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Their budget has been unreasonably cut consistently, yet they are the most successful administration in history.

This sentence seems to be phrased oddly, especially "unreasonably cut consistently" part. How can this be phrased to better convey the same meaning?

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    Unreasonably seems to be superfluous. Just get rid of it. Since the administration was successful, perhaps the cuts were reasonable. In any case, unreasonably is hardly forceful. At least replace it with something else and place it after the verb -- "cut unfairly and consistently," perhaps?
    – Mick
    Commented Nov 19, 2016 at 21:21
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    What makes the cuts unreasonable? If you're trying to comment on the size of the cuts, then speak directly to that.
    – John Feltz
    Commented Nov 19, 2016 at 21:23
  • Depends on where you want the emphasis ... you could really draw attention to the unreasonableness: Their budget has unreasonably been cut consistently ... (though it does still sound awkward..is this a split infinitive?). Perhaps it's having two adverbs that is causing the problem - why not: Their budget but been cut consistently and without good reason,
    – lithic
    Commented Nov 19, 2016 at 21:48
  • It's a bit odd, perhaps to avoid unreasonably consistently cut, which could lead a reader to think, "Is it the consistent part that's unreasonable or the cutting part?" Perhaps cut consistently and always unreasonably.
    – deadrat
    Commented Nov 19, 2016 at 22:04
  • Yep, it has been consistently worded unreasonably. "XYZ has consistently cut their budget in an unreasonable fashion, and in spite of that they are the most successful administration in history." (Assumes that the antecedent of "their" is clear in context.)
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Nov 19, 2016 at 22:22

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Here I would make a plea for style over grammatical correctness. The emphases are certainly debatable but a little pernickity. In my view, the phrase " has been unreasonably cut consistently, ..yet" is clumsy and does not make the point as strongly as it might. I prefer "has been consistently and unreasonably cut,.. yet" . Adding the "and" removes any doubt about the emphasis and a "clipped" ending with the single syllable word "cut" makes the point stronger, especially juxtaposed after a pause ( comma) with "yet". In this way, the author's effort to make the contrast is made stronger.

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There is certainly something wrong with your example

*Their budget has been unreasonably cut consistently, ...

but it's not clear what. Here is one possibility. "Unreasonably" and "consistently" are both the same type of adverb, specifically manner adverb,

Their budget has been cut in an unreasonable manner.
Their budget has been cut in a consistent manner.

and according to a theory of Zeno Vendler's, you can't have two adverbs of the same type in the same clause unless you conjoin them. Conjoining would give

Their budget has been cut unreasonably and consistently.

and that does sound better. However, the adverbs might not be manner adverbs. Maybe "unreasonably" is a sentence adverb, with the sense

It was unreasonable that their budget was cut.

But then, it's hard to find a reasonable interpretation for "consistently". Was it the consistency that was unreasonable?

??It was unreasonable that their budget was cut consistently.

That doesn't make sense. Lack of consistency would not make the cuts more reasonable.

The sense of "consistency" here is probably that cuts were made every single year, without exception, and I'm not sure this makes it a manner adverb.

It's easy to find ways of fixing the sentence, but it's more challenging to figure out what has gone wrong with the original version.

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