Due to economic strife, the American public knows all too well what a recession is. It is the economic difficulties that have led to the loss of thousands of jobs and businesses. These economic hardships have led many people to lose their homes, cars and other valuables. Because when the Obama administration talks about recession it calls it the “Banking Stabilization Plan.” (Stewart) Something that caused the total meltdown of the American economy, called the “Banking Stabilization Plan” (Stewart), seems absolutely ridiculous. Even though they are in the process of solving the problem, the government insists on using modest language to confuse the public into thinking that the issue is no big deal; Just a small inconvenience that is in the “stabilization” phase. In his essay “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell states that “a mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence is the most marked characteristic of modern English prose, and especially of any kind of political writing” (515). Politicians always try to make the problems they have created seem trivial or easily solvable when in reality they are intricate and intense, through the use of “pretentious diction” (516) and “meaningless words” (517). The quote says a lot about political writing when Orwell's essay was written in 1946 and we are now in the year 2010 and “pretentious diction and meaningless words” (516,517) as Orwell describes them, are still in use. Through careful analysis of recent major speeches, I have found that "pretentious diction and meaningless words" (Orwell) are still commonly used to mislead audiences into believing that things are in their best interests, when they clearly are. . middle of paper... is the government telling us that they are fixing the situation and keeping it under control when in reality they really don't? They are handing out money they don't have and plunging the country into trillions of dollars of debt; this is not a solution. I agree a million percent with Orwell when he says that a “mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence” (515) shapes the way the government reports new discoveries and important information. Work Cited Mariner, Joanne. “Obama's new euphemism.” The FindLaw act | Legal comment. 30 June 2009. Web. 08 November 2010. Orwell, George. “Politics and the English language” Opportunities for writing: tests, ideas, essays. Ed. Robert DiYanni and Pat C. Hoy II, Boston, MA 2008. 514 - 522 Stewart, Jon. “New Euphemisms: Rebranding Obama” The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. March 31, 2009. Video clip. 08 November 2010.