Tom DiLorenzo (he’s a friend) on D.C. bowel-speak:
In Washingtonese, if one proposes a $100 billion spending increase, and actual spending increases by “only” $90 billion, they call it a $10 billion budget cut.
And on the Washington Monument Syndrome game, via LRC.com:
The game is this: Whenever a politician is “threatened” with a minor slowdown in spending, the first thing to do is to eliminate police, firefighters, ambulance services, school buses, etc. — everything that inflicts the maximum discomfort on the victims of the government monopoly (a.k.a., taxpayers). The booboisie then wake up from their American Idol stupor for a moment to raise a fuss, and the proposals to slow down spending growth disappear. (It’s called the “Washington Monument Syndrome” because the head of the National Park Service shut down the Washington Monument in the ’60s in response to Congress’s temporary refusal to fund his complete spending wish list. Tourists from every state complained to their congressmen, and the Park Service wish list was fully funded).