Tip Sheet for the Holiday Dinner Table: 2011 Edition

This holiday season, here's our guide to talking politics over turkey and eggnog -- and winning the debate. Below are talking points to beat the 12 top falsehoods and attacks to expect from your Fox News-watching uncle. (Here's the PDF version to print out and take with you.)

1.    When they say: "We can't raise taxes on job creators."
Then you say...

• We should be putting money in the pockets of the real job creators: the middle class whose spending keeps our businesses thriving and hiring.
• Instead, the GOP voted again and again to make working Americans pay more just so those few who already have more than they could ever spend can pay less. 
• We already tried "trickle down" economics and it didn't work.

2.    "Regulations kill jobs and economic growth."

• Talk to real business owners and they'll tell you they're hurting because they don't have enough customers -- not because of regulations.
• We don't have to choose between jobs and common-sense safeguards that protect the food we eat, the air our kids breathe, and the products we buy.
• New standards encourage industries to innovate and can CREATE jobs -- just like safety standards spawned a new industry in safety gear for construction workers.

3.    "Half of Americans don't pay taxes."

• Do you know anyone who doesn't pay property, payroll, or sales taxes? Didn't think so. That's because all Americans pay taxes.
• The real problem is that regular Americans are working harder and harder but getting paid less and less. With half of Americans making less than $30,000 a year, many just aren't earning enough to be taxed on their income.
• Now when it comes to income taxes, regular Americans struggling to get by would gladly pay the same income taxes as millionaires if it meant making as much money as millionaires do!

4.    "Obama is waging class warfare."

• As Warren Buffett tells it, the only class warfare in America is being waged by his class -- and they're winning.
• Middle-class families shouldn't have to pay higher taxes than any millionaire. That's not class warfare. That's a basic American value.

5.    "Obama made the economy worse."

• It's hard to feel optimistic when we all have friends and family members who have lost jobs and are struggling. But the reality is that Obama's economic policies put people back to work and kept unemployment from shooting up even higher.
• Just before Obama came into office, we were dealing with the worst recession since the Great Depression. We can't go back to the ways that caused the mess we're still dealing with today.
• We can create good jobs and get our economy back on track -- but we need leaders who want Americans to succeed more than they want the President to fail.

6.    "Obamacare is a disaster."

• Actually, the health care law is already working. Just ask the 2.5 million college age kids who are now covered through their parents' plans. Or the 24 million seniors who got preventative wellness checkups through Medicare or the 17 million kids who can no longer be denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition.
• Let's stick with what's working -- we can't go back to the broken system we had before where insurance companies were in charge. 

Say this ... instead of that
"Actually" or "As it turns out" ... instead of "you're wrong"
"Teachers, nurses, and firefighters" or "Americans who keep our country running" ... instead of "government employees"
"Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid" ... instead of "entitlements"
"Our roads, bridges, and schools" ... instead of "government spending"

7.    "We need to cut spending to grow the economy."

• Actually, when we cut investments in our roads, bridges, and schools, Americans lose their jobs. That takes away customers from businesses -- and that means less hiring and less economic growth.
• The best way to get our economy moving is to put Americans back to work, not to lay off our cops, teachers, and construction workers.

8.    "Corporate tax rates are too high."

• Actually, we have the second lowest corporate tax rate in the developed world. And some companies like Bank of America don't pay any taxes at all, thanks to corporate tax loopholes.
• Right now, big corporations are sitting on record piles of cash, raking in record profits, and handing out record bonuses to CEOs -- while paying the lowest tax rates in decades.
• America's middle class is carrying too much of the burden and getting crushed -- we need to ask millionaires and big corporations to pay their fair share.

9.    "Wall Street didn't cause our economic crisis -- irresponsible homeowners did."

• Americans have always been advised to buy as much house as they could afford. What changed was that banks suddenly started telling homebuyers they could afford houses they really couldn't, because the banks knew they could sell the mortgage to Wall Street at a profit before it went bad.
• The more Wall Street abused the rules, the more money they made. Markets work when there is one set of rules for everyone and everyone plays by those rules.

10.  "Allowing gay couples to marry is an attack on marriage."

• Gay couples just want to be able to make the same public commitment and lifetime promise to take care of each other and their families as everyone else.
• With so many marriages ending in divorce, it doesn't weaken marriage to allow people who've been fighting so hard to commit to each other to publicly do that.What we really need are more couples willing to fight as hard for their marriages as gay couples do.

11.  "Government workers' huge benefits and salaries drove states to bankruptcy."

• As it turns out, our teachers, nurses, and firefighters make less than they would in the private sector. And they've sacrificed a great deal, like taking pay freezes.
• Corporate special interests, on the other hand, have enjoyed massive tax giveaways that have made our budget problems worse. Hardworking middle class Americans have sacrificed enough. It's time for politicians to ask the big corporations to share the burden.

12.  "The Occupy protesters are [fill in latest smear]."

• Do you disagree with them that Wall Street CEOs shouldn't be able to pay politicians to write the rules and get rewarded when they break them? Or that those politicians are putting the wealthiest 1% ahead of everyone else?
• These protesters are ordinary Americans from all walks of life joining together and speaking out. This is democracy. Like General Colin Powell said, that's as American as apple pie.

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.