bushlips

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Bush +‎ lips, alludes to pledge "Read my lips: no new taxes" by then-U.S. President George H. W. Bush.[1][2]

Noun

bushlips pl (plural only)

  1. (politics, frequently capitalized) insincere political rhetoric[1][2][3][4]
    • 1990 March 24, Taylor, Paul, “Democratic Leaders Talk Tough on Taxes;President's Promise Not to Impose New Levies Is 'Pure Bushlips,' Sen. Bentsen Declares”, in The Washington Post‎, ISSN 0190-8286, page A6:
      "As one of our colleagues recently put it, this Republican pledge of no new taxes is pure Bushlips," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Lloyd Bentsen (Tex.), said in the toughest language he has used to attack the administration's fiscal policy. "It's Bushlips when the president says 'No new taxes' and sends a budget requiring the Finance Committee to raise $20 billion in new revenues: $15 billion in taxes and $5 billion in user fees."
    • 1990 September 18, Associated Press, quoting Booth Gardner, “Gardner Hoping For No New Taxes”, in The Spokesman-Review‎, page B1:
      I'm trying to avoid doing the 'Bushlips' stuff (about blocking tax increases). By saying it's not part of our thinking and planning, I'm obviously not saying it won't occur at all.
    • 1999 May 20, Bucky, “Re: Ballot box whores (Was:Take away all guns NOW)”, in alt.current-events.clinton, Usenet‎, message-ID <7i1s5g$s8g$1@garnet.mint.net>:
      Bushlips!
    • 2002 March 4, The Angry Liberal, “Social Security Reform, Part I: Bush is Lost in Des Moines”, in BuzzFlash.com‎:
      Anything short of that is just a lot of Bushlips.
    • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:bushlips.

See also
  • bullshit
  • Appendix:American Dialect Society words of the year

References
  1. Pinker, Steven (2007-09-11), “Words and Community”, in The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature, Penguin Books, →ISBN, OCLC 263667454, page 17: “But most silly coinages go nowhere, such as bushlips for “insincere political rhetoric” (after George H. W. Bush’s 1988 campaign slogan “Read my lips: No new taxes”)...”
  2. Steinmetz, Sol (2010-04-27) There's a Word for It: The Explosion of the American Language Since 1900, Harmony Books, →ISBN, OCLC 290470352, page 194: “1990: Word of the Year Bushlips “insincere political rhetoric” (alluding to George H. W. Bush’s pledge “Read my lips: no new taxes” as he accepted the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in 1988; once in office, he reneged on his pledge)...”
  3. Metcalf, Allan (2004-07-14) Presidential Voices, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, →ISBN, OCLC 60386369, page 310: “Someone promptly coined bushlips and said it meant “insincere political rhetoric.””
  4. “bushlips”, in Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon‎, Dictionary.com, LLC, 2012, retrieved January 26, 2012

Further reading
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