“Waste, fraud, and abuse.”

You won’t find a policy more despised in capital cities than this. The Obama White House hates it. Congressional committees  hate it. State governors hate it.  Watchdog groups hate it. Executive orders try to stop it. Bills in Congress try to prevent it. President Clinton battled it. Ronald Regan addressed the nation on it. Bloggers all roll their eyes when they hear about it.

Everyone hates waste, fraud, and abuse. But when, exactly, did we start talking about it?

Charles Krathammer claims that Jimmy Carter first used it for a speech in 1977. That doesn’t mesh with the quick research I just did — according to the congressional record, Rep. Ben Gilman (R -NY)  used the phrase in the House on June 1, 1976 — but it puts it in the right ballpark. The oldest committee hearing I could find with it in the title was from 1979; the oldest committee print was from 1981. Beginning in 1978, it’s all over congressional hearing and floor speeches.

In many ways, the relative youthfulness of the prhase is a surprising finding. It sounds like the kind of phrase that would have been ubiquitous in congressional oversight of world war II military contracting. Even more to the point, many modern political phrases have their roots in the 19th century, or even earlier. Split-ticket. Corrupt bargain. Tuesday-Thursday club. And so on and so-forth.

It’s too bad President Nixon evidently pre-dated the phrase. He would have undoubtedly wielded it like a master.