Lexicon: Spending Words

Some words about spending don't really mean what you think.

It goes beyond the eye-rolling the typical American did when confronted with Bill Clinton's legalistic parsing of the word "is."  When accused of lying to the Grand Jury when he said "There is nothing going on between us," Clinton later defended his statement as truthful saying, "It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is."  He was only continuing the frustrating tradition of lawyers and politicians to make words not mean what most people think they mean.

Two areas of government activity - taxing and spending - create an enormous amount of emotional responses both good and bad.  Today we will talk about words used about spending that don't necessarily mean what you think.

Spending Cuts - doesn't mean you are spending less.

According to National Public Radio, both President Obama and Rep. Paul Ryan have proposed alternative cuts in spending.  According to the news report, Obama " laid out a sweeping vision to cut government deficits by more than $4 trillion in 12 years through tax increases and spending cuts phased in over time."    At the same time, Rep. Paul Ryan, according to NPR proposed a "recent budget blueprint calls for more than $6.2 trillion in spending cuts — many unspecified — over the next decade."  

Neither man proposes a budget where the United States Federal Government spend less money ten years from now than it spends today.  Instead these proposals predict less spending compared to what would occur under the Congressional Budget Office's Baseline Projections.  This projection assumes all current laws stay in place.  So when you "cut" spending in Washington it doesn't mean you are spending less money this year compared to last year - it really means you assume you will spend much more in the future than your plan.

Investing - it sounds better than spending.

When Barack Obama signed the stimulus bill signed the 2009 stimulus bill, he used the word "invest" or  "investment" fifteen times in his speech.  Politicians  shy away from characterizing Government expenditures as "spending."  The word suggests a loss - that the money is spent, gone, with nothing to show for it.  An investment, on the other hand, suggests that we will obtain a return on that money - indeed we will get more money back than we spent.  

QUESTION:  What other words have you heard politicians use instead of the word "spending?"