Reagan linguistics:

...The Reagan administration is evidently convinced that the national security justifies some combination of reduced non-defense spending (especially for those directly dependent on government aid), of higher taxes, and of economically risky deficits...

...Conceivably, these off-the-cuff remarks were concrete elaborations of his State-of-the-Union formulation: "We will continue to study ways to simplify the tax code and make it more fair for all Americans...

...Since the day of fireside chats, Americans have come to expect presidents to employ oratory to sway public opinion and thereby influence Congress...

...Reagan also called for the passage of the tax incentive portions of the Caribbean Basin Initiative...

...Continue...

...Reagan's terms, and do they clarify or obscure the decisions his agenda requires...

...Millions of our neighbors are without work," he said...

...But what are Mr...

...Reagan, but he certainly illustrated it well with his opening formula: "The State of the Union is strong, but our economy is troubled...

...In the past two years, he has given sixteen major network addresses, fifteen formal press conferences, eighty interviews, twelve briefings, and thirty-one Saturday afternoon radio addresses...

...JEREMIAH BARUCH (Jeremiah Baruch is the pseudonym of a Washington writer with a position in government...

...Instead of "fighting a rear guard action against the ever-increasing proliferation of government programs...

...must not be used to regulate the economy or bring about social change," this administration has made great use of the tax code as a tool for the federal reallocation of resources...

...when basic questions of justice are posed in terms of tax-code alterations that obscure who wins and who loses...

...when public debate routinely accepts a language of euphemism...

...We are left with a"maintenance of defense build-up at lower cost...

...This development in the modern presidency is hardly unique to Mr...

...ion in government...

...This great increase is hot President Reagan's sole responsibility, but he does take pride in his Economic Recovery Act of 1981 which added eight new tax expenditures, expanded twenty-two others, and reduced two...

...But the budget summary released during the weekend, stylishly entitled The President's 1984 Budget Freeze and Reform Plan, does not refer to spending cuts so much as to "spending freeze measures" and "long-term structural reforms" - the latter comes to include tax increases (such as the highly touted "Bipartisan Social Security Solvency Plan") as well...

...And the next day, the president personally witnessed to the gospel of high-tech at two firms in Massachusetts...

...But even the latter, we are told, only establishes a bargaining position...

...By fiscal year 1982, the Senate Budget Committee had estimated a $253.5 billion revenue loss from tax expenditures encompassing a total of 104 items...

...aphorism and euphemism to replace argument and deduction...

...And Mr.Reagan has certainly surpassed his recent predecessors in fulfilling Americans' expectations...

...As for the future, Mr...

...Deficit insurance policy" is a good example of the new vocabulary which the administration is marrying to inspiring presidential rhetoric in order to beget the next budget...

...Washington report REAGAN LINGUISTICS THE STATE OF OUR VOCABULARY FOR RONALD REAGAN, no less than for his predecessors, the State of the Union address was an opportunity to establish a vocabulary and set an agenda for the nation's policy making...

...That troubled economy, which thank goodness has nothing to do with the State of the Union, would be repaired by measures outlined in a series of budget statements...

...once again, he backed tuition tax credits...

...Lyndon Johnson has been roundly criticized by his successors for not going to Congress and asking for the taxes to pay for the Vietnam war...

...In fact, the president's personal preferences have long since seeped into public policy: as a percentage of government revenue, corporate taxes have steadily declined while individual taxes have remained relatively stable and social insurance taxes climbed substantially...

...when the painful choices implied by an administration's agenda are clouded by exhortatory visions...

...It is up to us to see they are not without hope...

...At a brief interview on the Friday following his State of the Union, President Reagan stated that he had "turned the whole debate around...

...The chief advantage of such is that it involves no Congressional appropriation, hence far less public scrutiny than would be given to an outlay in the budget...

...The White House "comprehensive freeze plan" turns out to include selective thaws for increases in military spending of nine percent and increases in "targeted high priority programs" (e.g., law enforcement and anti-drug programs, the National Science Foundation, foster care, and college work study...

...We no longer insist that the president's words mean what they appear to say...

...These campaigns are successful to the extent that the president, always reiterating, reinforcing, and refining the original message, can assure that the public debate is conducted in his own terms...

...Even that segment of taxpayers whose notably lower tax bills might disincline them to quibble about fairness are aware that this year's tax returns are more complicated than ever...

...Perfectly in line with this kind of tax "simplification" is the administration's proposed contingency tax of one percent on individuals and corporations plus a $5-a-barrel oil excise tax to be triggered in fiscal 1986 - if a number of conditions are met...

...Presidential addresses are filtered to the public by means of excerpts glimpsed on news broadcasts...

...Rhetoric tends to supersede logic...

...Defense spending remains at about what Congress projected for fiscal 1984 when it passed its fiscal 1983 budget...

...Is there still a place for the considered presentation and reasoned discourse that would allow the public to understand the administration's agenda and judge whether or not it is in the national interest...

...This is the future and you're part of it," he told the workers...

...The vocabulary of those statements, combined with the rhetoric of the president, is meant to establish the terrain on which the coming political battle will be fought...

...As a result, such speeches are written as self-contained snippets with compelling leads and snappy climactic phrases-what the speech writers hope will prove to be applause lines...

...This year he added "working mothers"-no doubt a recognition of the gender gap and the electoral potential of female single heads of households...

...The "defense savings" of $8 billion turns out to be a reduction from what the administration had proposed to Congress in February 1982...

...Political commentators like to cite FDR's claim for the presidency as "pre-eminently a place of moral leadership...

...But its rhetoric reaches new heights when the administration calls for "better targeting of means-tested entitlements...

...But there is cause for concern when the reassuring promises and euphemistic phrases of two years contrast so starkly with the policy record and the economic realities...

...What if the "Great Communicator" dropped the rhetorical flourishes and euphemistic vocabulary and set about to convince Congress in a straightforward fashion...

...In the days following the nationally-televised speech, the agenda continues to be elaborated in parenthetical statements from administration officials and with exclamations and emphases added by the president himself...

...The administration's "long-term structural reform" also includes "civil service retirement reform" which, in effect, retires civil service reform...

...He again called for his New Enterprise Zone legislation (which contains tax*incentives to revitalize distressed areas), and for his port modernization legislation (which contains a system of "user fees" for the new port construction).He advocated tax benefits in "education Savings Accounts" to help families save for their children's post-secondary education...

...it also incorporates "offsetting" cuts below 1983 appropriations for "some lower priority programs" (e.g., postal subsidies, energy R & D, EDA grants, mass transit, and Amtrak...

...Reagan's difficulties in justifying the existence of the corporate income tax...

...Reagan is hardly the first president to suggest changing the tax code to allow such deductions, credits, exclusions, or exemptions...

...The address, of course, never stands alone...

...Hope was incarnated in high technology: "We are already witnessing reason for great hope-the first flowering of man-made miracles of high technology...

...A year ago, President Reagan voiced concern for economically imperiled farmers, steel and auto workers, lumbermen, and black teenagers...

...Unfortunately, this positive emphasis was overshadowed by Mr...

...What happens to moral leadership when the rhetoric tailored for TV is employed for the daily decisions of government...

...In 1967, there was an estimated revenue loss of $36.6 billion in tax expenditures which included fifty items...

...that were supposed to make paradise out of this earthly sphere, the debate is focused on how much or how little will the cuts be in government spending...

...This is particularly important to an administration that wants to minimize government's role and stimulate the "supply-side" of the economy...

...All this caters to the media's insatiable hunger for "new" stories and serves the administration's desire to keep its message before the public-what Carter's domestic policy adviser Stuart Eizenstadt labeled "campaigns...

...Reagan proposed new incentives in the form of tax credits for employers who hire the long-term unemployed and new incentives for youth employment...

...Despite Mr...

...Reagan's bristling declaration two years ago that "the taxing power...

...Much attention has already been given to the apparent difference between the language of the State of the Union, which seemed to promise compromise, and the euphemistic but ideological terms of the budget, which at least initially seem to offer Congress little give and much take...

...This phrasing is actually quite apt save for a certain meanness in the means, since it incorporates significant program changes in food stamps (mandatory "workfare" and "simplification" of benefit calculation), Aid to Families with Dependent Children ("restructure child support enforcement program incentives"), the subsidized housing program ("count food stamps as income" in determining eligibility), and child nutrition (block grant at 85 percent of current level...

...The administration prefers to label this tax increase a "deficit insurance policy...