Appropriations

Definition

The congressional process of deciding who gets how much money, which is essentially a 535-person argument over splitting the check at the world's most expensive dinner. It's where dreams go to get a budget haircut.

Example Usage

"The Appropriations Committee spent six months deciding how to divide the budget, ultimately choosing the time-honored method of arguing until everyone is equally unhappy."

Related Terms

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detente

The diplomatic equivalent of agreeing to stop glaring at each other across the room, typically between countries that were previously one step away from conflict. It's a deliberate relaxation of tension and improvement in relations, though everyone keeps their weapons just in case. Made famous during the Cold War when the US and USSR decided mutual destruction wasn't that appealing.

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Primary

An election before the real election where party members argue about who should get to argue in the actual election. It's a tournament arc where the prize is the privilege of enduring six more months of attack ads.

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super PAC

A Political Action Committee that can raise unlimited funds from corporations, unions, and individuals to influence elections, as long as they don't coordinate directly with candidates. A legal fiction that lets money scream in politics while candidates maintain plausible deniability.

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reconciliation

A special budget process allowing certain legislation to pass the Senate with a simple majority, bypassing the filibuster like a legislative express lane. Created to streamline budget matters, it's now weaponized for controversial policy.

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regulatory capture

When government agencies created to regulate industries become dominated by the very interests they're supposed to control, turning watchdogs into lapdogs. The fox doesn't just guard the henhouse—it gets appointed henhouse inspector.

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casework

The assistance that legislators and their staff provide to individual constituents dealing with government agencies. It's the unglamorous work of untangling bureaucratic knots that actually makes people grateful their representative exists.

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