These are complicated times in the affairs of Washington and the nation, with death stars everywhere and all of them a struggle to comprehend. The partial government shutdown, the debt limit squeeze just around the corner, sequestration, how they fit with the health care law, how they don't _ it just goes on.

So we've cooked up some questions about this grim galaxy and taken a stab at answers:

Q: Which is better, "Obamacare" or the Affordable Care Act?

A: When late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel asked people this question, they thought they could choose between the two, and they opted for the nice-sounding Affordable Care Act as the way to go in health care.

They are, of course, the same. Opponents of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul came up with the catchy nickname "Obamacare" and it spread to the point that even Obama uses the term sometimes. The difference is in how people say it. Republicans tend to spit it out. Obama says Republicans will stop calling it "Obamacare "when it becomes really popular.

On the other side of this, there's been a strong trend in Washington in recent decades of giving backslapping names to laws. Even laws have spin now in their titles. It's like naming your baby Precious.

When Franklin Roosevelt set up public pensions in 1935, he didn't call it the Happy Retirees Act or the Justice for Deserving Seniors Act or the Golden Years Contentment Act. He called it the Social Security Act. In those apparently more serious and less pandering times, perish the thought of a No Child Left Behind Act.

A nice title is no guarantee of results. Many people in both parties want to leave No Child Left Behind behind because they feel it's leaving children behind.

The full name of Obama's law is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Indeed, patients have new protections against losing their insurance. But the many questions about how affordable insurance and medical care will turn out to be aren't put to rest by a law's reassuring name.

There's no doubt dressed-up labels help sell things, though. Orange roughy has done much better in the seafood marketplace since its name was changed from slimehead.

The rest is here:

The shutdown, the debt and health care: a primer