“A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money” This phrase about government expenditures has become a classic, but who said it first, and when? Everett Dirksen…
"A [X] voting [Democrat/Republican] is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders" is a political saying that has been printed on many images. The KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) fast food…
A block grant is a sum of money that is given by the federal government to state and local governments under certain programs, such as education, healthcare and transportation. "The First Law…
A pun about "senseless violence" is: "A boy who couldn't see, hear, smell, feel or taste punched me in the face yesterday. I told him there was no need for senseless violence.…
Alben W. Barkley (1877-1956), the vice president under President Harry Truman from 1949 to 1953, was the keynote speaker at the July 1948 Democratic National Convention. "What is a bureaucrat?…
"A bureaucrat is a politician with tenure" is a saying that has appeared on Internet lists since at least 1996. The saying is not entirely true, of course; many tenured bureaucrats are…
Committee decision-making has been criticized for producing ugly, generic results. "A camel is a horse designed/planned by a committee" is a phrase of unknown authorship that became…
A popular political adage is that a re-election campaign is "a referendum on the incumbent." The challenger is looked at secondarily, but the primary focus of an election is the…
The classic definition of a Canadian in the 1990s and 2000s was "an unarmed American with health insurance." "Definition - Canadian: An unarmed American, with health insurance"…
A politician can't suffer from "foot-in-mouth disease" (a gaffe) if he or she doesn't talk (have an "open mouth"). The proverb "a closed mouth gathers no…
A "sentence" in English composition is not the same as a court "sentencing," but there are jokes. "8 vowels, 11 consonants, an exclamation mark and a comma appeared in…
"A committee is a body that keeps minutes and wastes hours" is an old joke that plays upon the word "minutes" (a written record and a unit of time). The joke first appeared in…
“A committee is a group of the unwilling, appointed by the unfit, to do the unnecessary" is a joke about committees that has been cited in print since at least 1952. The words…
American science-fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein wrote in Time Enough for Love: The Lives of Lazarus Long (1973): "A committee is a life form with six or more legs and no brain." The…
Arthur Bloch's Murphy's Law Book Three: Wrong Reasons Why Things Go More! (1982) included: "Kennedy's Comment on CommitteesA committee is twelve people doing the work of…
"A compromise is a deal in which two people get what neither of them wanted" is a jocular statement showing that a compromise makes neither party totally happy. "A compromise is an…
"A conservative is a man who is too cowardly to fight, and too fat to run" is a witticism from Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915), writing in his magazine, The Philistine, in 1903. The quip has…
Entry in progress -- B.P. Google BooksBulletinVolume 8, Issues 11-181926Pg. 266: "A conservative is a man who worships a dead radical." — John Simpson, president of the Farmers'…
Comedian and social satirist Mort Sahl said in 1958 that a conservative Republican is one "who doesn't believe anything should be tried for the first time," and a liberal Republican…
"A conservative is someone who makes no changes and consults his grandmother when in doubt" is often credited to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), but there is no evidence that…