phrases - Can ‘Walk the walk’ stand alone?


I found the phrase "walk the walk" in President Obama's remark on budget cuts in the Washington Post's Today's Quote (Feb. 15). As I was unfamiliar with this phrase, I checked an online dictionary (www.phrase.org), that told me walk the walk means a lot of things are easier to talk about than to do, and is almost always said in combination with talk the talk (for example, if you're going to talk the talk, you've got to walk the walk).


However, President used walk the walk alone, not accompanied by talk the talk.


Is www.phrase.org’s walk the walk definition that the phrase is almost always accompanied by talk the talk wrong? How can I interpret walk the walk in the specific context of the following President Obama’s remark? And what is the origin of walk the walk? Is this a well-worn idiom?



It would mean cutting things that I care deeply about. But if we're going to walk the walk when it comes to fiscal discipline, these kinds of cuts will be necessary.




Answer



I might mention that I've heard people who are not native English speakers regularly confuse this phrase, and instead say, "Walk the talk & talk the walk."


+1 to Manoochehr for affirming that "Talk the talk" can stand alone, not least because listeners will customarily complete the phrase in their minds anyway.


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