General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOrrin Hatch: GOP "shot their wad on healthcare"
(And yes, I am well aware that meant something different in Hatch's youth)
https://www.google.com/amp/thehill.com/homenews/senate/345590-hatch-on-gops-obamacare-repeal-push-they-shot-their-wad-on-health-care%3famp
"Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) raised some eyebrows when he used a colorful phrase to argue that it was time for Republicans to move from the healthcare debate to tax reform.
"We're not going back to healthcare. We're in tax now," Hatch told Politico on Wednesday in a story published Monday.
"As far as I'm concerned, they shot their wad on healthcare and that's the way it is. I'm sick of it.
Hatch's office was quick to defend and explain the turn of phrase, which has a few different meanings.".....
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,683 posts)spanone
(135,830 posts)JDC
(10,127 posts)My Grandfather used this phrase, in front of Mama-Jo. I guarantee that it had no sexual component for them, or I would never have heard it.
It was from the wad in a shotgun shell, they use plastic cups now, but they used to be celluloid and paper wafers in a stack. When you fired the wafers separated and blew around down range of the muzzle of the shotgun.
That led to the saying being about folks who spent their money like that - quickly throwing it around until it was gone - like the wad from a shotgun shell.
I never heard of it having sexual meaning until the late 70s - when Orrin Hatch was about 40 years old
tonyt53
(5,737 posts)Igel
(35,300 posts)For many, it has no set sexual meaning but gets it only by context.
"The modern use" presumes you know how 330 million Americans and hundreds of million more English-speakers in other countries use it.
I find that I know how the social networks I'm part of use it, and that often includes tv shows. "Whackadoo" was a very common word in some of my networks, but in others it was rather less common than "cricoid". When I said I'd never heard that word, the response was, "But it's really a common word, everybody knows is." Yes. Everybody in that woman's social networks.
Even then, you can get the sexual meaning without assuming that's its primary or a set meaning. It's like calling a hot girl a "tomato" or "hamburger." I've never known anybody who did this regularly, but at one point you'd encounter those meanings. Similary, when I first moved to Los Angeles there was a frat scandal involving the use of the phrase "fish taco." I'd never hear the phrase with that meaning--in fact, had never heard the phrase. Still don't think of that as the phrase's primary meaning. But for some of the undergrads I knew, sadly, that was its first and foremost meaning. The actual Baja dish consisting of corn tortilla, cabbage, and grilled fish hadn't become all that popular yet.
It was like McWhorter when he commented on the word "thug" as obsolete and never used in any other than its racist meaning, and then said with a straight face that the various groups that used it in its established, straightforward meaning were archaic and out of touch so you really couldn't count them. He had to know he was violating one of the first principles of modern linguistics, which is that usage rules; and a second, among more functionally inclined, that not only does usage rule, but language is a set of styles and registers and dialects, with splitting and merging happening all the time. But he had a political and social point to make, and as soon as you advocate you stop fretting over accuracy and start fretting over winning. (His linguist side kicked in later, at least for the most part. Still couldn't let his ego get entirely out of the way of his art, though. Wouldn't want to be his student.)
Response to Tanuki (Original post)
Corvo Bianco This message was self-deleted by its author.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,412 posts)I can't wait to see the debacle of "tax reform", especially if they employ similar strategies.
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)Loki Liesmith
(4,602 posts)Tanuki
(14,918 posts)obamanut2012
(26,068 posts)still_one
(92,187 posts)DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)I am not going to criticize him for a rare moment of honesty and candor.
Kaleva
(36,295 posts)hibbing
(10,098 posts)Is how many Democrats will vote for the tax cuts for their masters.
Peace
deminks
(11,014 posts)I don't think they ever had a plan to govern. Hating Obama and hating Hillary and hating Democrats and loving their sugar daddies is not getting the job done.
superpatriotman
(6,247 posts)His best days were in the 70's, too.
Hieronymus
(6,039 posts)Weekend Warrior
(1,301 posts)GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)If intending a sexual allusion he would have said that the Republicans suffered from Erectile Dysfunction on Health Care.
Cause I bet dollars to donuts he knows all about ED!