Actuary Strong

One of the best examples of a synecdoche—a Belonging Trope—that we’ve seen in a long time.

The federal government has become an insurance company with an army.

Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein

Synecdoche (sin-EK-doe-kee), Greek for “swap.” One of the two Belonging Tropes, the other being the metonymy.

A synecdoche takes a member or part of something and makes it stand for the whole, or vice versa. We’ve been spending a lot of time on this nifty tool because it has become the most powerful, most frequently used political trope. 

While politicians focus on sushi budgeting—cutting tiny thin slices out of the federal hide—nearly all the budget goes to Medicare, Medicaid, the Pentagon, and interest on the debt. Klein turns that grim fact into a memorable sentence that’s been quoted across the blogosphere. Why’s it so memorable? Because it summarizes a complex issue into an absurdity. Like what Congress does, only cheaper.

Comments

[Content]

Like what congress does, only cheaper. Good one. But, it implies congress acually does something. Oh yeah... I guess they do; they work on their re-election...

[Figaro]

If they did absolutely nothing, letting the Bush tax cuts expire and leaving Medicare payments to doctors stay the same, the deficit would solve itself, according to economists.

Reminds us of the time Israeli doctors went on strike and the death rate plummeted. An extremely unfair analogy. We love analogies.