There was the following statement in October 29 New Yorker’s article that came under the title, “Why the G.O.P. Candidates Don’t Do Substance”:
Did any of the candidates detail how they would pay for their huge tax giveaways? Of course not. Relying on the discredited arguments of supply-side economics, a few of them did say that reductions in tax rates would produce a much higher rate of economic growth, which would boost tax revenues. …
It was left to John Kasich, who is seeking to position himself as the voice of sanity in the asylum, to state the obvious: “You know, these plans would put us trillions and trillions of dollars in debt…. Why don’t we just give a chicken in every pot, while we’re coming up with these fantasy tax schemes.”
What does “Give a chicken in every pot” mean? Why should it be chicken, not egg, bread, pork, or turkey? Is this a common idiom?
Additionally, is the phrase, “Don’t do substance” used in the headline a common expression as well? How different is it from “Don’t have substance,” which I feel like being more comfortable with?
Best Answer
This is attributed to King Henry IV of France, who reigned from 1589 to 1610, and was reported to have said he wished for the peasantry
Henry picked chicken, and it's been chicken ever since.
This is reported to be a slogan of Herbert Hoover's 1928 Presidential campaign:
But apparently the candidate never said it. It appeared in newspaper ads bought by Republican supporters.
Huey Long, the Louisiana populist (or demagogue, depending on your point of view) is supposed to have adopted the slogan for his 1932 campaign for governor:
Given the fact that Hoover presided over the start of the Great Depression, the slogan is often used ironically to comment on politician's overblown promises of prosperity that never materialize. In your example, one of the Republican candidates is criticizing his fellow candidates for their economic plans, which consist mainly of cutting government spending and cutting taxes. Since they never say what programs they'll cut, it's unlikely they have any real plans to do so. They do have details about their tax cuts. The result would be to reduce revenue without reducing expenditures, a recipe for a disastrous increase in debt. Kasich is saying these plans are fantasies that would never be implemented, just like the promises of chicken for everybody.
"I don't do ," (where X is a noun) is a common, slangy locution for "I don't do the activity concerning X":
And so on.