Tad DeHaven
Tad DeHaven

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris released a “policy book” this week, laying out the policies she would pursue in office. It clocks in at eighty-two pages, but approximately fifty pages have text as there are lots of pictures and filler. 
Inspired by my colleague Chris Edwards’ selected word count for the president’s fiscal 2024 budget, I decided to do the same with the Harris policy document. For people who don’t have the time or interest in reading the entire Harris document (i.e., normal people), this should quickly provide the gist. (Note: I tried to omit instances where a word’s usage was unrelated to proposed policies.) 
The first word that pops out when looking at the table of contents is “lower,” as in lower costs for Americans, which Harris is promising to do for, well, just about everything. Indeed, “lower” and its related variants like “lowering” show up almost 40 times. I recommend reading my colleague Ryan Bourne’s book, The War on Prices, to understand why one should be wary of politicians pursuing such a seemingly noble cause.
The big winner is “invest” and variations like “investments,” which clocks in at almost 70 times. Sometimes, grandiose adjectives are added to describe these “investments,” like “historic” or “largest.” When politicians say “invest,” it’s almost always a euphemism for spending more money via taxes and federal debt. Sure enough, that’s the case with Harris’s policy proposals. Other words that politicians euphemistically employ so they don’t have to say “spending” are “support” and “strengthen.” The former (and its variants) clocks in at almost 30 times, the latter more than 20. 
Some words and phrases tellingly don’t make an appearance. Searching for things like “lower spending,” “cutting spending,” and “reduce spending” (and variations of) turns up zero results. 
Interestingly, “spending cuts” make one appearance.  » Read More
https://www.cato.org/blog/summarizing-harriss-policy-book-word-count