guys to do it.
All we have to do is ..
… think like winners!