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Tanuki

(14,918 posts)
Mon Aug 7, 2017, 01:43 PM Aug 2017

Orrin 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.".....

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Orrin Hatch: GOP "shot their wad on healthcare" (Original Post) Tanuki Aug 2017 OP
LOL! I guess he doesn't know at least one of the meanings of that phrase. The Velveteen Ocelot Aug 2017 #1
we know what orrin's watchin' on the intertubes..... spanone Aug 2017 #21
Knowing this dinosaur, it's a musket reference. JDC Aug 2017 #2
+1 The Polack MSgt Aug 2017 #7
Nice explanation, but the modern use, at least since the 50's has been the sexual version. tonyt53 Aug 2017 #9
Some of the modern use, for some people, is the sexual version. Igel Aug 2017 #13
LOL Egnever Aug 2017 #14
This message was self-deleted by its author Corvo Bianco Aug 2017 #3
Given how much of a disaster their Trumpcare gambit was Proud Liberal Dem Aug 2017 #4
The debt issue will be next! Iliyah Aug 2017 #5
Nocturnal debt issue? Loki Liesmith Aug 2017 #8
Then they'll fight the EPA over emissions testing Tanuki Aug 2017 #10
Future President Hatch obamanut2012 Aug 2017 #6
I hope his assessment is right still_one Aug 2017 #11
as much as I dislike Mr. hatch DonCoquixote Aug 2017 #12
I take his comments to mean he's sick of the efforts to undo ACA. Kaleva Aug 2017 #15
my fear hibbing Aug 2017 #16
Isn't that assuming they had a 'wad' to 'shoot'? deminks Aug 2017 #17
Orrin 'Wad' Hatch superpatriotman Aug 2017 #18
Hatch surely made the news with that gem. Hieronymus Aug 2017 #19
And it seems they shoot blanks. Nt Weekend Warrior Aug 2017 #20
Ole Orrin has no clue it has a sexual meaning. GulfCoast66 Aug 2017 #22

The Polack MSgt

(13,188 posts)
7. +1
Mon Aug 7, 2017, 01:57 PM
Aug 2017

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

Igel

(35,300 posts)
13. Some of the modern use, for some people, is the sexual version.
Mon Aug 7, 2017, 02:26 PM
Aug 2017

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)

Proud Liberal Dem

(24,412 posts)
4. Given how much of a disaster their Trumpcare gambit was
Mon Aug 7, 2017, 01:49 PM
Aug 2017

I can't wait to see the debacle of "tax reform", especially if they employ similar strategies.

DonCoquixote

(13,616 posts)
12. as much as I dislike Mr. hatch
Mon Aug 7, 2017, 02:14 PM
Aug 2017

I am not going to criticize him for a rare moment of honesty and candor.

deminks

(11,014 posts)
17. Isn't that assuming they had a 'wad' to 'shoot'?
Mon Aug 7, 2017, 02:47 PM
Aug 2017

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.

GulfCoast66

(11,949 posts)
22. Ole Orrin has no clue it has a sexual meaning.
Mon Aug 7, 2017, 11:18 PM
Aug 2017

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!

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