an anatomy of key memes, phrases and obsessions in Wall Street Journal editorials and other precincts of the GOP blogosphere, April 5-12, 2013

distortions: what happens when markets aren’t “unleashed”. Tax breaks & loopholes, heavily-lobbied regulatory loopholes, legal immunity and similar market-rigging measures are never considered distortions, but “adjustments”.

economic freedom, national self-respect and personal virtue: the triumvirate of virtues represented by Margaret Thatcher. sold them to a skeptical public and then demonstrated their efficacy.

gender equity: not measured by comparable wages or working conditions, but by deregulation, legal immunity and free markets.

giveaways.  Any federal subsidies of “green energy”.

housing bubble. Always created by the federal government’s loose money, over-reliance on ratings agencies, and reckless promotion of home ownership. Private sector malfeasance or deception never a factor.

entitlement programs: the subsidizing of one-third of the adult lives of all baby boomers.

Medicare; a failed program with bargain-basement reimbursement payments and bureaucratic regulations that lower the quality of overall care.

Obama budget: “a national economic suicide pact”.

productive citizens. Those who work and save.  The antithesis of Occupy activists. The makers, not the takers.

projecting weakness: in foreign affairs, any multilateral reaching out to build coalitions. See, for example, the US turning to China to help with North Korea. aka “decline”

risk premium: the all-purpose GOP defense of businesses’ refusing to hire and banks refusing to lend. As if they will never hire or lend if any risk is involved. Akin to “uncertainty” as an all-weather GOP explanation of slow economic growth. These terms are also very likely to appear in any analysis of ObamaCare.

Socialist England: like Obama’s America, any middle-left administration that emphasizes anything except self-reliance and free markets. In Socialist regimes, the working and middle class “award themselves lifestyles they aren’t willing to earn”.

spending cuts.  If projected by the Obama administration, then not actual cuts so long as any money is being spent anywhere on new programs. Most only be net, not gross.

unleash: what Thatcher & the GOP does to markets; rampant deregulation.