"Trump's Budget Guts The Safety Net, And Other Myths." ("Spending on entitlement programs isn't being cut. At least ...
"Trump's Budget Guts The Safety Net, And Other Myths." ("Spending on entitlement programs isn't being cut. At least not in the traditional sense of spending less next year than you spend this year. Trump's budget doesn't touch Social Security or Medicare, and only slows the growth of the remaining 'safety net' programs.")
You can talk about the policy angles. I want to talk about the mixed metaphor of gutting a net. It seems interestingly fish-related, no?
The verb "to gut" means, of course, to take out the guts, notably of fish.
As for "innards":
You can talk about the policy angles. I want to talk about the mixed metaphor of gutting a net. It seems interestingly fish-related, no?
That's from the OED. The most common figurative use, historically, is in reference to buildings.1599 H. Buttes Dyets Dry Dinner sig. L7v, Carpe..Lay it scaled and gutted sixe houres in salt.
I think of "net" in connection with fish — a fishing net — but a "safety net" is not a fishing net. The phrase "safety net" — "An extensive net suspended or held above the ground to prevent injury in the event of a fall or jump from a height" — goes back to at least 1840:1688 N. Luttrell Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) I. 486 The 11th, in the evening, the mobile gott together, and went to the popish chappel in Lincolns Inn Feilds, and perfectly gutted the same.
The figurative use is as old as 1877, but I like this one from 1906:1840 Mech. Mag. 31 Jan. 315/1 An objection has been made to my safety net,..that if many persons descend the pit,..a net sufficiently large to envelope the whole of them..would..be inconvenient to manage.
Anyway, what irritates (or tickles) me about the mixed metaphor of "guts the safety net" is that a net has no innards.1906 B. Runkle Truth about Tolna vi. 118 The glamour of the honeymoon has to fade... Then you want a safety-net to tumble into from the heights. Money is about the best thing I know to break the fall.
As for "innards":
1878 Trollope Is he Popenjoy? III. i. 7 The Marquis was still in bed. His ‘in'ards’ had not ceased to be matter of anxiety to Mrs. Walker....
1903 R. Kipling Traffics & Discov. (1904) 58 There was the cutter's innards spread out like a Fratton pawnbroker's shop....
1932 J. T. Farrell Young Lonigan i. 29 His innards made slight noises, as they diligently furthered the process of digesting a juicy beefsteak....
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