In a recent speech to the Washington Economics Club, President Bush again expressed his strong support for investor-class tax cuts, and also for the necessity of additional spending cuts. But is one speech sufficient to make the case, and to really put the heat on Congress? I don’t think so. Good political marketing requires message repetition. Bush must make the investor-class case again and again, day after day, as Congress considers key votes on budget and tax policy. He must give voice to the investor class, becoming their representative in Washington; their advocate general. He must make it clear to the tone-deaf Republican majorities in both houses of Congress that they risk an electoral overthrow a year from now if they don’t heed the call of America’s stock-owning families.

It really has come to this breaking point. IRA and 401(k) owners are getting fed up with GOP recalcitrance. Nearly two-thirds of respondents to a recent CNBC poll actually believe that a Democratic majority in the House would be bullish for stocks. In other words, gridlock might be better than Republican government.

Polls like this, and perhaps the Democratic gains in the election earlier this month, are bad straws in the wind for the Bush vision of ownership, individual choice, and growth economics. Investors are risk takers and they know how to trade. If they see a stock in decline they will sell it. And they just may short the GOP unless they see a major turnaround in that company’s management and performance.