Joe Biden is one of those guys who uses “literally” to mean the opposite of “literally,” which is “figuratively.”
But the often-misused word of the moment is “decimate.” To decimate something is to reduce it by one-tenth, from the Roman practice of killing every tenth member of a mutinous legion as a punitive measure. If you have a dollar and you lose a dime, your holdings have been decimated.
With inflation at almost 10 percent, the Biden administration’s policies are contributing to the (almost) decimation of Americans’ savings.
The old electoral question is, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”
Two years in, the answer is: No, we’re feeling financially decimated.
Literally, Mr. President.