FRAMESHOP:FRAMESHOP: REPUBLICANS BET THE HOUSE ON "TAXES, TAXES, TAXES"

FAT LADY SINGING: "Tax" and "taxes" are the most repeated words in Bush and Cheney's mid-term campaign speeches (image: JabTV).

The Republicans are continuing to flood the campaign trail with horror stories of Democrats and taxes. Both the President and the Vice President are repeating the words "tax" and "taxes" in their stump speeches. Yesterday, during his "victory" rally in Idaho, Cheney mentioned "tax" and "taxes" 30 times.

He used the word "Republican" only 9 times.

Certainly, the Republicans are enjoying themselves as they continue to beat up on John Kerry, but the RNC framing strategy heading into this final weekend before the election is "taxes, taxes, taxes." More and more, the Kerry smear campaign seems to be little more than a smokescreen to hide the real strategy of the RNC: scare voters into thinking the Democrats will take all their money.

To deal with this tactic, Democrats need only mention the "mountains of debt" incurred by the Republicans.

BULLET POINTS: To prevent this RNC "taxes" approach from dominating the campaign, volunteers working on campaigns can draw attention to these frames on Republicans and the economy:

• Out of control government spending
• Massive debt dumped on our children's future
• Billions spent in Iraq each month with no results
• Mountains of loans from Chinese banks

LINE TO USE: "Republicans have wasted every dollar, and it's time for some change."

© 2006 Jeffrey Feldman, Frameshop