"Little-Noticed" is the New "Unexpected"

Tuesday, May 25, 2010
William A. Jacobson
Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

"Unexpected" has become the term of choice for the mainstream media to excuse the Obama administration's economic failures.Yesterday I read an article in The NY Times about something unexpected in Obamacare, and one term jumped out at me (emphasis mine):

About one-third of employers subject to major requirements of the new health care law may face tax penalties because they offer health insurance that could be considered unaffordable to some employees, a new study says.... It suggests that a little-noticed provision of the law could affect far more employers than Congress had assumed.That term, "little-noticed," sure sounded familiar. It seems that we hear that term a lot.I didn't intend on this post being so long, but the examples are so numerous:

- "Tucked inside the huge health reform bill signed into law last week were many surprising and little-noticed provisions that will affect consumers in ways large and small."

- "Deep within the massive health-care overhaul legislation, a few little-noticed provisions have quietly reignited one of the bitterest debates in medicine: how to balance the right of doctors, nurses and other workers to refuse to provide services on moral or religious grounds with the right of patients to get care."

- "A little-noticed provision of the health legislation has rescued federal support for a controversial form of sex education: teaching youths to remain virgins until marriage."

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