The Most Powerful Special Interest in Washington: The Acronym

Sat May 19 21:29:00 UTC 2012

Ladies and Gentlemen -- I give you the Bacronym!

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/the-most-powerful-special-interest-in-washington-the-acronym/

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MAY 19, 2012, 4:39 PMThe Most Powerful Special Interest in Washington: The
AcronymBy MICAH
COHEN<http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/author/micah-cohen/>

*We are interuppting FiveThirtyEight’s regular data-driven analysis for an
important public service announcement:*

A linguistic plague is creeping through the nation’s capital. From the
House to the Senate, a demon lurks, luring the country’s leaders to twist
and mangle words into grotesque amalgamations.

In Washington, there is nowhere to hide from … the acronym. And the English
language may not survive the scourge.

The specific strain of the acronym virus infecting most of Washington is
called “the bacronym.” A bacronym is a premeditated acronym, where a phrase
is chosen so that the initial letters of each word form a desired word. The
bacronym may hold little appeal for most, but in Washington bacronym-fever
is rampant.

“Leadership” PACs – committees established by members of Congress to
support other candidates — have been hit particularly hard. There are 487
such PACs in the Federal Election Commission’s
database<http://www.fec.gov/data/Leadership.do?format=html&election_yr=2012>
for
the 2012 election cycle. Twenty percent of these PACs are titled with an
acronym.

There’s Representative Michele Bachmann’s Many Individual Conservatives
Helping Elect Leaders Everywhere PAC (MICHELE PAC).

There’s Senator Rand Paul’s mind-boggling Reinventing a New Direction PAC
(RAND PAC). Mr. Paul, if a direction has already been invented, how can it
be new?

The Because All Responsible Taxpayers Like Every Truth Told PAC (BARTLETT
PAC) naturally belongs to Representative Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland’s
Sixth District.

The House majority leader, Eric Cantor, voiced his commitment to fellow
Republicans by establishing the ERIC PAC (Every Republican Is Crucial). But
perhaps some Republicans are more crucial than others, because the
ERIC PAC gave
$25,000<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F07E2DE1F38F932A35756C0A9649D8B63>
to
the Campaign for Primary Accountability, which is dedicated to challenging
incumbent members of Congress, including Republicans.

All of the above are Republican PACs. Indeed, Washington’s acronym
infection-rate is highest amongst Republicans — 67 of the 97 acronym-named
PACs are affiliated with the G.O.P. But Democrats are not immune.

Representative Diana Degette, from Colorado’s First District, christened
her political action committee the Individuals Dedicated to Ethics and
Science PAC (IDEAS PAC).

And just in case democracy was feeling discouraged, Representative Ted
Deutch, of Florida’s 19th District, founded the TED PAC, which stands for
Together Encouraging Democracy.

The acronym pandemic has also reached the nation’s laws. It was not always
so. On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a law encoding
civil rights for minorities and women. The law was called the Civil Rights
Act of 1964. But such simplicity and elegance is long gone.

What will Americans of the 22nd century think when they look back and see
that in 2011 alone, the following were just a few of the acronym-titled
bills introduced in Congress.

   - Diaper Investment and Aid to Promote Economic Recovery Act (DIAPER)
   - Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM)
   - Fair Allocation of Internal Revenue Credit for Renewable Electricity
   Distribution by Indian Tribes Act (FAIRCREDIT)
   - Helping Agriculture Receive Verifiable Employees Securely and
   Temporarily Act (HARVEST)

And there were no fewer than three HOME Acts:

   - Hardship Outlays to protect Mortgagee Equity Act
   - Housing Opportunities Made Equal Act
   - Housing Opportunity and Mortgage Equity Act.

Patient zero may be Representative Darrell Issa, who represents
California’s 49th District. Mr. Issa not only named his leadership PAC the
Invest in a Strong and Secure America PAC (the ISSA PAC), he also sponsored
the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (the
DATA<http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr2146/text> Act),
the Promoting Automotive Repair, Trade, and Sales Act (the
PARTS<http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr3889> Act)
and the Classified Information Accountability Act (the
CIA<http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr47/text>
 Act),

The most recent affront to linguistic decency comes courtesy of Senators
Charles Schumer of New York, and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania.
Outraged<http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/democratic-senators-proposal-targets-facebook-co-founder/>
by
The decision of the Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin to renounce his
American citizenship in advance ofFacebook’s
IPO<http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05/18/facebook-opens-at-42-05-in-debut-but-falls-quickly/?hp>,
thereby saving himself millions of dollars in taxes (although Mr. Saverin
denied that was his motivation), the two senators introduced the
Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore
Tenancy Act (the EX-PATRIOT Act).

The word “patriot” was also involved in perhaps the most famous example of
acronym-obsessed legislators forcing unwilling words into line. In 2001,
Congress passed the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing
Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (the USA
PATRIOT Act).

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