Cord Byrd: “in his essay on ``Politics and the English Language,'' George Orwell laments the abuse of speech by political leaders.…”

“in his essay on ``Politics and the English Language,'' George Orwell laments the abuse of speech by political leaders. He notes how certain words are so vague in meaning that they can be twisted and distorted into something they are not. What is entirely altruistic, he argues, can be made to seem repugnant and avaricious. One such Orwellian word that has found its way into our political lexicon is ``earmark.'' This poor, wretched, maligned word has had scorn heaped upon it. It has been equated with corruption and invoked to describe dastardly, behind-the-scenes machinations--sometimes real, but mostly imagined. President Bush has enthusiastically embraced this Orwellian line. In his State of the Union Address, the President asked the Congress to reduce Congressional earmarks by half and threatened to veto any bill that does not comply. He instructed executive agencies to ignore Congressional guidance on earmarks for fiscal year 2009. Let the executive agencies make the spending decisions, his argument goes. Certainly the White House budget office would like us to do that. I don't expect officials from that office to understand the critical needs of the communities we represent. They do not meet with our constituencies. They do not know our States and their people. They do not see what we see. An earmark may be pork to some political chatter box on television, but it could be an economic lifeline for a community.”