Ben Cohen: Numeric Washingtonese Needs Translating

[demobabe]

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Ben Cohen

It's the high season for budget debates in Washington DC, and this means big numbers are flying around like the lids of ice cream containers at the old Ben and Jerry's factory in Burlington, where we used to throw them at each other.

But unlike pints of ice cream, which we can all get our minds and mouths around, most of us have no clue what it means when pundits slam or praise something like President George Bush's proposal to spend $640 billion on defense this year.

It's a perennial problem. When the folks in Washington start talking about how much such-and-such program will cost, they might as well be speaking another language from the public's point of view.

The journalism establishment in Washington seems to collectively shrug at this disconnect between numbers and reality. How else to explain the fact that they do little about it?

What, you might ask, could reporters do?

Full article here: http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/900

[demobabe]

1. kick

:kick:

[demobabe]

2. one more kick...

:)