Whose interests were served by a lopsided deficit debate in which minor tax increases were traded for huge cuts in entitlements? What kind of shock would it take to break this impasse? Historical experience was not encouraging. FDR’s New Deal had not been enough. It had been hobbled by its own timidity and by relentless opposition from the Right.2 To unleash the full capacities of the American state it had taken the national emergency of a war.
