As a lover of language, I’m always pleased to encounter a fun new word. So it was with a recent column by economist Paul Krugman, writing that a Republican congressman had “said something espically stupid.”
I took “espically” to be a mash-up of “especially” and “epically” — with maybe a dollop of “despicably.”
Krugman was referring to Congressman Thomas Massie (R-Ky) saying, “Over 70 percent of Americans who died with COVID, died on Medicare, and some people want Medicare For All?”
It reminded me of another Republican Congressman, Idaho’s Raul Labrador, who in 2017 said “nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care.” (Citing that howler got me a letter published in The Economist, a feather in my cap.)
Massie is actually a serial nonsense machine. Krugman found it needful to explain his quoted statement’s absurdity. Of course Medicare did not cause those deaths; it surely has prevented many. Massie does espically epitomize today’s Republican party, with dishonesty (if not downright lunacy) at its heart. They seem to just hate the idea of helping less fortunate people. And Krugman was mainly highlighting a much overlooked Biden administration achievement: strengthening the Affordable Care Act to benefit many more Americans.
But maybe the word “espically” was merely a typo.