A few months after the invasion President Bush signed into law a vast tax cut, thereby codifying a conception of political democracy that made room for economic (and for its influence, political) oligarchy.
He took a vast pay cut when he accepted a position with the Interior Department in Nevada.
It is hardly less ecclesiastical – a vast nave cuts through the centre of a cavernous atrium, intersected by what looks suspiciously like a transept, while its basement – reaching four floors beneath my feet and set to house a multitude of sensitive scientific instruments – bears more than a passing resemblance to a tremendous network of vaults.
Mr Miliband used that to claim the Tories were planning vast cuts to the NHS, as part of a "secret plan that dare not speak its name".
In exchange for these nonconcessions, Republicans want vast cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and other programs that benefit the middle class and the poor.
Mr. Ryan, who declined to be interviewed, was largely silent during the campaign about his call for changes to the Medicare system and for vast cuts to government services, as outlined in his House budget.
Labour will seize on the documents – which are likely to be routine scenario planning for the election – as evidence of the vast cuts being secretly planned by the Conservatives should they win in May.
Of all the vast cuts that George Osborne has made to social security, the plan to make people wait longer for their pensions is – on the face of it – one of the more reasonable.
He succeeded in saving the pound through what he called "two years of hard slog," introducing vast cuts in public spending, increasing taxes and winding up Britain's last imperial commitments by closing its military bases east of Suez.
It not only stops much of the public questioning whether vast cuts to public services are necessary, but also diverts attention from the government's failure to find solutions to the real causes of people's struggles.
