Fears of the Greek crisis spreading to larger, more crucial markets like Italy and Spain were addressed Friday, when Italy announced plans to speed up austerity measures in order to achieve a balanced budget by 2013.

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You know that there is no way to achieve a balanced approach -- to achieve a significant compromise on deficit and debt reduction in a budget compromise without a balanced approach.

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It will be interesting to see if all those in favor of smaller government and a balanced budget in the abstract will be willing to do what is necessary to achieve them.

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