Subject: RE: Econ Speech Draft
From: David Binder <[email-masked]>
To: Dan Schwerin <[email-masked]>, Joel Benenson <[email-masked]>, Mandy Grunwald <[email-masked]>, Jim <[email-masked]>, John Anzalone <[email-masked]>, John Podesta <[email-masked]>
Cc: Jake Sullivan <[email-masked]>, Jennifer Palmieri <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2015 13:38:44 -0700

A couple of quick thoughts here.

Opening premise:  we have to make sure the incomes of everyday Americans are rising steadily and strongly.  This is the defining economic challenge of our time.
Consider working in the phrase:  “Hard-working Americans” here, as while we absolutely want wages of all Americans to rise, I think in the way we talk about this, we should not lose sight that we aren’t raising wages just for the sake of raising wages, we are for raising wages so that hard work pays off again, and is rewarded.   Voters continually differentiate between the deserving and the undeserving and would suggest we always remind ourselves that we want to help hard-working Americans, who deserve rewards for their hard work that helps the company bottom line, etc.

Curious what others think, but, I’m uncertain about naming GOPers by name.

Also, after the “faster growth,” one of the first things is “oppose any efforts to …”   Just generally, out of the gate on a new policy proposal, voters want to hear things we will do/we will support, not what we will oppose.  Maybe consider changing the order here so the first thing people here isn’t that we are in opposition to something someone else is doing.    same thing with preventing deep cuts in R&D that Reps are trying to do.  Would maybe reframe to “support increasing investment in R&D …” so that we are more proactively in favor of something rather than opposing what others are doing.

Incentives for average workers to share in the profits their hard work produces (like the ‘hard work’ here), was one of the things that popped in our groups.  So that’s great.  not sure if we can trump that up any more, but that has potential to get notice from average voters.

When talking tax reform, which is another huge topic that voters frequently bring up, can we work in the word “simplify?”  it’s huge for people.  simplify the tax code is something everyone wants.

Curious on quoting Trumka by name.

Would like to think more about this thematically, but these are a few first thoughts, and great job, Dan.

From: Dan Schwerin [mailto:[email-masked]]
Sent: Thursday, July 09, 2015 3:15 PM
To: Joel Benenson; Mandy Grunwald; Jim; David Binder; John Anzalone; John Podesta
Cc: Jake Sullivan; Jennifer Palmieri
Subject: Econ Speech Draft

I wanted to share this first working draft of Monday's econ speech.  This is too long, so we'll be cutting, but it gives a sense of the argument and structure.  As we discussed, the great economic challenge of our time is getting incomes rising for everyday Americans, and to do that, she's proposing a three-part agenda of faster growth, fairer growth, and long term growth. The Republicans, by contrast, are stuck with the playbooks of the past.
Best,
Dan