If you had to distill your economic message into a single declarative sentence, what would it be?The magazine's subsequent podcast about the cover story featured this unsolicited advice to the White House about framing the GM bailout:
That having broken the back of this recession, our goal now is to build a new foundation for long-term, sustainable economic growth, and that that requires innovation. It requires a smart energy policy. It requires a health-care system that is not a drag on business. And it requires an education system that is producing the most productive workers in the world.
The messaging on the other side has been very strong, whereas the messaging out of the White House has not been."Shifting that lens a little bit at the front" - that's framing.
...
It comes back to this inability to get across a cohesive message. And let's talk about GM for a minute. You know, one of the ways that I think the administration could have been more successful in the past year was to realize that words like, "regulation" - "bailout," they don't play very well. There was an opportunity with GM to make it all about health care, and say, "Folks, the reason we have to go in here and save these jobs and save these companies is that, they can't afford to insure people anymore. Look at the pension program. Look at the costs they pay for their employees." And just by shifting that lens a little bit at the front, I actually think they could have had a smoother way to the bailout.
So if the author's theory is that the widely unpopular bailouts could have been made more popular under a health care frame, he's assuming there's a heart switch for easing the burden of corporate America that doesn't also trip the corporate-giveaway or self-defense switches that would tend toward voter backlash.
What are you thoughts on BusinessWeek's framing advice to the President who just beat the odds against passing health care reform?
No comments:
Post a Comment