President Obama delivered a speech today in which he outlined a good policy proposal: Keeping taxes low on people earning under $250k per year (which includes 97% of small business owners, lovingly referred to as the “job creators”) while raising them back to Clinton-era levels for people earning over $250k.

It’s a solid policy idea for everyone (including the rich) because statistics prove that the spending habits of lower income people change dramatically when you tweak their tax rate by a few points, whereas the habits of high earners don’t. Obama’s plan encourages maximum spending by the most people (good for the economy) while still taking in much-needed tax revenue from high earners to bring down the deficit. Plus, the more low and middle earners get to spend and stimulate the economy, the better the rich people’s stock portfolios will perform. Win-win.

Except nobody got the message. Because President Obama and his communication team are totally fucking up the message.

Obama’s tax proposal is repeatedly referred to as “extending the Bush-era tax cuts” for the middle class, and “letting the cuts expire” for high earners.

The problems with this framing are two-fold: First, the current economy sucks. No one is going to get excited about “extending” anything. Second, the crux of Obama’s plan—raising taxes on high earners—is presented as “allowing cuts on the wealthy to expire.” It’s got to be the most passive way to argue a policy position. Rather than pro-actively leading us in a new direction, Obama is presenting his plan as allowing a default to kick back in when the clock runs out. Americans don’t respond to default settings. This is the country of Superbowls—we want a bold, grand plan for a hail mary pass that just might work if we all band together to pull off something spectacular.

How about laying out a vision for what we might do with that extra revenue from high earners? Something we can get excited about? FDR didn’t pass Social Security and Medicare by saying, “We’ve got to start taxing you all more so that other people can use your money when they need it.” He addressed America’s plight and inspired them to come together in search of a better future. He didn’t do it by “extending” anything or letting anything “expire.”

The president’s “lead from behind” style worked beautifully on foreign policy. On the economy, it’s a complete mess.

There’s no doubt Obama faces a uniquely obstructionist Congress. But FDR had his fair share of haters, too. He still found a way to get them to rally behind his vision as a necessary, bold initiative to pull the country out of depression.

Obama faces serious opportunities: historically at times of crisis we’e been the most open to adopting bold new visions. But Obama is going to need a much stronger message if he expects anyone to line up behind him.

If you missed it, watch the full speech below.

Image via The Daily Beast