Question

In her call for program cuts to reduce government spending, Alice Rivlin wrote: Everyone looks for ways of accomplishing ambitious goals without effort-lose weight without dieting, learn French while you sleep. Explain what she meant

Answer 1

Alice Rivlin is an economist and former U. S. Federal Reserve and budget official.

In this excerpt, Rivlin is criticizing the tendency that people have to look for strategies that require very little hard work or sacrifice. The examples she gives are losing weight without dieting and learning a language without sitting down and studying. She makes a parallel between this attitude and government spending, arguing that reducing spending is desirable but no one is willing to sacrifice what is necessary, such as some governmental programs.