Koch-Backed Groups Are Selling Trump's Tax Cuts Door-to-Door Ahead of the Midterms

[CousinIT]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-02/koch-backed-groups-are-selling-trump-s-tax-cuts-door-to-door-ahead-of-the-midterms

Landon Porter has barely uttered the words “tax reform” before the door slams in his face. He stands on the front steps of the colonial-style home for a second. Then he checks his smartphone, finds the next address, and knocks on another door in this middle-class neighborhood in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Porter, 25, is the grass-roots director of the Indiana branch of Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a conservative public-advocacy group that’s part of the political network built and partly financed by billionaires Charles and David Koch. Although he makes no mention of the Koch brothers in his pitch, Porter’s door-knocking campaign is part of a $20 million effort by Koch-affiliated groups to boost support for the $1.5 trillion in tax cuts Congress approved last year. Republicans have so far struggled to make the party’s signature achievement this cycle a winning campaign issue. Only 39 percent of respondents viewed the tax law favorably in an April Gallup poll.

For Republicans hoping to stave off Democratic victories in November’s elections, the party will have to do a better job of selling the overhaul to the public. It won’t be easy. Tax policy is notoriously complicated. And if the responses to Porter’s efforts on a recent Saturday are any indication, people are skeptical. “I don’t think my check has changed,” says Linda Meredith, a 52-year-old bartender who was among those visited. Meredith says she supported the tax changes. Then she adds: “They’re going to benefit the rich.”

The bulk of the $20 million the Koch network is spending to promote the tax cut—roughly equal to what it spent on getting it passed—will be for television ads such as those AFP has run in Indiana, Missouri, and North Dakota targeting Democratic senators in states won by President Trump. But a key component will be door-to-door canvass campaigns. People are rarely eager to talk about their finances with a stranger, though as the midterms creep closer, and the odds of Democrats taking back the House of Representatives rise, Republican groups are beginning to mobilize around the tax cuts. “We knew how important it would be to ensure Americans understood what this meant for them and the economy,” says Tim Phillips, AFP’s president. “With our permanent grass-roots infrastructure, we have the unique ability to bring the message about the benefits of tax reform to people’s doorsteps.”

[Vogon_Glory]

1. What? Doors being slammed in their faces?

Reality checks are a good thing, particularly for ideogues and apparatchikii. Maybe a miracle or two will occur and at least a few of them would wise up.

[NewJeffCT]

2. Must be nice to have the money to pay people

to go door to door to promote a failed policy

[hedda_foil]

4. It's not a fake policy. It's doing exactly what old Chuck and Dave intended.

[NewJeffCT]

5. it's a failed policy, though

as I said above - Republicans sold it that it would create a big economic boom and the rich and wealth corporations would create tons of new high paying jobs.

Now, the regular Joe and Jane's Costco membership cost is going to get eaten up by rising gas and healthcare costs and increasing inflation.

[hedda_foil]

7. It was never supposed to help regular folks.

That was always just PR/window dressing to cover up the boys t giveaway to the Koch boys and their buddies who paid for the damn thing. It works for them precisely as designed. All the rest Jack in flam and lies because that's what they have to do to sell it to the MAGAts.

[NewJeffCT]

8. That's how it was sold

and that is how they will sell it door to door.

[hedda_foil]

9. Of course.

[hatrack]

3. C'mon, Chuck! C'mon, Dave! Spend more! You know you can do it!

Nothing here that a few tens of millions more won't fix!

[ck4829]

6. *Slap* "The tax cuts have been good for you! Say it!" *Slap* "The tax cuts have been good for you!"