Bill Clinton, Meet George Orwell: Study Reveals Examples of Big- Government 'Newspeak', According to NTUF

6/23/2004

From: Pete Sepp or Annie Patnaude, 703-683-5700, both of the National Taxpayers Union Foundation; Web: http://www.ntu.org

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 23 -- During the same week that will mark the 101st birthday of the late political author and "Newspeak" prophet George Orwell, bookstores began selling the memoirs of a former President who once debated the meaning of the word "is" - one of many ironies raised by a new analysis from the non-partisan National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF). Research from NTUF has uncovered 14 examples of the Orwellian Newspeak that is alive and all too well in Washington, DC today.

"Orwellian words and phrases proliferate in virtually every policy area of our deliberately dumbed-down democracy," said study author Mark Schmidt, who served as Director of Programs for NTUF. "Consider the two most recent Presidential campaigns: after 'reinventing government,' we "crossed a bridge to the twenty- first century" to a place where 'no child is left behind,' thanks to the wonders of 'compassionate conservatism.'

The author spared no corner of the federal realm for instances of "impenetrably obtuse or even oxymoronic" language, which is employed to expand the fiscal, regulatory, or social dominance of the government. Among the highlights:

-- "Tax Cuts for the Rich" - One-third of all tax filers (44 million out of 132 million) pay no federal income taxes; among them, 16 million actually receive payments from the federal government's "Earned Income Credit." It is thus impossible to "cut income taxes" for this group.

-- "Spending" Money on Tax Cuts - Returning money to taxpayers is a decision not to spend more on federal programs - yet opponents of the 2001 tax cuts complained that Washington was "spending" budget surpluses on tax relief.

-- "Investments in ..." - Despite calling for federal spending restraint, the Bush Administration's 2004 budget trumpets "major new investments in ...education, Medicare, health care, homeland security, energy independence, compassion, and the unemployed" that will raise spending by tens of billions each year.

-- "Homeland Security" - Since September 11th, this slogan has been the rallying cry for stale subsidy schemes that prop up everything from Amtrak to peanuts.

-- "Working Families" - Far from simply referring to householders with jobs, politicians who use this term are appealing largely to labor-union members with reliably liberal political leanings.

"America has not become the totalitarian state Orwell sketched, but the big government of today bears more than a passing resemblance to the 'Big Brother' of the novel 1984," Schmidt concluded. "It is vital for citizens in a free society to think critically about what they hear and read from politicians, pundits, and the press. Language is at the root of political consciousness."

NTUF is the research arm of the 350,000-member National Taxpayers Union. NTUF Policy Paper 152, The Orwellian Language of Big Government, is available at http://www.ntu.org.