In the Republicans' strange bizarro world comes news about yet another Orwellian-speak episode involving those “earmarks” that people like John McCain and his fellow Republicans, including “Tea Party” Republicans, like to demagogue about (and then, apparently, do absolutely nothing about when they actually get the chance).
What's their solution to earmarks, the practice whereby members of Congress add money to the budget based on purely political reasons and not based on a concern for fiscal responsibility? It's easy: just change the name. See the article below:
http://edition.cnn.com/...
Now, Republicans can claim to have eliminated “earmarks” by doing nothing more than simply changing the name of those items. Instead of calling them earmarks, they will simply call them something else. Problem solved.
This seems to me to be just another typical, Republican double-speaking way of pretending to solve problems facing this country, by not facing the real problems that face the country and focusing instead on non-existent problems in order to impose their ideological agenda.
Same, too, with Medicare, Social Security and so many other issues. Instead of working on ways to solve problems, like extending the life of these very successful programs with easy, minor adjustments (i.e. means testing, raising the income cap on S.S., etc.), they have decided to come up with Orwellian solutions....by trying to end Medicare and Society Security as we know it, killing them off with schemes that benefit their private-sector financial patrons...but calling them Medicare and Social Security anyway, even though their proposals are nothing remotely close to the current Medicare and Social Security programs.
Wait until the Tea Partiers get wind of this blatantly disrespectful act towards them.
It seems to me that, in addition to the Republicans' attempt to kill off Medicare, by trying to radically change it to something else but keep the name Medicare, and by dishonestly claiming to oppose earmarks and then doing everything to keep them...except to change the name...the Democrats should have some potent weapons for the 2012 elections. (If only they will use them effectively.)