Not A "Gaffe"

CORE MESSAGE

Does it count as a "gaffe" when Romney admits what his policies would actually do?

Connect: The media loves to stir up a controversy over a sound bite, but real Americans are struggling and trying to sort out what politicians are really saying and what they stand for.

Define: Mitt Romney's statement that we should lay off our firefighters, cops, and teachers wasn't a "gaffe" -- it's what he really thinks and where his policies all lead.

Illustrate: He's running on a platform to lay off more of our firefighters, cops, and teachers, and he pushed for the same when he was Governor of Massachusetts.

Contrast: Do we really want leaders who think our children are too smart, our homes are too safe, and the middle class has too many good jobs?

Debunk: Good teachers, firefighters, nurses, and cops don't just keep our country running. Keeping them on the job keeps customers in our stores -- and that's just what our private sector needs to thrive and hire.

Share: http://bit.ly/N8vzE7 | Facebook   | Twitter

ATTACKS AND RESPONSES

ROMNEY'S REACTION: "Obama is out of touch because he said the private sector is doing fine."
RESPONSE:

• Obviously the private sector isn't doing as well as the President wants -- that's why his policies have been focused on fixing it.
• Whether through loans to small businesses or more money in the pockets of working Americans who are customers in our stores, the President has been fighting to create private sector jobs.
• American companies have created over 4 million jobs in just the last two years alone, but it's not enough, so the President is working to help them create more -- despite GOP politicians' best efforts to stop him.
• If Republicans hadn't pushed to lay off over half a million of our teachers, cops, and firefighters and stopped Americans from getting back to work fixing our roads and bridges, our unemployment rate could be down to 6% already.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• While the private sector has added over 4 million jobs in the past two years, 600,000 firefighters, nurses, cops, teachers, and other workers in the public sector have been laid off.
• Last year alone, Washington Republicans tried to kill over 7 million jobs. At the state and local level, GOP leadership pushed for the public sector layoffs that are dragging down the national economic recovery.
• In fact, if public sector employment had been allowed to recover normally, we could have nearly 2 more million jobs today -- including 500,000 jobs in the private sector.
• If GOP politicians hadn't also blocked efforts to put Americans back to work fixing our roads and bridges, the unemployment rate could be down to 6% already.
• Laying off our firefighters, cops, and teachers has consequences for our kids and communities:
• Throughout the country -- including Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, California, and Georgia -- cuts to our public schools mean fewer teachers for our kids, more crowded classrooms, fewer school days, fewer learning opportunities, less classroom time to teach and learn, outdated textbooks, and broken computers.
• In the Texas city of Alto, the entire police budget had been cut to zero, leading to a crime spree of local businesses.
• Detroit is resorting to "rolling brownouts" -- which means no firefighting service is available -- because the city can't afford to fully staff and equip its fire departments. People have died in fires as a result.
• Throughout New Jersey -- in Lawrenceville, Trenton, Newark, and Camden -- layoffs mean police units are stretched too thin to deal with the increase in murders, robberies, auto thefts, and other crimes.
• In Pennsylvania, firefighter layoffs are also leading to brownouts and longer response times, prompting one firefighter to worry that it's "playing Russian roulette every day." In Philadelphia, cost-cutting brownouts were blamed for the deaths of two kids in a fire.
• In Los Angeles, spending cuts are also causing longer firefighter response times.
• In Louisiana, budget cuts have forced local hospitals to stop delivering babies, close down surgical beds, and shut down the NICU.
• So it's not surprising that by overwhelming margins, the American public supports keeping our firefighters, cops, and teachers on the job.

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.