Programmes created as temporary acquire constituencies that outlast the conditions justifying them.
A secure published use appears in Milton and Rose Friedman's Tyranny of the Status Quo in 1984, though similar sayings predate them. The US federal telephone excise tax is the standing illustration: imposed in 1898, repealed in 1902, reimposed in later wars and repeatedly extended.
In practice
- A temporary desk-booking system introduced for one refurbishment is still in use nine years after the building reopened.
- The US telephone excise tax was imposed in 1898 and repealed in 1902, reimposed in later wars, and in 2006 the government stopped collecting it on long-distance and bundled service after court losses; the local-service tax remained.