The Political Power of Labels

Do Something, Anything is the title of this linked Viewpoint article. The first paragraph caught my attention. RLC writes:

The Democrats "stimulus" bill is, in large part, a spending and welfare bill being foisted on the American people under cover of fear and disingenuousness. Even Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid acknowledged that only 58% of the bill is geared to creating jobs, and he was probably exaggerating. That three Republican senators - Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins - would go along with this charade is inexplicable, at least to one who wants to give his elected representatives the benefit of the doubt that they have good reasons for voting the way they do.

If only 58% (I agree this is likely to be an inflated number) of the bill is believed to have an economic stimulus effect then why is the bill touted as a stimulus bill? Why are many non-stimulus expenditures included within a stimulus bill? The answer to that lies in the first sentence. Fear mongering was used to pass the bill and that provided opportunities to include pork and other favored spending projects within a bill sure to pass. In other words the stimulus factor was exploited to ram through non-stimulus policies. Such is the power of a word. Most people do not look past the label of a bill to see if the bill in fact lives up to its name.