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Hard Hat Hoax on Capitol Hill
Working-class Americans, they weren’t.
But that’s what the National Association of Manufacturers wanted you to believe when you turned on the TV news or picked up your paper and saw pictures of folks in hard hats surrounding Republican leaders at a Capitol Hill news conference March 8.
It was a ruse to get low- and middle-income Americans to believe that fellow working families back the Bush administration’s tax cuts in spite of widespread opinions from economists that the costly plan unquestionably favors the rich.
The Washington Post revealed the hoax the next day. “On most days, the political director of (NAM) dons a suit and tie,” the story began. “But at a GOP tax cut rally outside the Capitol yesterday, Fred Nichols was sporting a faded blue ‘Farm Credit’ hat, a striped rugby shirt and olive-green slacks.”
A NAM spokesman encouraged the deception in a memo to the association’s business leaders, who were in Washington for a conference and a week of lobbying. The online magazine Slate named the memo its “Whopper of the Week.”
The memo indicated that NAM was scrambling to meet requirements set by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and his staff.
The memo, as reprinted in Slate and the Post, read: “The theme involves working Americans. Visually this will involve a sea of hard hats, which our construction and contractor and building groups are working very hard to provide. But the Speaker’s office was very clear in saying that they do not need people in suits. If people want to participate — AND WE DO NEED BODIES — they must be DRESSED DOWN, appear to be REAL WORKER types, etc. We plan to have hard hats for people to wear. Other groups are providing waiters/ waitresses and other types of workers.”
Some bona fide workers did show up at the request of such business groups as the National Restaurant Association, the Post reported. But how many people in the crowd were workers and how many were posing as workers isn’t clear.
But that’s what the National Association of Manufacturers wanted you to believe when you turned on the TV news or picked up your paper and saw pictures of folks in hard hats surrounding Republican leaders at a Capitol Hill news conference March 8.
It was a ruse to get low- and middle-income Americans to believe that fellow working families back the Bush administration’s tax cuts in spite of widespread opinions from economists that the costly plan unquestionably favors the rich.
The Washington Post revealed the hoax the next day. “On most days, the political director of (NAM) dons a suit and tie,” the story began. “But at a GOP tax cut rally outside the Capitol yesterday, Fred Nichols was sporting a faded blue ‘Farm Credit’ hat, a striped rugby shirt and olive-green slacks.”
A NAM spokesman encouraged the deception in a memo to the association’s business leaders, who were in Washington for a conference and a week of lobbying. The online magazine Slate named the memo its “Whopper of the Week.”
The memo indicated that NAM was scrambling to meet requirements set by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and his staff.
The memo, as reprinted in Slate and the Post, read: “The theme involves working Americans. Visually this will involve a sea of hard hats, which our construction and contractor and building groups are working very hard to provide. But the Speaker’s office was very clear in saying that they do not need people in suits. If people want to participate — AND WE DO NEED BODIES — they must be DRESSED DOWN, appear to be REAL WORKER types, etc. We plan to have hard hats for people to wear. Other groups are providing waiters/ waitresses and other types of workers.”
Some bona fide workers did show up at the request of such business groups as the National Restaurant Association, the Post reported. But how many people in the crowd were workers and how many were posing as workers isn’t clear.