Monday, May 21, 2012

Members Of Congress Speak at 10th Grade Level

According to a new report by the Sunlight Foundation, members of Congress on average speak at the level of high school sophomores.


This a decline of almost a full grade-level since 2005, according to SF.  SF also found that members of Congress rarely use the 100 most common SAT words.

What I would really like to see is a comparison among congressmen as to which speak most consistently using terms consistent with thoughts about liberty, like say,  lower taxes, reverse regulations, stop government intrusion.

A second comparison that would be interesting is to see is which congressmen speak in terms similar to those used by the creators of the Constitution.

9 comments:

  1. So the report indicates that they're accurate representatives of their constituents, or is it that they're too educationally advanced?
    ;-)

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  2. Even parrots can learn to speak. It's their thinking abilities that really matter.

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  3. Hard to imagine, but yes, I believe the current crop of people in Congress (House and Senate) are much less educated, and even more easily bought off than prior years. So then one must ask, are they a reflection of their constituency, and if so what does this say about modern day America?

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  4. I would like to know how were publicly educated and had a real private sector job before politics.

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  5. I am sure they love to talk down to their constituents.

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  6. I am wondering if there is a conflicting factor in this, namely, how much time each of those congress creatures speaks in total.

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  7. I would like to see a report on how many in elected office in DC understand relatively basic economic references like what "liquidating the debt," what the Fed actually does, how and where asset bubbles are created, where inflation comes from, or what exactly the Fed does via the FOMC and the prime rate.

    I would wager those numbers would be very, very low.

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  8. I looked up Ron Paul and they claimed he only spoke at a 12th grade level -- which doesn't show much for their study. How many in congress even understand the terms and concepts he references from history or economic concepts and phrases? How many have even heard the phrase "letters of marque and reprisal," let alone know what it is and the historical precedent?

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  9. Interesting but not particularly useful once you see how they calculate it: http://stateoftheunion.onetwothree.net/appendices.html#FK . Also scroll down a bit more and you can see the scores of various texts and find that most in that list aren't at the "level" of the Constitution. "Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death - Patrick Henry - 7.0 score. "I Have a Dream" - Martin Luther King - 9.4 score. "Gettysburg Address" - Abe Lincoln - 11.17

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