Senate Republicans this afternoon again voted in a bloc to stall debate on a Wall Street reform measure, after a concerted effort to brand the increased regulations a fat-cat bailout. The “bailout” label, as People For’s Peter Montgomery explains in a new Right Wing Watch In Focus report, is a carefully calculated lie:

Back in January, Republican pollster and communications strategist Frank Luntz distributed a strategy memo instructing Republican officials how to obstruct Wall Street reform while confusing the American public about who was looking out for their interests. Among Luntz’s key recommendations was to tie reforms to big bank bailouts. There’s the 180 degree spin from reality. One of the key goals of Wall Street reform legislation being considered in both houses of Congress is preventing the need for such bailouts by clamping down on the kind of overly risky behavior that led to the financial system meltdown. The legislation has been designed to create mechanisms to shut down failing institutions in an orderly way to prevent the need for expensive improvised bailouts in the future.

So, to be clear, the purpose of the Bailout Lie was to let Republicans get away with stopping reforms that would crimp the style of Wall Street speculators while at the same time convincing tea party activists and Main Street Americans that it was somehow the Democrats doing Wall Street’s bidding. That’s a big bluff. But Senator McConnell is nothing if not audacious in putting the Bailout Lie to work.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll this week showed that a majority of Americans, including over a third of Republicans, actually back the legislation’s so-called “bailout” provision—a requirement that banks contribute to a fund that would cover the cost of taking over and breaking up any failing financial institutions. Two-thirds of those surveyed supported the bill’s increased regulation of Wall Street.

While the GOP’s Wall Street Reform talking points are clearly reaching Republican Senators, it’s unclear how much of an effect they’ll have on a public that’s fed up with the current lax oversight of the financial industry. Perhaps it’s time GOP Senators started consulting their constituents before their party’s spin doctors.