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Congress gives a name to every piece of major legislation, and people who work with those laws (or write about them) generally end up using that name, or a shortened version — often the initials of that name. Some roll off the tongue better than others. COBRA may be mysterious in its origins, but it’s easy to say and by now we all know it refers to a law that lets us extend our health insurance coverage in some situations. People who work with pension laws like to say that ERISA, the granddaddy of them all, stands for Every Ridiculous Idea Since Adam.

The naming of laws took a downturn in the aughts, with tongue-twisters such as JGTRRA. Speakers of Spanish know how to pronounce a double-r but the rest of us are at a loss. Somehow we adapted.

Now we have — I am not making this up — the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. Want to use the initials? Here you go: TRUIRJCA.

Call this my Tea Party moment if you want: I’ve had it. I refuse to use that name. In my writing it will simply be the tax cut extension law. I hope others follow my lead. And I yearn for the time when Congress understands that even if they can’t write laws that work, they can at least give them workable names.

The tax deal has turned House Democrats into a flock of angry birds. Are they right to be this upset? Let’s look at the scorecard. (more…)