I'm starting to think it was a mistake to call it a "stimulus" bill.

[surrealAmerican]

The word "stimulus" is a codeword for "tax cut" as far as the republicans are concerned. They don't get that spending is what stimulates the economy. If it were called a "job creation" bill, or a "public works" bill, it may have been less confusing for them.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

1. You know, you just might be on to something there. nt

[depakid]

2. Democrats are notoriously- and recalcitrantly poor at framing issues

Whereas Republicans are master of the art- to point of sheer deception.

Obama ought to hold a "mandatory" retreat- and lock the "leadership" and their staff up at a remote location with George Lakoff- not to return until they have at least a rudimentary knowledge of how the process works.

[tabbycat31]

9. they're also bad at naming bills

Thom Hartmann talks about this all the time. If the GOP can name a civil liberties stripping bill the USA Patriot Act, then the Dems can come up with better names than things like SCHIP.

[depakid]

13. Isn't that the truth

Lakoff actually discusses that tendency in his books.

[SharonRB]

3. At our district convention today, Sandy Levin (my rep)

said basically the same thing -- it never should have been called a stimulus package.

[Elwood P Dowd]

4. Should have been called a jobs bill.

Thom Hartmann has been harping on that all week.

[ProSense]

5. It's stimulus

NPR Talks to Senators Who Complain About Spending That is Not Stimlus

This piece should have been ridicule. Spending that is not stimulus is like cash that is not money. Spending is stimulus, spending is stimulus. Any spending will generate jobs. It is that simple. There is a question of whether the spending will go to areas that will provide benefits, long-term or short-term, to the economy, but there is no question that money that is spent will create jobs and therefore is stimulus.

Any reporter who does not understand this fact has no business reporting on the economy.

--Dean Baker

[bbinacan]

6. To play devil's advocate

If spending stimulates the economy, why wouldn't a tax cut do the same thing? Maybe we need both.

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. Tax cuts are patently ineffective.

Think of it like this - you have $500 with which you can do something. Is that $500 more effective spread out at a dollar each to 500 people, on in a single lump sum?

The tax cuts that the republicans want are spread across a wide population, and frankly do shit for helping 99% of those who get them. A few hundred dollars is no effective help to any but the very poorest, and those very poorest are not eligible to receive tax cuts because they pay no taxes. You want bang for your buck, you put it into jobs creation, which expands the tax base and makes the program pay for itself.

[KittyWampus]

7. Economic Recovery Bill would've worked best, IMO

[Sarah Ibarruri]

8. Republicans understand that the name you give a bill, can make it or break it....

Democrats always try to take the intellectual road to things. That doesn't work in redneck U.S.A.

[BlooInBloo]

10. Overreactionism aside, it's a stimulus bill, just *less* stimulus...

thanks to the republicans and other turncoats.

[doc03]

11. It should have been called

The Economic Homeland Security Act. Then we could have beat them to death with they are failing to protect America from terrorism.

[leftofthedial]

14. I know *many* people who have it totally confused with the TARP "stimulus"

I think many Americans don't understand the difference. The corruption at the heart of the Paulson bank bailout has now been associated with the jobs-stimulus bill in many people's minds. Awful branding and marketing.