WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is searching for a new way to sell its financial-rescue plan after acknowledging some blunders and missteps in presenting it the first time around. One big key: Insist it’s not a Wall Street “bailout.”
Now it’s not about financial institutions. The focus has switched to everyday Americans. And it’s not an expenditure of taxpayer money; it’s an “investment.” This was clearly evident in Bush’s grim warnings Tuesday of “economic hardship for millions” if the plan can’t be revived.
This emphasis was echoed on the presidential campaign trail and on Capitol Hill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s take: Its not a bailout but “a buy-in, so that we can turn our economy around.”
Bush, John McCain, Barack Obama and top congressional leaders agree that the plan — which would nationalize large numbers of bad mortgages and securities tied to them — is needed to unclog the nation’s financial arteries.
Language seems to matter.
An AP-Knowledge Networks poll last week that asked whether people supported Bush’s proposed federal “bailout” of financial institutions found only 30 percent backing it. Surveys by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center that asked whether people support “investing” or “committing” billions to keep markets secure found slightly more favoring the plan than opposing it.
