The president claimed a majority of Republicans favor addressing the debt problem with a combination of spending cuts and revenues. That seemed perfectly true, to me. After all, without some type of revenue coming in, one would have to cut all government spending in order to reduce the deficit or the debt.
Those Grinches at PolitiFact twisted the president's words and interpreted him to mean revenue increases.
Well, yeah, they were very probably right about that. The president probably did mean increased revenues when he said "revenues."
Maybe somebody should call the Word Police?
Just minutes ago while fishing for more PolitiFact flubs, however, I noticed something I had previously missed. Take a look:
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| (clipped from PolitiFact.com) |
We have two instances side-by-side of the president apparently using "revenues" as a euphemism for "tax increases" or even "revenue increases." Doubtless the latter performed unacceptably well in focus group tests. Two instances side-by-side starts to resemble a pattern.
Regarding the PolitiFact items, I suppose the ratings are a wash. Taking Obama literally should improve both ratings. But since Obama probably did not mean mere "revenues" literally--instead meaning increased revenues in the form of tax increases or the closure of tax loopholes (for those who draw a distinction between the two), his words tend to lead the audience down the primrose path via euphemism.
