When you think about it, it is extremely interesting to observe the rhetoric used by both the President and the United States Congress. Intricate details often go unnoticed from a language perspective and the impact of Congressional rhetoric is attached with its consequences as well.
For example, in President Obama’s speech on the American Jobs Act (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/8751376/Barack-Obamas-American-Jobs-Act-speech-in-full.html), he uses some form of the phrase “Pass this bill!” a total of 17 times. President Obama obviously makes clear his desire for passing this legislation. However, what’s more interesting to look at is the tactics President Obama uses to push legislation he is not as confident about. In contrast to the American Jobs Act, when it came to talking about his deficit-reduction proposal, three words were absent from his speech (http://foxnewsinsider.com/2011/09/19/full-text-obamas-statement-to-congress-on-his-plan-for-deficit-reduction-which-would-pay-for-american-jobs-act/). Obama never said “Pass this bill.” Not once. The reason being is that Obama even knew there was no chance that a bill resembling his proposal would pass. Columnist Ezra Klein puts it best when he says, “Republicans would sooner adopt a resolution honoring Karl Marx and Eugene Debs for their commitment to the working man” rather than pass Obama’s deficit reduction proposal. Obama knows this. Republicans know this. And most of us know this too. Thus, Obama’s hesitancy in regards to this proposal is illustrated in Obama’s lack of language. Silence is often more powerful than words.
You and I both know that especially today it seems like Congress can’t get anything achieved. But let me give you a statistic that drives the point home. A recent study by a Harvard professor analyzed 64,033 press releases sent out by all U.S. senators from 2005 to 2007 and found that members of Congress spend 27% of their communication taunting each other (http://www.scpr.org/programs/patt-morrison/2011/04/07/18579/budget-crisis). Negative rhetoric in this example hinders action. In an environment where governmental representatives spend over a quarter of their time insulting each other, compromises are difficult to reach. Congressional rhetoric is connected to the internal politics and tension that appears on the political battlefield called Washington, D.C.
