Please don’t say “overhaul” when you mean “cut.”
I love my morning Budget Tracker update from Congressional Quarterly almost as much as I love my morning coffee. It provides that quick, efficient dive into the daily budget weeds that wonks like me crave (sorry, it’s behind a paywall).
So I was disheartened to see them fall into this trap that I’ve been pretty keyed up about of late (my bold):
Republican lawmakers made clear Wednesday that any efforts to overhaul entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare are now on the legislative back burner.
Readers are somehow required to know that “overhaul” means “cut.” This being the Budget Tracker, most readers probably know the translation, but this is not the time for squishy, ambiguous language.
I’m not sure when that time will come, but until then, people writing about these issues need to call it like it is.
***
This was reposted from On the Economy.
