Did Ruth Bader Ginsburg Peel John Roberts Off the Four New Horsemen by Dint of Intellectual-Rhetorical Mojo Alone?
Hoisted from Comments: Coercion of States Edition

Glenn Hubbard, Behave Yourself!

Jon Ward:

Romney econ adviser Glenn Hubbard: "It's not that difficult to get government spending back to 20 percnt of GDP." http://huff.to/NOxr3c 

Glenn: I worked for the Clinton administration. Throughout the entire 8 years of the Clinton administration--without a single Republican vote to help us when the heavy lifting needed to be done--we reduced the share of federal government spending as a share of potential GDP from 22.2% to 19.3%--by 0.3625%/year.

It was not easy. It was not moderately difficult. It was very difficult. It was brutal.

We did it. We know of what we speak. It is enormously difficult to get federal spending down--and it is much more difficult now, after two additional decades of Republicans blocking almost every single possible sensible cost-saving health-care reform, than it was when we started back in 1993.

Glenn: You worked for the Bush administration. At the end of 2007--before the recession and the consequent demands for spending to cushion the downturn hit--you raised federal government spending as a share of potential GDP from 19.3% to 21.4%. You raised it at a pace of 0.3%/year--and the two years you held high federal office as a cabinet-rank official were slightly worse than the average Bush years.

Glenn: If it is so easy, why didn't you do it?

And if it is--as it is--difficult, why claim that it isn't?

A Man for All Seasons (1966):

Thomas More: May I see that chain Richard?
Richard Rich: Certainly.
Thomas More: It is a fine chain.
Richard Rich: It has pleased His Majesty to make me Justiciar for Wales.
Thomas More: Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for Wales?