A.J. DiCintio
Obamacare and the English language
By A.J. DiCintio
In 1946, George Orwell wrote "Politics and the English Language" to argue for clear, precise, honest Plain English as an antidote for "ugly, inaccurate" language which results from moral and intellectual rottenness and itself becomes a cause of more rot.
To put it another way, it's necessary only to state what wise folks have understood for millennia:
Human frailty and depravity corrupt language, with corrupt language then corrupting culture, thereby bringing about more corrupt language in a poisonous cycle whose most prominent agents are politicians, the literati, and the glitterati.
Those truths come to mind especially as a result of "Obamacare," a law whose abundance of linguistic perversity, especially its lies of omission and commission, deserves the condemnation of every person who believes this nation is desperately in need of political straight regarding its problems.
Here, then, is a contribution to the cause.
On the opening page, the president and his exclusively Democratic allies committed their first lie of omission by failing to include a brief statement describing the fundamental political philosophy underlying the law, which they easily could have done if they had summoned the courage to quote this simple, precise sentence by British left-winger Polly Toynbee:
"The nanny state is the good state."
Yes, Obama et al. could have proudly admitted that their inscrutable 2,000 page abomination shoves American healthcare totally into the grasp of the federal government, the trillion-tentacled, power and money loving monster which, like the insatiable wolf that blocked Dante's path, is hungrier after it eats than before.
But in the deceitful, anti-intellectual manner typical of the worst politicians, they chose to offer not one word about the frightful lessons history teaches regarding the distant, supreme, centralized power they love so dearly.
In another sin of omission, they could have told the truth about the cost of the shamelessly named "Affordable Care Act" but once again lacked the honesty to produce the following example of Plain English:
"This law will cost at least $1.8 trillion over the next decade, requiring huge tax increases at the federal and state levels. Moreover, even that astounding sum may be far too small, as evidenced by the case of George Bush's Medicare drug expansion, which, in 2003, the government estimated to cost $400 billion over ten years only to revise the amount three times in the next two years, first to $534 billion, then to $750 billion, and even to as much as $1.2 trillion just months before it was set to go into effect in 2006."
But Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the Gang weren't capable of summoning up the least bit of honesty; for they so profoundly feared the public's reaction to the term "trillion" that, in a stunning example of the human capacity for insanely ironic behavior, they forked from their tongues the trillion dollar lie that during its first decade, Obamacare would cost $900 billion.
Moreover, they lied that odious falsehood not regarding some typical piece of rotten Washington pork such as a bridge to nowhere but an institution that intimately touches the lives of every person, beginning even before conception and ending only at the moment this earthly existence expires.
And, increasing its odiousness tenfold, they lied it in the midst of the public's ongoing suffering as a result of the worst economic mess since the Great Depression.
As the wisdom of the ages teaches, one lie begets another. So it was that "Hope Evoking, Change Agent" Barack Obama vowed to cut $500 billion from Medicare to help pay for his signature achievement, all the while keeping uncharacteristically silent about another of his grand fiscal decisions. . . his exempting the two hundred billion dollar a year trial lawyer industry from paying a single cent toward Obamacare's staggering cost.
(A separate piece is required to discuss the full significance of that sulfurous "Go to Hell" spewed at every current and prospective Medicare enrollee.)
In yet another lie of omission, Obama and Friends have remained conveniently tight lipped about the fact that a significant portion of the insurance to be provided by Obamacare's "exchanges" will actually be provided through Medicaid, fearing that being honest about that fact will cause citizens to realize they soon will be paying higher state taxes through the nose, a truly anger-inducing thought considering they are already up to their nostrils in them.
Democratic perversity about the term "tax" doesn't end there; for in this election year, any mention of the "T" word within a million miles of "middle class" sends Democrats into a fit of Clintonian gobbledygook that claims what a tax is. . .is what a penalty is. . .or not. . .depending on whether the political hack is bloviating at a political rally or during oral argument at the Supreme Court.
Finally, there are Obama care's outright lies, such as the claim that its fine print will allow every American to keep his or her current coverage, that its cost in hiring an army of IRS enforcers will be as teeny in dollars as it is in its expansion of federal power, and that not a single one of its million directives will cause intrusions on the patient/doctor relationship.
To conclude, there is so much perversion in the corrupt and corruptive Obama care law, its mile high pile of accompanying regulations, and the words huffed and puffed by its supporters that the best reaction to the entire atrocity might be to borrow from "Heart of Darkness" and exclaim, "The Horror! The Horror!"
For a horror it is, and horror it will bring.
Yet not if former Democratic pollster Pat Caddell is right in observing that what the American people will not tolerate is "being lied to" as they have been regarding the "stink" and "rottenness" that "makes Obamacare irredeemable." (breitbart.com)
And not if 56 percent of likely voters continue to believe Obama's first term "has transformed the nation in a negative way" (thehill.com) and therefore will agree with Caddell that the only way to clean up "the whole mess" is with "a new effort started afresh."
Of course, that fresh start is impossible if the person who will never say but believes to his core that "The nanny state is the good state" sits in the Oval Office.
© A.J. DiCintio
July 15, 2012
In 1946, George Orwell wrote "Politics and the English Language" to argue for clear, precise, honest Plain English as an antidote for "ugly, inaccurate" language which results from moral and intellectual rottenness and itself becomes a cause of more rot.
To put it another way, it's necessary only to state what wise folks have understood for millennia:
Human frailty and depravity corrupt language, with corrupt language then corrupting culture, thereby bringing about more corrupt language in a poisonous cycle whose most prominent agents are politicians, the literati, and the glitterati.
Those truths come to mind especially as a result of "Obamacare," a law whose abundance of linguistic perversity, especially its lies of omission and commission, deserves the condemnation of every person who believes this nation is desperately in need of political straight regarding its problems.
Here, then, is a contribution to the cause.
On the opening page, the president and his exclusively Democratic allies committed their first lie of omission by failing to include a brief statement describing the fundamental political philosophy underlying the law, which they easily could have done if they had summoned the courage to quote this simple, precise sentence by British left-winger Polly Toynbee:
"The nanny state is the good state."
Yes, Obama et al. could have proudly admitted that their inscrutable 2,000 page abomination shoves American healthcare totally into the grasp of the federal government, the trillion-tentacled, power and money loving monster which, like the insatiable wolf that blocked Dante's path, is hungrier after it eats than before.
But in the deceitful, anti-intellectual manner typical of the worst politicians, they chose to offer not one word about the frightful lessons history teaches regarding the distant, supreme, centralized power they love so dearly.
In another sin of omission, they could have told the truth about the cost of the shamelessly named "Affordable Care Act" but once again lacked the honesty to produce the following example of Plain English:
"This law will cost at least $1.8 trillion over the next decade, requiring huge tax increases at the federal and state levels. Moreover, even that astounding sum may be far too small, as evidenced by the case of George Bush's Medicare drug expansion, which, in 2003, the government estimated to cost $400 billion over ten years only to revise the amount three times in the next two years, first to $534 billion, then to $750 billion, and even to as much as $1.2 trillion just months before it was set to go into effect in 2006."
But Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the Gang weren't capable of summoning up the least bit of honesty; for they so profoundly feared the public's reaction to the term "trillion" that, in a stunning example of the human capacity for insanely ironic behavior, they forked from their tongues the trillion dollar lie that during its first decade, Obamacare would cost $900 billion.
Moreover, they lied that odious falsehood not regarding some typical piece of rotten Washington pork such as a bridge to nowhere but an institution that intimately touches the lives of every person, beginning even before conception and ending only at the moment this earthly existence expires.
And, increasing its odiousness tenfold, they lied it in the midst of the public's ongoing suffering as a result of the worst economic mess since the Great Depression.
As the wisdom of the ages teaches, one lie begets another. So it was that "Hope Evoking, Change Agent" Barack Obama vowed to cut $500 billion from Medicare to help pay for his signature achievement, all the while keeping uncharacteristically silent about another of his grand fiscal decisions. . . his exempting the two hundred billion dollar a year trial lawyer industry from paying a single cent toward Obamacare's staggering cost.
(A separate piece is required to discuss the full significance of that sulfurous "Go to Hell" spewed at every current and prospective Medicare enrollee.)
In yet another lie of omission, Obama and Friends have remained conveniently tight lipped about the fact that a significant portion of the insurance to be provided by Obamacare's "exchanges" will actually be provided through Medicaid, fearing that being honest about that fact will cause citizens to realize they soon will be paying higher state taxes through the nose, a truly anger-inducing thought considering they are already up to their nostrils in them.
Democratic perversity about the term "tax" doesn't end there; for in this election year, any mention of the "T" word within a million miles of "middle class" sends Democrats into a fit of Clintonian gobbledygook that claims what a tax is. . .is what a penalty is. . .or not. . .depending on whether the political hack is bloviating at a political rally or during oral argument at the Supreme Court.
Finally, there are Obama care's outright lies, such as the claim that its fine print will allow every American to keep his or her current coverage, that its cost in hiring an army of IRS enforcers will be as teeny in dollars as it is in its expansion of federal power, and that not a single one of its million directives will cause intrusions on the patient/doctor relationship.
To conclude, there is so much perversion in the corrupt and corruptive Obama care law, its mile high pile of accompanying regulations, and the words huffed and puffed by its supporters that the best reaction to the entire atrocity might be to borrow from "Heart of Darkness" and exclaim, "The Horror! The Horror!"
For a horror it is, and horror it will bring.
Yet not if former Democratic pollster Pat Caddell is right in observing that what the American people will not tolerate is "being lied to" as they have been regarding the "stink" and "rottenness" that "makes Obamacare irredeemable." (breitbart.com)
And not if 56 percent of likely voters continue to believe Obama's first term "has transformed the nation in a negative way" (thehill.com) and therefore will agree with Caddell that the only way to clean up "the whole mess" is with "a new effort started afresh."
Of course, that fresh start is impossible if the person who will never say but believes to his core that "The nanny state is the good state" sits in the Oval Office.
© A.J. DiCintio
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
