But it *is* the case that 95-year-old widows are being asked to sacrifice the most, that other program beneficiaries are being asked to sacrifice, that rich people who find themselves paying more of their income in higher brackets are being asked to sacrifice, and that bondholders aren't being asked to sacrifice at all.
But if you are a country with a large national debt relying on internationally-mobile foreign capital to finance a large chunk of it, that seems to be the way it is. As Charles Schultze once said in 1993, comparing economic policy then to policy under the Carter administration: "Gee. Things are really different when your debt-to-GDP ratio is 50% rather than 20%..."
Brad DeLong