Laying off Teachers, Firefighters, and Cops

Last night, every single Republican in the Senate voted down the President's plan to put more of our teachers, firefighters, and cops back on the job.

CORE MESSAGE

They chose to lay off teachers, firefighters, and cops to save millionaires half a penny on the dollar in taxes.

Connect: Ordinary American families are getting crushed -- millionaires and billionaires aren't.

Define: But last night, Republican politicians chose to lay off hundred of thousands of teachers, firefighters and cops in order to save millionaires half a penny on the dollar in taxes.

Discredit: They showed once again that protecting millionaire tax giveaways and defeating the President are higher priorities than saving their own constituents' jobs.

Contrast: They chose to keep millionaire tax giveaways that don't create jobs instead of putting Americans back to work in jobs that keep our country running. It shouldn't even have been a close call.

ATTACKS AND RESPONSES

"This bill won't create jobs, just like the stimulus didn't work."

• They should try telling that to the millions of Americans who have jobs because of the stimulus.
• Even the top economist to the last presidential election's Republican nominee says the "argument that the stimulus had zero impact and we shouldn't have done it is intellectually dishonest or wrong."
• Economists say President Obama's jobs plan will put two million Americans back to work - including hundreds of thousands of teachers, firefighters, and police officers.

"Any tax increase will harm job creation."

• Let's put money into the hands of the real job creators in this country -- American small businesses and the middle class.
• We can't go back to "trickle down." We saw what it led to under Bush: the slowest job growth since World War II and record deficits.
• When President Clinton told millionaires and corporations to pay their fair share in taxes, we got millions of new jobs and strong economic growth.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Three out of four Americans support using federal funds to put teachers, firefighters, and cops back to work. The Putting Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act would do just that.
• Millionaires and billionaires are raking in higher incomes and skyrocketing bonuses while paying the lowest income tax rates in generations.

• About 30 major national polls show that Americans believe we need to raise taxes, including a recent poll that shows 70 percent want to end wasteful tax giveaways to corporations and millionaires.
• Last year, Americans earned a median wage of only $26,000 while a CEO of a top S&P 500 company raked in an average of $11 million - over 400 times as much.

We develop messaging by aggregating, analyzing and distilling polling, tested messaging, and expert recommendations, and monitoring the media to identify what is and isn't working.  See here for some of the experts and organizations we draw on.