It's funny when the government adopts/creates their own special euphemisms for something. It's funny because the phrase in nearly any other context wouldn't work.
"Say Anton, how we gonna make sure this guys knows we mean business?".
"Easy, we just squeeze a little muscle and show em' the our power of the purse."
If this whole Democracy thing doesn't work out, maybe we'll just sign up or representatives to re-write Shakespeare...you know to make it more plausible.
