Bush Economic Doublespeak

In the article below, President Bush uses a lot of doublespeak, which I’ve attempted to translate here:

  • “the country is not recession-bound” –> “the country is already in a recession”
  • “concern about slowing economic growth” –> “concern that the election won’t go the way I want and the next president might not carry on my policies”
  • “rejected for now any additional stimulus efforts” –> “planning to hand out more cash right before the election”
  • “We acted robustly” –> “we didn’t know what else to do”
  • “We’ll see the effects of this pro-growth package” –> “everyone likes more money, so this has to help”
  • “Why don’t we let stimulus package 1, which seemed like a good idea at the time, have a chance to kick in?” –> “We have to number the cash hand-out programs now, because there will eventually be so many that you won’t know which one we’re talking about otherwise”

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